
words by Christopher Paragraph , photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin DOWNLOAD: Bird of Youth - Bombs Away, She Is Here to Stay (MP3) Sondre Lerche looking sexy as usual @ MHOW Friday night The Friday night show at Music Hall of Williamsburg featured three very different songwriters who all happen to live within a few blocks of the venue. The same is true for [...]

Will Sheff and company have just released a free ep, Golden Opportunities 2 . The record is a collection of covers available via the Okkervil River site in either .mp3 or .m4a formats. Havent spent a whole lot of time with the ep, or to be honest, the last album I Am Very Far . However, I consider this announcement of free music a nice reminder to dive back into their stuff. Download currently available on the Okkervil [...]

Will Sheff of Okkervil River at Fun Fun Fun Fest ( more by Tim Griffin ) Okkervil River have released a new covers EP Golden Opportunities 2 , the follow-up to 2007's Golden Opportunities EP. Much like that 2007 release, part deux is FREE, but features songs from Ted Lucas , Jim Sullivan , David McComb , Bill Fay , and others. Get your copy at their site . Okkervil River have no [...]
Okkervil River have released the music video for " Your Past Life As A Blast ". The track is off their latest alum, ' I Am Very Far '. The music video features clips of old home movies featuring frontman Will Sheff taken by his father. Watch the video above.

Okkervil River: "Your Past Life as a Blast" Video While we've seen a number of music videos composed of found home movie footage from the '70s and '80s over the past year or so (e.g. the Tallest Man's "Love Is All" ), Okkervil River's Will Sheff has taken a more personal approach to the format: Super 8 footage from Sheff's own childhood, filmed by his father and edited to the tune of "Your Past Life as a Blast." The evocative result becomes the song's nostalgic theme quite well, not to mention the novelty [...]
The New Pornographers are one of those bands that seem like they will just quietly endure, continually putting out quality from the indie-pop front lines. Since the 2010 release of their fifth
Photos by Erik HessOkkervil River's Will SheffOkkervil River June 12, 2011 First Avenue Mainroom Minneapolis, MN Okkervil River's show at First Avenue last night was nothing short of epic. The

In this edition: Checking back with the Pained Palms, Meet The Alternates, this week's considerations, and some videos... Check back with: Painted Palms Last year, Painted Palms released their debut EP, Canopy , via Bandcamp as a free download. Canopy was a Friday Free Feature back in December, and we've tried to stay on top of where they're headed. Since that time, the San Francisco-based duo signed to Secretly Canadian who will be releasing a [...]
![[Listen/Download] – Okkervil River – "I Am Very Far"](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/3505416_lg.jpg)
Tweet Click on the image to listen to the entire album for free.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Anytime you get an Okkervil River album, you know that you're going to be in for a quality listen. Carefully orchestrated songs are wrapped in dense lyrics, though we've grown accustomed to some sort of thematic representation on each album-not the case here, though that's irrelevant in the long run. You can see sort of a re-imagining of the band's sound, as I Am Very Far goes much further than the territory previously danced around on earlier [...]
Full of dark imagery and brilliant lyrics, and still something about this album may keep you at bay - in a good way.
Video: Okkervil River - "We Need a Myth" Okkervil River's "Mermaid" -less LP, I Am Very Far , won't be officially released until next week, but, as of today, NPR has followed up last week's live preview with a stream of the entire 11-track album here . Meanwhile, in case you missed the live webcast the other day in which the band performed the record at Austin's Cactus Cafe, we now have an official clip of "We Need a Myth" above.
In preparation for the release of their sixth album, Okkervil River unleashed upon fans a few samplers from I Am Very Far in recent weeks: the video for "Wake and Be Fine" , a listen at "Lay of the Last Survivor" , and the we-cannot-believe-this-is-a-B- side "Mermaids" . Now, less than 14 days before the album drops, fans can watch Will Sheff and the gang as they play the entire LP in full for NPR Music. Beginning 6 p.m. CT / 7 p.m. ET tonight, NPR Music will [...]

The wonderful Okkervil River have today announced details of a May European tour, as well as the video for recent single 'Wake And Be Fine'. You can find full details of the tour below (there are just two UK dates). These shows are in support of the band's sixth studio album I Am Very Far , which is out on the 9th May on Jagjaguwar. The album features eleven new songs produced and arranged by Will Sheff in Austin, New York and Connecticut. You can pre-order the album in [...]
Okkervil River - "Wake & Be Fine" (Official Video) In which Will Sheff and Co. unleash "sort of a modern homage" to Bob Dylan's infamous 1965 "Subterranean Homesick Blues" video for their new single off LP6, I Am Very Far . In addition to the Dylan reference, director Daniel Gibbs and Sheff told NPR that they sought to illustrate the "weird crumbling-apart logic of dreams, and the strange, strong emotions dream situations take on" through intentional imperfections and a few happy accidents. The result is a decidedly intense, unhinged experience, capturing the [...]

We've heard the triumphant, slow-building non-LP cut "Mermaid," as well as a live rendition of "Wake and Be Fine" performed on Late Night , which, as Casey aptly remarked , was a bit shouty. Now our first studio taste of Okkervil River's 6th album, I Am Very Far, has arrived as a free MP3 of the latter tune, with vocals thankfully tempered by a bit more space to help discern — and revel in — the melody adorning Will Sheff's consistently resonant lyrics. It's a solid single, for sure, though I'm still [...]

Febrero no podía seguir su curso sin que nos detuviéramos a reparar en lo nuevo de Okkervil River , cuyo I am very far se estrena el Día de las Madres (vía Jagjaguwar ). El álbum, sexto en el historial de los tejanos, incluirá la melancólica "Mermaid", en la que Will Sheff se deja la piel en el micrófono. [7"] Okkervil River - Mermaid

As anyone who's had the pleasure of visiting whoisarcadefire.tumblr.com could tell you, Arcade Fire's Album of the Year win at the Grammy Awards on Sunday was as much a pleasant surprise to indie music fans as it was a shocking "Jethro Tull/Metallica" -esque injustice to many who had never heard of the great Montreal outfit. Not that I would've assumed folks like Dog the Bounty Hunter or Rosie O'Donnell were following the blogosphere close enough to have previously caught wind of Win Butler and friends (or see them share the stage [...]

"You would have to tie me to a chair to make me listen to any Okkervil River record," bandleader Will Sheff told Pitchfork in an interview discussing their forthcoming LP, I Am Very Far . For Sheff, promotional Q&As are akin to an "autopsy," in which raking over the details of an album removes its mystery to the point that past works look like — as he bluntly put it — "piles of guts." While I hadn't read that piece last night, I could see how he'd be uncomfortable analyzing new material after [...]

Okkervil River confirm first new album in three years, 'I Am Very Far' out May 10th on JAGJAGUWAR Watch the band debut new song "Wake and Be Fine" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon On May 10, 2011, Okkervil River will release their new album, 'I Am Very Far,' on JAGJAGUWAR . Buy CDs, MP3s, more: Okkervil River on Amazon.com [...]