Jagjaguwar::JAG110

Okkervil River

The Stage Names

JAG110
Released: August 7, 2007

FORMATS:
CD
LP

Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy was one of the most acclaimed releases of 2005. “Wordy and dense, prone to murder ballads, full of soft strings and Wurlitzers…both violent and bookish; it’s a striking, woebegone work that…plays out like the strangest Cocteau movie you’ve probably never seen,” wrote the Chicago Tribune’s Allison Steward. Kelefa Sanneh wrote in the New York Times that “Will Sheff, leader of the Austin indie-rock band Okkervil River, writes like a novelist.” Pitchfork’s Stephen Deusner added, “like all good storytellers, Sheff is interested in conflict…and he has the uncommon and perhaps unenviable gifts for speaking fluently through his misery-heavy characters.” This underdog of a record even managed to come to the attention of rock icon Lou Reed, who on the MTV Video Music Awards and in the Denver Post pronounced Okkervil River one of his favorite contemporary bands.With their newest release, The Stage Names, Okkervil River dynamite the walls of Black Sheep Boy’s gothic, moss-walled castle from the inside to let in the glaring sun. Where Black Sheep Boy presented a fairytale of dark babbling streams and high distant towers, The Stage Names