Okkervil River is the best band in America
(and Jagjaguwar is one promising label)

I love making a statement that can be seen as off-hand and lazy, and then completely justifying it(or attempting to), although I believe the justifying part is not common in blogging, or ‘journalism’, or Rolling Stone.
Rolling Stone provides a nice seg-way into my statement on Okkervil River. Critics are so busy riding the dicks of bands that either are being handed the fate of the “industry” and being bought good reviews, or bands that are promising but will most likely be jinxed by the circus their marginal talent brings about. Although Nietzsche stated “only sick music makes money today” nearly two centuries ago, it still seems astonishing that Coldplay and Avenged Sevenfold can be called “great” or “important”. I’m not professing now that Okkervil River is going to save music, but I’d just like to point all the reviews I hear about Black Sheep Boy being a “breakout album” confuse and anger me. Okkervil River is already an accomplished band, Black Sheep Boy is merely an extension of the craftsmanship and brilliance that can be found on Down the River of Golden Dreams. The emotion and brevity that is apparent in their work solidifies them as at least noteworthy. There is a nice set-up, and even when it is stripped down the strings and organs (specifically on their third disc) are reminiscent of Blonde on Blonde. They know how to build a song to a grand and sweeping climax and to then swiftly resolve it. Will Sheff, the principle songwriter, knows how to write a song: how to be specific and literate but gain a more subjective and thereby more interesting point of view on the themes he tackles in his songs. Okkervil River take chances, the biggest of which is being honest.
I’ve come to realize that anytime a critic or a magazine, Your Rolling Stone, Spin, Alternative Press, Q, and what have you slap and album with that lovable term “breakthrough”, it seems to signify the end of that bands status as for the most part self-sufficient stint of having creative control over their work, and being launched into big studios with and over-cooked contrived album (take X & Y for a obvious example, or to a lesser extent Antics, and most likely Bloc Party’s next album). There seems to be a certain quality about these bands that allows their music to become less inspired and more conventional, a quality I believe to be lacking in a certain 3/4/5-piece from Austin, Texas. Although there is a part of me that accepts the fact that Slim Thug and obvious sex offendor R. Kelly can climb the top of the charts, I can’t stand to see band passed off as being ‘great’ when over already accomplished, ‘breakthrough’ artists.
Regardless, Okkervil’s label-mates Black Mountain are currently on tour with Coldplay, and if the Insound sales for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are any inclination upon the power intelligent but snooty pitchfork has over the current resurgence for ‘indie rock’ and subsequently similar forms of independent music, perhaps Okkervil will get some more deserved recognition, as will fellow bands on the stellar line-up that is Jagjaguwar.
Here are some tracks from Okkervil River and other bands on Jagjaguwar:
Okkervil River, For Real
Okkervil River, It Ends With a Fall
Okkervil River, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks
Oneida, Run through my Hair
Wilderness, Arkless
Black Mountain, Heart of Snow
The Minus Story, You Were On My Side
(and Jagjaguwar is one promising label)

I love making a statement that can be seen as off-hand and lazy, and then completely justifying it(or attempting to), although I believe the justifying part is not common in blogging, or ‘journalism’, or Rolling Stone.
Rolling Stone provides a nice seg-way into my statement on Okkervil River. Critics are so busy riding the dicks of bands that either are being handed the fate of the “industry” and being bought good reviews, or bands that are promising but will most likely be jinxed by the circus their marginal talent brings about. Although Nietzsche stated “only sick music makes money today” nearly two centuries ago, it still seems astonishing that Coldplay and Avenged Sevenfold can be called “great” or “important”. I’m not professing now that Okkervil River is going to save music, but I’d just like to point all the reviews I hear about Black Sheep Boy being a “breakout album” confuse and anger me. Okkervil River is already an accomplished band, Black Sheep Boy is merely an extension of the craftsmanship and brilliance that can be found on Down the River of Golden Dreams. The emotion and brevity that is apparent in their work solidifies them as at least noteworthy. There is a nice set-up, and even when it is stripped down the strings and organs (specifically on their third disc) are reminiscent of Blonde on Blonde. They know how to build a song to a grand and sweeping climax and to then swiftly resolve it. Will Sheff, the principle songwriter, knows how to write a song: how to be specific and literate but gain a more subjective and thereby more interesting point of view on the themes he tackles in his songs. Okkervil River take chances, the biggest of which is being honest.
I’ve come to realize that anytime a critic or a magazine, Your Rolling Stone, Spin, Alternative Press, Q, and what have you slap and album with that lovable term “breakthrough”, it seems to signify the end of that bands status as for the most part self-sufficient stint of having creative control over their work, and being launched into big studios with and over-cooked contrived album (take X & Y for a obvious example, or to a lesser extent Antics, and most likely Bloc Party’s next album). There seems to be a certain quality about these bands that allows their music to become less inspired and more conventional, a quality I believe to be lacking in a certain 3/4/5-piece from Austin, Texas. Although there is a part of me that accepts the fact that Slim Thug and obvious sex offendor R. Kelly can climb the top of the charts, I can’t stand to see band passed off as being ‘great’ when over already accomplished, ‘breakthrough’ artists.
Regardless, Okkervil’s label-mates Black Mountain are currently on tour with Coldplay, and if the Insound sales for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are any inclination upon the power intelligent but snooty pitchfork has over the current resurgence for ‘indie rock’ and subsequently similar forms of independent music, perhaps Okkervil will get some more deserved recognition, as will fellow bands on the stellar line-up that is Jagjaguwar.
Here are some tracks from Okkervil River and other bands on Jagjaguwar:
Okkervil River, For Real
Okkervil River, It Ends With a Fall
Okkervil River, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks
Oneida, Run through my Hair
Wilderness, Arkless
Black Mountain, Heart of Snow
The Minus Story, You Were On My Side