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Okkervil Rivers "The Stand-Ins"

post #1 of 10
8/11/08 at 1:14am
Thread Starter 
My worst fear was that it would be nothing more than a bunch of b-sides, but it is a fitting companion to The Stage Names. Pop Lie is pretty great.
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post #2 of 10
8/11/08 at 2:26am
I haven't heard it yet, but someone told me it was a weak follow-up to The Stage Names. I'm a little worried.
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post #3 of 10
8/11/08 at 2:44am
Thread Starter 
It helps if you think of it as more of a continuation and not a follow up. The Stage Names was originally supposed to be a double album and Sheff kind of dusted off the material.
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post #4 of 10
8/11/08 at 2:56am
Can't wait to hear this. Loved The Stage Names. I'm seeing these guys in September and I'm hoping to know this album front and back by then.
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post #5 of 10
8/11/08 at 2:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodsy View Post
It helps if you think of it as more of a continuation and not a follow up. The Stage Names was originally supposed to be a double album and Sheff kind of dusted off the material.
I'm glad it wasn't released as a double album...I love The Stage Names just as it is. What worries me is if Sheff decided to take off the weaker tracks and made a more solid single album. Since The Stage Names ends with a suicide, it's kinda hard for me to imagine a continuation. Not that it's that literal, but that album seems to have some strong finality.

Then again, so did Black Sheep Boy, but the Black Sheep Boy appendix is incredible.
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post #6 of 10
8/11/08 at 3:05am
Thread Starter 
Interestingly enough the final track on The Stand-Ins is about Bruce Wayne Campbell, a failed glam rock star who also took his life after suffering from AIDS and failure.
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post #7 of 10
8/11/08 at 11:24am
It's not as strong as The Stage Names, but it's also nothing to sneeze at. It's a perfect companion album.

I think the intent is that it's taking on some of the themes of The Stage Names from a different angle, so don't be too concerned about that word "continuation." It's like telling the story from a different perspective. There's some nice parallelism in that "Starry Stairs" covers some of the same territory as "Savannah Smiles" and the album closes with "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979" another pseudo-biography of a cult figure, like "John Allyn Smith Sails."

"On Tour With Zykos" also serves as a nice counterpoint to all of the groupie stuff on The Stage Names ("A Girl in Port," "You Can't Hold the Hand..."). It seems to be the finely-drawn portrait of a wife or girlfriend left behind for a jaunt on the road.
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post #8 of 10
8/11/08 at 5:14pm
OK, now I've heard it and I agree. It's a solid release, but probably their weakest since "Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You Meet" and I honestly think it should have been cut-down to an EP (like Black Sheep Boy appendix). The first half feels a lot stronger than the second (with "Calling and Not Calling My Ex" being an exception). On first listen, I don't think "Bruce Wayne Campbell..." lights a candle to "John Allyn Smith Sails." Still, good stuff from one of my favorite bands.
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post #9 of 10
8/11/08 at 10:27pm
Wait, did this leak already?

Oh man, downloading now!
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post #10 of 10
8/12/08 at 10:18am
I've only listened through once, and maybe this thread tempered expectations, but I love it. Regardless of what Sheff's singing about (and fwiw, I still love the simpler topics in the vein of SN), the band is as tight as they've ever been, esp. on the up tempo songs. I'm digging the hell out of it.
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