Live music listings: December 2007

SOLD OUT

Doors 7.30
SOLD OUT

Clever, heartbreaking lyrics...Mr. Sheff uses a rickety voice to disguise wild ambition." [New York Times]

Okkervil River's founding members became friends in high school in New Hampshire, and after parting ways for college moved to Austin to live together and start a band. These were songwriter Will Sheff, Zach Thomas on bass and mandolin, and Seth Warren on drums. Their first gig was at Steamboat in Austin on Monday, January 11, 1999. Over the course of two weekends in the summer of 1999, they recorded a seven-song self-released record called 'Stars Too Small to Use', with recording engineer Jeff Hoskins.

"We will float until we learn how to swim. Yes, that's an In the Aeroplane Over the Sea reference, and yes, Okkervil River has that sort of mythical genius. 8th Best album of 2003". [Magnet ]

They met Jonathan Meiburg at a gig with his band Whu Gnu at the Waterloo Brewing Company on December 3, 1999. Meiburg subsequently joined the band on accordion and later on pianos and organs.

On the strength of 'Stars Too Small to Use', Okkervil River was admitted into the 2000 SXSW music festival. Their first major press was a SXSW feature article in the Austin Chronicle on March 3, 2000.

"Okkervil River write dreamy songs with slumber-blurred stories and play them with a drifting, somnambulant gait." [Pitchfork]

The band met recording engineer and producer Brian Beattie at their SXSW showcase on March 18 and soon agreed to make a record together. They spent much of the rest of that year working on 'Don't Fall in Love With Everyone You See'. Warren moved to Berkeley, California in December and was replaced on drums by Mark Pedini.

By the time of that year's SXSW festival, Okkervil River had received interest in their new record from the Bloomington Indiana-based record label Jagjaguwar. The record was eventually released on Jagjaguwar on January 22, 2002.

"Singer-songwriter Will Sheff of the haunted-country quartet Okkervil River is ready for worldwide renown." [Rolling Stone]

One year later the band traveled to San Francisco and reunited with Warren to record their third album at indie studio Tiny Telephone with engineer Scott Solter at the console. Jagjaguwar released Down the River of Golden Dreams on September 2, 2003.

In 2003, Pedini left the band to pursue his graphic design work, leaving Okkervil River without a drummer for that year's SXSW. They invited Travis Nelsen, fresh off a tour filling in on drums for sister-labelmates Secretly Canadian's Swearing at Motorists, to perform with them - He soon became the band's fulltime drummer. The next year, during a long bout of touring, the band added keyboardist and lap-steel player Howard Draper as a fifth member.

In August of 2004 the band began recording with Beattie again, finally putting the finishing touches on their third full-length album, 'Black Sheep Boy' in November. It was ultimately released on April 5, 2005. As a result of this release's overwhelming success, Okkervil River followed up with an EP entitled 'Black Sheep Boy Appendix' on November 22, 2005. This was the first recordings with Draper, horn & keyboardist Scott Brackett, guitarist Brian Cassidy, and touring bassist Pat Pestorius, who eventually replaced Zach Thomas in the band.

On April 17, 2006, Okkervil River signed with Virgin/EMI in Europe. The label re-released Black Sheep Boy and its follow-up Black Sheep Boy Appendix as a double disc on April 28, 2006. Jagjaguwar eventually followed suit, releasing the 2-Disc 'Definitive Edition' with extra songs and videos.

'The Stage Names', their fifth LP (produced again by Beattie and mixed with Jim Eno of Spoon), will be released on August 7, 2007. The disc features the solidified line-up that toured extensively on 'Black Sheep Boy' and the 'Black Sheep Boy Appendix', with Cassidy replacing Draper who moved over to Shearwater.

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