is a river close to St. Petersburg and the name of a band of school friends from New Hampshire who relocated to Austin, TX. Sean was the first to bring them to my attention but somehow I didn't connect immediately to their brand of opulent melodramatic sadcore alt-country somewhere in between the Palace Brothers, Mark Eitzel and Sparklehorse. When I listened to the four songs from their second album Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See which can be streamed here at Euroranch the singer sounded in places like a fusion of Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Daniel Johnston to me. Will Sheff, the singer, lets himself go completely and switches into a pretty irritating almost shrieking falsetto in Kansas City. And then I was in for a coincidental surprise on the last track Happy Hearts. It is a duet with Daniel Johnston himself. Is there anything more moving in the world than the mentally disordered Daniel Johnston singing in his children's voice

Later I found out that Okkervil River had played in the Dreikönigskeller in Frankfurt last Sunday. Oh God what a loser am I? In any case there is a new album out called Down the River of Golden Dreams which can also be partly streamed at the Euroranch link above and which didn't click with me yet but last year's record is definitely on top of my wishlist now.

I'll end this post with a small anecdote of their concert in Vienna last night. Again it is from Euroranch (German translated by me):

... link