The Stage Names

Okkervil River

This year, Okkervil River released a record called The Stage Names. I'm sure everybody has Black Sheep Boy already, and I know a lot of people went out and picked up records from the Okkervil back catalog after BSB came out, so I won't bother saying to much about the band itself here. My experience with them has been principally this: on every album there is a song that makes you say "THIS! Why couldn't the rest of the album have been like this!" So when I think about Okkervil River after the fact, I usually think of them as a band that isn't living up to their potential somehow, but that's not fair. I never complain when I listen to them.

A number of years ago, Jesus, 98 or 99, I guess, Jets to Brazil put out a record called Orange Rhyming Dictionary, which made its way around in my little musical circle, being loaned from person to person, with each person eventually going out and buying their own copy. That album has an incredible first three songs. Sometimes I think that's the best way to get people into a record: stack the best three songs at the top. If someone is amazed for three songs in a row, they will buy the record.

I'm making the comparison here, but I'm not going so far as to say this is another Orange Rhyming Dictionary, which is a kind of top 10 record, but I am pretty sure that if you get to a music store where this is on a listening station, and play the first three tracks, you will walk out with the record. If you have the ability to find songs on the internet to preview, that is "Our Life is Not a Movie Or Maybe," "Unless It's Kicks," and "A Hand To Take Hold of the Scene." For the record, after that is the beautiful but much lower-key "Savannah Smiles," which makes 4 very strong songs to open. My favorite of the record, though, is number 6, "A Girl In Port," although as with many of my favorite songs¹ the lyrics probably don't bear printing out. 

The last three tracks are the weakest in my opinion, though I'm sure there is someone that they appeal to. 8 reminds me of "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" by Elvis Presley, or, for a small minority of you, UB-40. And 9, well, You will figure out what 9 reminds me of soon enough. So 6 good songs out of 9 (I know I didn't mention track 5, but it's good too), and in general, an album that is a worthy successor to Black Sheep Boy.

1. This does not apply to the Weakerthans (see my last review), who usually turn out songs that make absolute sense if you write them as prose. Try it sometime.

Reunion Tour

The Weakerthans

Out September 25th is Reunion Tour by the Weakerthans. In an email to my best friend and old bandmate Rick, I asked him if he was at all familiar with the Weakerthans (the rate at which we pass bands back and forth is unpredictable — I gave him Okkervil River about three months after I got into them, but I couldn't recall a single discussion about the Weakerthans in the six years since I got Fallow as a birthday present from a conscientious girlfriend), to which he responded by sending me a bunch of mp3s from Reconstruction Site, before I timidly admitted that I was asking for his edification, not my own.

After listening to the record half a dozen times (enough, no doubt, to push them past MC Frontalot on my last.fm band roster for the #10 spot), I've come to this decision: it's not Fallow. If you are in the other camp, it's not Left and Leaving. But, like Reconstruction Site, it is a fantastic record. See if you don't like "Tournament of Hearts" and "Sun in an Empty Room." Fans of the last record's "Plea from a cat named Virtute" will be happy to see her return in "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure," and then sad when they get to the end of the title. Fans of hockey, I suppose, will enjoy the "Elegy for Gump Worsley," though I have to admit that it didn't particularly touch me.

I guess every band can be identified with one particular song–one you can put on and say "this is what they sound like"–for me, that song has been "Letter of Resignation" from Fallow. It is the ringtone now of the girl who gave me the record. I forgot to put my phone on vibrate on the way out the door, and it rang in my pocket today at work. To me, that is what the Weakerthans sound like. Chugging, muted barre chords, threatening to break out into pop-punk, but suddenly saved by a thin voice and a sweet melody and clever lyrics. There are a few songs on Reunion Tour that don't quite fit into that mold. The opening song, "Civil Twilight," begins with some rotary speaker effect that doesn't exist elsewhere in the Weakerthans catalog, before settling into a more traditional sound, and "Hymn of the Medical Oddity" (more hospitals and doctors) is pretty far from the "Letter" sound. Others, like "Tournament of Hearts," would fit on an earlier record seamlessly. "Night Windows," for some reason, sounds like Death Cab for Cutie to me.

This one doesn't really require much thought. If you like the Weakerthans, you will like this. If you're not sure, you should at least give it a try. If you don't like the Weakerthans, you may want to try another blog. There are just thousands and thousands of them now, and one of them is bound to be more to your liking.

On Hiatus.

Sorry I was away the whole month of September. At first I was on holiday, and then I was recovering from it (I took a lot of pictures of otters and jellyfish, and chinatown. If you know the way to my flickr, check them out). I have quite a few things to review for you in the next week or two, so stay tuned for reviews of: Reunion Tour from The Weakerthans, Bluefinger from Frank Black, DVDs of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and a late, late, late review of a little book called Lord of the Rings, which is some kind of Dungeons and Dragons fanfic. Oh, and if I feel like branching out, I may review the new lens I used to take this picture, San Jose State's homecoming game against Idaho, and whatever my mother is making for dinner on Saturday night (assuming I keep that appointment).