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    06:00PM 03/07/08
  • R.E.M. Accelerate: An Advance Review and Song-by-Song Analysis of the Band's New Album
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  • The Morning Brew: Monday, 3.10
    10:12AM 03/10/08
  • This Is Hawkwind -- Do Not Panic
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Recent Articles
Related Articles

Recent Articles By Jonah Bayer

  • Armor for Sleep
    7 p.m. Saturday, January 26. Pop's, 1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois.
  • Commit This to Memory
    The Minneapolis-based pop-punk act Motion City Soundtrack proves that its success is no novelty.
  • Punk's Not Dead
    Against Me! Plays anarchist punk rock for the masses.
  • We Versus the Shark
    9 p.m. Thursday, October 11. The Bluebird, 2706 Olive Street.
  • Portugal. The Man.
    8:30 p.m. Monday, October 15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

National Features

  • Houston Press
    "It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"

    For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.

    By Chris Vogel
  • SF Weekly
    The Candidate

    Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.

    By Matt Smith
  • The Pitch
    How Not To Be a Rap Star

    First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.

    By Nadia Pflaum
  • Village Voice
    Project Runaway

    What becomes a gossip columnist most?

    By Michael Musto

Forget Andrew Bird and Sufjan Stevens — Okkervil River's Will Sheff is a much stronger songwriter. With 2005's critically lauded Black Sheep Boy and its subsequent appendix EP, Sheff and company broke into music-geek consciousness and set the, uh, stage for their latest full-length, The Stage Names. The album doesn't waste any time getting started: Opener "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe" is one of the best tracks Sheff has penned to date. The song alternates between minimalist guitars and expansive arrangements featuring singing pianos, crashing cymbals and percussive effects that drop like bombs. The rest of The Stage Names is equally brilliant, but in a more subtle way — one that requires multiple listens to digest. For every gorgeous midtempo track, there's an acoustic ballad like "A Girl in Port," which is captivating even as it slows the overall momentum. The disc's biggest success just might be the final track, "John Allyn Smith Sails." Sheff sings about lying in bed reading a piece of poetry written in 1931 — and somehow doesn't sound precious or pretentious. This type of vulnerability permeates The Stage Names, making it a transcendent slab of sound.

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