Why I love Okkervil River so much and other things of interest...

Why? Why, why, why?

Here's something I think is amazingly awesome. To promote their newest album, Okkervil River had a Stand-Ins project (the album being named The Stand-Ins). Aptly named because they had fellow indie musicians cover their songs and they taped it and put it on youtube (thus these artists Stood-In for Okkervil River).

Here's a breakdown of the tracks with the artists who covered them in case you recognize one or some of them:

"Lost Costlines" - A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers
"Singer Songwriter" - David Vandervelde (accompanied by Will Sheff of Okkervil River)
"Starry Stairs" - Jack Ladder
"Blue Tulip" - Bon Iver
"Pop Lie" - Bird of Youth
"On Tour With Zykos" - Zykos
"Calling and Not Calling My Ex" - Ola Podrido
"Bruce Wayne Campbell" - one cover by Crooked Fingers, another by Jordan Geiger of Hospital Ships

Now I can't say I recognize all of these musicians but the fact that this assortment of different indie musicians are covering Okkervil River's songs from their new album is very awesome. What a sweet idea, in my book.

This is one reason why I love them so much. But there are others.

I love their songs at the most basic level. Their chord structures, though most of them are simple, are unique to each and every song. No two songs even sound the same musically. Nor do they lyrically, which is one of the biggest reasons I love Okkervil River. Each album has a running theme that shows up in their songs.

Here are a couple of my favorite Okkervil River songs, complete with album and track name, as well as an example of the lyrics I love so much from each particular song.


"And when I killed her, it was so easy
That I wanted to kill her again.
I got down on both of my knees and
She ain't coming back again."
-"Westfall" from the album "Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See"

"He says, 'I am waiting on hoof and on hand.
I'm waiting, all hated and damned.
I'm waiting - I snort and I stamp.
I'm waiting, you know that I am,
calmly waiting to make you my lamb.'"
-"So Come Back, I'm Waiting" from the album "Black Sheep Boy"

"It's a gray day in the fall
And the radio's singing down the hall
And I rise to turn it off cause all I'm seeing is her face
Age 8
8"
-"Savannah Smiles" from the album "The Stage Names"

These lyrics, coupled with the music, form some really intense songs that really capture the scenes Will Sheff has created. The music in each song fits so well with the lyrics that it just really takes me away. I absolutely love this band.



So yes, I'm still working on "House on Hickory Hill." My immediate goal as of this moment is to really hammer that first goddamn chapter down to something I can feel comfortable showing a publisher. I want to do this before school starts up at the end of August. The first chapter has about 8 parts. The first part is finished and I'm quite happy with it. Just 7 more to go. Several of these should be easy to go through but the end needs tweaking. Fortunately its mostly all written, just some scenes need to be re-written and revised because they have the right idea but the wrong wording. Easy, right?

That being said, I hope to have my novel ready to be submitted by the time I graduate in two years.

Also, I'm having a hell of a time getting my student loan for this year. Before it was pretty easy, I just log onto Sallie Mae, submit my info, and voila, loan completed. Now they're asking for credit checks because of our shitty economy and because they have a new loan type in place. I can't pass a credit check because I don't really have credit and I haven't had time to get a job. So I'm trying to get a co-signer but so far no one in my family has been able to pass because apparently their credit isn't perfect enough.

Fuck this. But it's all I got.

Maybe I'll just drop out and get a shitty full-time job. I don't have a lot of options.

On a much happier note, I'm going on a camping trip next week with some friends. But damn, its really hard to get my mind away from this money sitaution. I hadn't really felt the economic crunch until now. Awesome. Great fucking timing.