Pitchfork

Flashback: June 2007. Okkervil River's Will Sheff is telling Matthew Solarski about the creation of The Stage Names, which would go on to become one of Pitchfork's favorite albums of 2007.

He says, "For a while we had this idea that we were going to make a double album. I've always thought double albums were super pretentious and really terrible to do, but I have this thing with me where whenever I start railing against something being terrible and telling everyone I know that it's a bad and awful thing, sooner or later this perverse side of me starts getting drawn to whatever idea that I've been railing against. I'm like, 'Oh that's such a terrible thing, a terrible thing' and then it slowly turns into 'it's so terrible, but kind of in a good way'-- and then-- 'you have to do it.' So for a while there we were thinking about doing a double album, but in the end I think sanity prevailed."

Well, a year later, we've got the second half of that double album. Arriving September 9 via Jagjaguwar, the previously reported The Stand Ins continues the story begun by The Stage Names. Among its 11 tracks, the album features the "Savannah Smiles" sequel "Starry Stairs" (discussed in Mike Carriere's interview with Sheff in August) and "Lost Coastlines", a duet between Sheff and Jonathan Meiburg, who recently left Okkervil to concentrate on his band Shearwater full-time. "Lost Coastlines" discusses "the joys and hardships of trying to keep the band together," according to a press release. Okkervil River touring guitarist Charles Bissell of the Wrens also contributed to the album.

The sequel theme even extends to the album cover, which depicts what's going on just below the cover of The Stage Names. (I've lined them up after the jump so you can see what's going on there.)

Okkervil River will celebrate The Stand Ins with a mammoth fall tour of North America and the UK. Onward!

The Stand Ins tracklist:

01 The Stand Ins, One
02 Lost Coastlines
03 Singer Songwriter
04 Starry Stairs
05 Blue Tulip
06 The Stand Ins, Two
07 Pop Lie
08 On Tour With Zykos
09 Calling and Not Calling My Ex
10 The Stand Ins, Three
11 Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979

Cover art fun:

Okkervil tour dates:

05-31 Barcelona, Spain - Parc del Fórum (Primavera Sound)
06-26-28 Calgary, Alberta - Sled Island Festival
07-18 Bristol, England - Trinity Arts Centre
07-19 Steventon, England - Truck Festival
07-20 Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
08-01-03 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
08-07 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival
08-08 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West Fstival
08-09 Haldern, Germany - Haldern Pop Festival
09-12 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
09-13 Omaha, NE - Slowdown
09-14 Madison, WI - Barrymore Theater
09-15 Fargo, ND - Aquarium
09-17 Seattle, WA - The Showbox
09-18 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richards on Richards
09-19 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
09-21 San Francisco, CA - Treasure Island Festival
09-23 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
09-24 Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern
09-26 El Paso, TX - The Blue Iguana
09-26-28 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Music Festival
09-30 New Orleans, LA - The Republic
10-1 Birmingham, AL - Matthew's Bar & Grill
10-2 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
10-4 Richmond, VA - The National
10-6 New York, NY - Webster Hall
10-7 New York, NY - Webster Hall
10-8 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Nightclub
10-9 Millvale, PA - Mr. Smalls Theatre
10-10 Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall
10-11 Montreal, QC - Les Saints
10-12 Toronto, ON - Phoenix
11-05 Norwich, England - Waterfront
11-06 Manchester, England - Academy
11-07 Dublin, Ireland - Academy
11-09 Glasgow, Scotland - Oran Mor
11-10 Wolverhampton, England - Wulfrun
11-11 London, England - Shepherd's Bush Empire
11-12 Brighton, England - Concorde 2