Shearwater- "Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five" (2006) Live, KUT's Retread Sessions, Austin, TX

Water birds have always been a favorite of mine. It has something to do with their ability to adapt to radically different conditions as well as their grace and beauty. A shearwater is a majestic long-winged migratory sea bird. Shearwater is a majestic, multi-talented Austin-based indie band.

Okkervil River- Overboard & Down (Australian Tour) EP (2006) MP3 & FLAC -Thanks Mr. X-

"I burned your dissertation. I spurned the celebration. You'll find me down this dirty hall. I'm hiding behind this silent wall."

Okkervil River's Overboard & Down EP is unusual in terms of its conceptual ambitions because instead of functioning as a catch-all for a single and some stray tracks, Will Sheff & co. pursue a consistent theme over the course of the EP's five tracks: loss & withdrawal.  On the opening track, "The President's Dead," the narrator seems to mourn the death, not of a political figure, but of his quiet, idealized life, which is now inundated with, and turned upside down by, the news coverage of an assassination. "Love to a Monster," explores the vindictive anger of a jilted lover: "I hope your new man thinks of me when he sees what a number I did on you," only to suggest that the passion behind such anger easily transforms into an isolating spite: "I'll fight off the spring; I don't want lovely things. I don't want the earth new." Released briefly in Australia, the Overboard & Down EP is one of the more scarce Okkervil River recordings, and, to the best of my knowledge, is not available anywhere else in lossless.

Okkervil River- Stars Too Small to Use (1999) MP3 & FLAC

(my apologies for the crappy artwork scan)

"Relax, no song is written. It's nothing you thought of yourself. It's just a ghost, came unbidden to this house."

A garage recording in both the figurative the literal senses, Stars Too Small to Use contains the raw, often visceral, and intermittently beautiful early recordings of one of the great, underrated Indie bands of the noughties. It is quite interesting to hear Okkervil River in their formative period, sounding more "Alt" Country than they ever would again, while also echoing the acoustic slacker-Punk of early Violent Femmes. While this is nowhere near as essential as the amazing albums that followed it, there are, nevertheless, some shining gems waiting to be discovered. Chief among these is "The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion," which would be rerecorded two years later for their debut Jagjaguwar release. This song offers a prescient glimpse of the literate, shambolic beauty that would come to characterize their later work. Long out of print and a rare find in lossless.

Okkervil River- "Lost Coastlines" Video (2008)

An amazing Austin band that I just cannot get enough of. This is from their last album, The Stand Ins: