Okkervil River announce new album

Surprising but welcome news from the Austin band Okkervil River. Pitchfork has reported that they're already set to release the follow-up to last year's awesome Stage Names album. Titled The Stand Ins, it's due on September 9th from Jagjaguwar. This is what I like to see from bands. An album a year. Okkervil is on tour but no Twin Cities date. However, I will be able to catch 'em for the first time at Lollapalooza and then later at ACL. Looking forward to it.

I should also mention that Shearwater, fronted by former Okkervil keyboardist Jonathan Meiburg, has their own highly anticipated album due out June 3rd, titled Rook. Not sure if I'll review it properly or not, but I've had it for a while and can tell you that it ranks up there in the Top 5 albums so far this year. Shearwater was recently in town on May 13 at the Entry, oddly paired with Clinic. Haven't seen the surgical-masked Clinic, but I did catch Shearwater at SXSW and they were a definite highlight.