Okkervil River (band)

Okkervil River is an American indie rock band from Austin, Texas. Formed in 1998, the band takes its name from a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya set on the river in St Petersburg. They self-released their first album, Stars Too Small to Use, which led them to the South by Southwest music festival. After recording their first album in a garage, they signed with Jagjaguwar. Okkervil River continued by releasing four more albums, including the critically lauded concept album Black Sheep Boy.

After a period of touring for Black Sheep Boy, Okkervil River followed up with The Stage Names. The album sold 10,000 in its opening week in the United States. The group released a free covers album, Golden Opportunities Mixtape from their live performances.

The band has garnered positive critical reception. They have appeared on the talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien and have performed with acts such as The Decemberists, The New Pornographers, The National, and Lou Reed.

River

A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague.

Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Water generally collects in a river from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (e.g. from glaciers). Potamology is the scientific study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general.

Okkervil River (Neva basin)

The Okkervil River (Russian: Оккервиль) is a river in Leningrad Oblast and the eastern part of the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest left tributary of the Okhta River. It is 18 kilometres (11 mi) long and 1.5 to 25 metres (4.9 to 82.0 ft) wide.

The name Okkervil appeared in the 17th century, after the Swedish colonel who owned an estate on the bank. On some ancient maps of Saint Petersburg, the river is called Little Okhta (Russian: Малая Охта) as opposed to Big Okhta. Yet other times it is called Porkhovka (Russian: Порховка).

"Okkervil River" is the title of a well-known short story by Tatyana Tolstaya. The Austin, Texas-based indie rock band named Okkervil River takes its name from the story.

Bridges

There are eight bridges across Okkervil River:

References

For Real

For Real was an American R&B and soul quartet, that formed in 1993. In the latter part of that decade they were nominated for a Grammy, Billboard Music Award, and Soul Train Music Award.

Biography

For Real secured their recording contract by accident. "We were picking up our manager from the airport. So we decided to greet him with an acappella song. Someone from A&M Records just happened to be in the airport and heard us perform. Not long after, we were signed," said Latanyia Baldwin.

The band released their debut album, It's a Natural Thang, with production from Brian McKnight on A&M Records in 1994, and it became a critical success, including a rare four stars from Rolling Stone magazine. Their first single, "You Don't Wanna Miss" hit #28 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart; the group's second single, "Easy to Love", peaked at #65 on the same chart. The third single, "You Don't Know Nothin'", peaked at #88 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also peaked at #54 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1995. The album sold over one million copies worldwide, and peaked at #80 on the Billboard 200.

Will Sheff

Will Sheff (born July 7, 1976) is the frontman for the Austin, Texas-based indie band Okkervil River (1998–present). Originally from Meriden, New Hampshire, he is also a founding member and co-songwriter (along with former Okkervil bandmate Jonathan Meiburg) for Shearwater (2001–2009), another Austin band. Sheff writes and performs many songs as a solo artist while juggling his commitments to Okkervil River and Shearwater, but has released just one single as a solo artist. As well as writing and singing songs, he plays the guitar, the piano, the banjo, and the harmonica.

Sheff attended Kimball Union Academy and was an English major at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Sheff has collaborated with The Mendoza Line on the duet "Aspect of an Old Maid" and played piano on the Palaxy Tracks album Cedarland. With Okkervil River, he produced Roky Erickson's 2010 album True Love Cast Out All Evil and provided backing musicianship. He has produced an upcoming album by Brooklyn-based band Bird of Youth along with Phil Palazzolo.