Okkervil River

Dust off those hoverboards, because for their impending Australian tour Texan-bred indie folk-rockers Okkervil River are heading back in time! We’re not talking about their impressive resume of visiting our country which extends all the way back to 2005 – this will be their sixth Australian sojourn – but rather their recently-released, retro-tastic album The Silver Gymnasium, which finds them travelling back to those glory days (for some) of the 1980s!

For the seventh Okkervil River long-player, enigmatic and super-literate frontman Will Sheff – who writes all of the band’s material as well as lending his inimitable voice to bring it to life – concocted a series of vignettes based on his hometown of Meriden, New Hampshire and his memories of the rural outpost circa 1986. The album’s title is taken from the gym at the boarding school which Sheff attended, The Silver Gymnasium was not only salivated over by critics but also reached No 7 in the US Billboard 200, Okkervil River’s highest place to date by a considerable margin.

While there are mild flourishes of ‘80s pomp and production amidst The Silver Gymnasium’s tracks, for the most part these songs continue the natural and fascinating evolution of the Okkervil River sound which has been transpiring over the last 15 years. Local fans will attest from previous visits that Okkervil River are an extremely well-drilled and evocative live proposition, so it will be exciting to watch them bring these time-travelling new tunes to life when they return to Australia next February for the Perth Festival and accompanying headline gigs.