37 Okkervil River “Lost Coastlines”

Okkervil River is a band out of Austin, Texas, the only place I’ve been that’s not on the East Coast, and are mainstays of the indie/alt rock scene. I found them, again, on some compilation or other and I can sort of see why they haven’t broken through to the mainstream. I hope that’s the way they like it, and I wouldn’t blame them for that. They write some of the best and worst songs. The music is some of the best and the worst. The vocals are sometimes the best and sometimes the worst. They are A Tale of Two Cities in rock band form. 

“Lost Coastlines,” from their Album The Stand Ins, is one of their best. A double rhythm guitar part giving the basic groove and movement to the track is mirrored in the use of two separate octaves for the vocals, higher in the verse and then lower in the build to a chorus that doesn’t actually come. Before you know it, you’re back at the next verse. 

I remember Steve Martin describing his comedy writing around the time he was doing his ‘wild-and-crazy-man” routine about the use of increasing tension and release. Most joke style comedy is the increase of tension until you get to the punchline where there is the release, usually with laughter. His idea was to just keep ratcheting up the tension with no release to see what would happen. What he found was people would release on their own at different points. 

Music is similar, there is the increase of tension, either through the groove or repetition of the rhythm section or the verses. This can be increased through a small build before the release of the chorus. What happens when you don’t have a chorus? Most of the time nothing, as it usually wasn’t an interesting build to begin with. But I think “Lost Coastlines” nails the Steve Martin comedic theory.