Photo by Ben Sklar
Will Sheff’s songs are often called novelistic, but “cinematic” also applies. Okkervil River’s “Down Down The Deep River” opens with a swooping establishing shot: “Spit into the center of your hometown, there are leaves in the street, and there are friends around you now / All the days of your life in a line.” Its album, 2013’s The Silver Gymnasium, also feels like a film, guiding you through Sheff’s adolescent days in Meriden, New Hampshire.
Fittingly, Sheff is in town to debut an ambitious, forty-five minute music video for the song as part of the first annual Austin Music Video Festival. Catch the film plus a solo acoustic performance tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz (plus another showing at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar on Sunday at 2 p.m.), and download a Studio 1A version of the song below.
–Art Levy
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