History Music / OkkervilRiver

** In "Down, Down the Deep River," the narrator's father tells him, [[TheVelvetUnderground "You'll be my mirror."]]

* FaceOfTheBand: Will Sheff is essentially the only consistent member, although Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg appears on all the albums.

* NotChristianRock: "Mary on a Wave" is essentially a hymn to the Virgin Mary, or, as Sheff puts it, to "the feminine aspect of God."

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Mostly around a six or seven, for sadness and profanity rather than violence.
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly two or three, although some of the songs on ''Away'' go down to one.

* AnythingCanBeMusic: ''Away'' makes use of wind chimes, church bells, and twittering birds between tracks.

* IdiosyncraticAlbumTheming: Until ''Away'', all Okkervil River releases featured album by William Schaff.

** Sheff shouts "Hey, watch it!" after the second verse of "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe."

Okkervil River is an indie folk band formed in Austin, Texas, in 1998. They've gone through many lineups; the sole consistent member is singer/songwriter/guitarist Will Sheff. While their music has changed genre over the years, it is consistently marked by Sheff's hyper-literate and often self-referential lyrics. They have nine full-length albums and a number of shorter releases and collaborations:

** "Plus Ones" references songs by ? and the Mysterions, Air Supply, Nena, Music/{{REM}}, TheByrds, DavidBowie, TheZombies, PaulSimon, LionelRichie, and TomJones. Oh, also the film Film/SomeKindOfWonderful.