Okkervil River preps fall tour in support of new album

Indie folk-rockers Okkervil River [ tickets ] have lined up a fall tour behind the September release of the band's fifth studio album, "The Stand Ins."The Texas group will kick off the run Sept. 12 in Lawrence, KS, and the tour will hit 22 cities during its month-long run, winding down with a pair of Canadian shows in mid-October. Details are below.In September, the group plans to release its fifth full-length studio album, "The Stand Ins." The set features production by longtime Okkervil studio partner Brian Beattie, and guest appearances by former member Jonathan Melburg (now a member of indie-rockers Shearwater along with Okkervil frontman Will Sheff) and The Wrens' Charles Bissell.The new album follows quickly on the heels of last year's "The Stage Names," recorded in Austin, TX, with Beattie producing, and Spoon drummer and producer Jim Eno mixing. The two albums were originally intended for release as a double album, according to a press release."We had so many songs we were excited about that we briefly threw around the idea of just putting out a double record," said Sheff in a statement. "Instead, we decided to take a group of songs that fit with each other and turn that into 'The Stage Names,' setting the rest aside for a future release, a 'The Stage Names' sequel."Last December the band released "Golden Opportunities," a nine-song free downloadable album through Okkervil River's website. The free album contains eight covers and one live track."I think it's important for everyone, not just bands, to periodically ask themselves 'am I still having fun?' And it's important to figure out ways to make the answer still be 'yes,'" the group wrote on the site regarding the freebie. "The idea of an album just being an album--a collection of songs that was fun to put together and hopefully will be fun to listen to--appealed to me. And I have to admit I kind of got off on the fact that no one knew this thing existed until the very minute we posted it."