River of Screams

Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff wrote “Westfall,” a chilling murder ballad about the slaying of a young girl, more than six years ago. Yet even now, Okkervil audiences scream every word—indistinguishable faces channeling their repressed urges into a macabre sing-a-long that climaxes with the song’s repeated final line: “evil don’t look like anything.” “Horrible things happen, and you look at them and you wonder, ‘How did that happen?’” Sheff says. “Here we are in the n...

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