What is a band supposed to do with the critical complaint that its newest album is "too good"? Having recently released "The Stage Names," Austin, Texas' indie folk sextet Okkervil River is pondering just that question.

Full of intelligently written, emotionally driven ballads, "The Stage Names" is as delicate as it is daring -- at times reckless, at times reserved. Sure, it has hoisted the band into a sudden, yet deserved, limelight, but "too good" hardly seems fair.

In the humble option of well-versed frontman Will Sheff, "We're pretty much the same as we were for the eight years before when we were unknown."

OnMilwaukee.com caught up with Sheff to talk about the new album, the band's Pabst Theater appearance on Monday, Sept. 17 and, of course, Okkervil River's ties to Milwaukee -- and yes, there are a couple.

OMC: The record kind of walks the line between seeming like an intensely personal concept album of sorts and a really accessible, classically-fringed collection that would work well as the backdrop to a party. There used to be a huge polarity between those two genres, although maybe bands like yours are starting to blur that line more and more. Thoughts?

WS: My friend Mike Booher from the band Zykos described Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" as a "poet's party record." It's kind of a weird description, but it works. I kept his description in mind when I was working on "The Stage Names." I made a very concerted effort to kind of gracefully tiptoe along the thin line between being somewhat brainy and being friendly and inviting. I think there's a kind of faulty assumption people make these days that something "serious" has to be either morosely depressing or packed with ten-dollar words and antiquated references. The first approach seems kind of teenage and the second seems kind of snobby; I wanted to avoid falling full-on into either of those extremes. Hopefully it worked.

OMC: In previous albums, you've touched on politics -- I'm thinking specifically of "The President's Dead." Despite the fact that it was a work of fiction, it's still lathered in symbolism, and I'm curious if the lack of politically motivated themes on "Stage Names" was intentional? Is it just done to death these days and not worth it?

WS: I actually wrote "The President's Dead" during the writing sessions for "The Stage Names," but I decided to leave it off the record because it didn't really fit in. "The Stage Names" doesn't really have much to do with politics, so I kind of avoided those themes when writing these songs. I think that politics casually informs people's lives in the same way as something like sexuality does, so I guess there's a little of that in passing, but I basically wasn't interested in talking about politics on this record.

OMC: After receiving all the well-deserved praise for "The Stage Names" did you guys ever stop for a minute and say, "Are we now expected to top this?" Or is progress hardly a concern?

WS: To worry about making an album that "tops" your previous album in terms of critical praise or album sales is to make yourself a slave to some abstract idea of what people want. I don't feel like I'm sophisticated enough to truly understand what people want, so all I can really do is focus on what I want. This isn't to say I don't consider an audience, because I do, but I feel like it works the other way around; I try to have as much fun as I can and make myself as happy as possible, and I hope that there are other people like me out there who will pick up on that sense of fun and excitement. Plus, some of my favorite records are modest records. There's room for a big epic slab of music and there's room for a low-key little collection of sketches, too.

OMC: What's your reaction to so many of the critics boldly stating that Okkervil River's music is over-the-top emotional or overwrought, as if you guys are somehow trying too hard?

WS: I don't know -- I wasn't really aware that critics were saying that. I suspect that my voice just naturally has an "emotional" quality, no matter what I sing. Someone forwarded me a review where the writer rips on us for his entire piece and then says, in the last sentence, "however, this album actually succeeds on all counts." I saw another review where the writer criticized the record for being "too good." I get the sense that what's happening with us right now is kind of like what sometimes happens with other bands that people start to talk about. You get sick of hearing everyone blab on and on and on about this band that to you seems to have come out of nowhere, and so you kind of decide you're going to be hard on them before you even hear them. It's not fair, but it's an absolutely understandable reaction. The weird part for me is that I feel like all this stuff is outside of us. We're pretty much the same as we were for the eight years before when we were unknown.

OMC: I read that Travis Nelsen is a Wisconsin guy. Do you guys have an exceptionally large fanbase here? Have you ever played in Milwaukee previously?

WS: I've never been to Milwaukee before, but it's true that Travis, our drummer, is from there. Also, Seth Warren, Okkervil's original drummer, who also occasionally does some electronic stuff with us, just moved there. So there's a major Okkervil River / Milwaukee percussion connection. I really love Wisconsin and the Midwest -- part of "A Girl in Port" takes place in Madison.

OMC: Do you have anything special planned for The Pabst Theater performance in Milwaukee on Sept. 17?

WS: Who knows? We'll see when we play it. Everyone has been talking up The Pabst Theater -- I'm excited to see it!