YES!!!

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Acclaimed weird folk group, The Bowerbirds, are releasing their follow up to 2007's Hymns For A Dark Horse this July on Dead Oceans. The album is called Upper Air.

After two years on the road, the band apparently yearned for the majesty of nature, and returned to North Carolina and built a cabin by hand or something. As a result, Upper Air is allegedly even more beautiful than Hymns. We'll see, won't we?

Prior to the release the band will be touring extensively. Euro and U.S. dates are available after the jump. -SB
04/25/09 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel w/ Bell
04/26/09 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Chapel w/ Bell (Early)
04/26/09 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Chapel w/ Bell (Late)
04/27/09 New York City, NY - Mercury Lounge w/ Lost in the Trees, La Strada, Bell
04/28/09 Brooklyn, NY - Monkeytown - Early Show w/ Bell
04/28/09 Brooklyn, NY - Monkeytown - Late Show w/ Bell
04/30/09 Cambridge, MA - TT The Bear's Place w/ Sarah RabDAU, Bell
05/01/09 Montreal, QC - Il Motore w/ La Strada
05/02/09 Toronto, ON - The Drake Hotel w/ La Strada
05/04/09 Chicago, IL - Schubas w/ La Strada
05/05/09 Bloomington, IN - Bear's Place w/ La Strada
05/06/09 Newport, KY - The Southgate House - Parlour w/ La Strada
05/07/09 Asheville, NC - The Rocket Club w/ La Strada
05/08/09 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 w/ Wes Phillips, La Strada
05/22/09 Groningen, Netherlands - Vera
05/23/09 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
05/24/09 Brussels, Belgium - Maison Des Musiques
05/25/09 Paris, France - Point Fmr
05/26/09 London, UK - Borderline
05/27/09 Nantes, France - Spoutnik
05/28/09 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Festival
05/29/09 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Festival
05/30/09 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Festival
06/01/09 Carpi, Italy - Mattatoia
06/02/09 Pisa, Italy - Caracol
06/03/09 Basel, Switzerland - Volkshaus
06/04/09 Zurich, Switzerland - El Lokal
06/05/09 Ebensee, Austria - Kino
06/06/09 Vienna, Austria - Arena

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By Amelia Kreminski

In the corner of a chilly, fluorescent coffee shop, on a late winter Wednesday night, Kevin Devine accepted a curmudgeonly waiter's gruff, clattering delivery of his cup of lentil soup with a quietly gratuitous, "Thank you, sir." He stared with clear, honest eyes at the server's back as he stomped away, and murmured, a half-grin appearing in the corners of his mouth, "I love you."

That's just the kind of guy Kevin is.

The gently joking, fiery-haired, 29-year-old native New Yorker will be officially dropping his fifth album April 28, and playing a sold-out record release party at the Bowery Ballroom on April 24, celebrating the completion of the grandly expansive, often dark Brother's Blood. Devine will be touring with Miniature Tigers and Brian Bonz and the Dot Hongs through June 7 (beginning the tour with Sarah Jaffe as well), stopping at venues across the U.S. and Canada.

Death+Taxes sat down in that chilly coffee shop with Devine to discuss his latest album, the dark undertones and sociopolitical commentary present in his music, and how he continues to elude genre categorization. Read the full feature article after the jump.


These days, it seems another acoustic guitar band with a quirky tambourine and trombone thrown in for good measure waits around every corner of the indie music scene. Thank you, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, for showcasing all we despise about a tired, and increasingly sickeningly cute, sonic niche in the vast expanse of musical genres.

Kevin Devine is not too cute. He does not put on airs of affected quirkiness, and sure, he may throw in a tambourine or trombone here and there, but he does it with the grit and passion of a heart-and-soul musician. As far as real "independent music" goes, Devine might just be one of the last real pioneers.

"I used to get real worked up about what people's perceptions were," Devine said, regarding the public's categorization of his music over the years through "punk," "folk," "indie rock," and many other labels.

"As a touring artist, I've done so many different kinds of tours. This one world I travel in, it's with people like Rachel Yamagata or the Hotel Cafe--it's kind of a little glossier, singer/songwriter. And then the stuff that I've done with bands like Bright Eyes, or Elf Power, or Okkervil River--it's more of an indie rock world. And then the stuff I've done with Brand New, or Manchester Orchestra, or mewithoutYou--bands that are more--I guess the lazy word would be emo, but [I don't really think the music is emo]."

"I've toured with the Pitchfork bands...and I've played with people who play on Good Morning America. And I like all these people but I've never felt totally like I fit in any of them. [Musicians I've played with are musicians] who are drawn to kinship with each other because they don't fit anywhere else--and I like that."

Though Devine notes that 2006's Put Your Ghost to Rest may have been his subconscious attempt to create a "mature singer/songwriter record," he's abandoned the mainstream ideas of genres and labels in lieu of creating Brother's Blood, a 52-minute collection of songs too unique and varied to be categorized.

"I was writing songs for this record over the course of two years and I was like, I don't even know if this is a record--it's so all over," Devine said. "And then my friend said to me, 'Why does it have to be one thing or the other? Why do you have to be a folk singer or a rock guy or a punk rock kid or an indie rock guy--you do all that, so why can't you make a record that does all of it?' [I think that idea] is great."

"I think that the thing that was sort of interesting with making this record was that there was no preconception about making it. It was just supposed to be whatever fits that song and if the songs start pulling in totally different directions from one another, we'll worry about that afterwards I guess.

"I think this record's a little less concerned with...constraints and gives the audience and journalists hopefully the right amount of respect that they can discern for themselves what it is and isn't."

So what is Brother's Blood? It's a landscape of auditory stimulation, vast, thoughtful and aware. "All of Everything, Erased" begins the record with soft, warmly cushioned acoustic guitar melodies and Devine's light blue, twinkling vocal meanderings. "So I got off my knees/I faced the devil's day/The sky was murder red/And the streets were headstone gray," Devine intones through breezy harmonic guitar plucking.

"Carnival" continues with a surreal, dream-like floating melody and sporadic, Wilco-reminiscent implanted sounds (download it for free here). Devine's voice howls hauntingly through Tim Burton-esque hospital scenes and weirdly unsettling chord changes, which linger into the first seconds of the almost spoken-word, politically charged ballad "Time to Burn (Another Bag of Bones)."

"It's an occupied country foaming at the mouth, no smoking gun, no mushroom cloud; it's a military mother with a boy in hell, and it's a flag-draped casket down an oil well," Devine sings, the simple melody punctuated by a deep, ominous plucking--a musical clock ticking relentlessly on.

"It's an Argentine schoolgirl gagged and bound, it's a torture camp, it's a long way down," he continues. "It's the constant bracing shock of now, and it's the whole damn world turned inside out."

It's serious. It's thought-provoking. Its libretto rings beautifully and poetically, yet terribly true. In Devine's words, it's a "what-the-fuck's-happening" song.

Sociopolitical themes have a way of recurring in Devine's music, but this wasn't always the case. As a journalism student at Fordham University, he had little interest in politics, and wrote freelance art and culture pieces for online music sites like PopMatters--at one point, he even pitched stories to an editor at The New York Times, and had two stories bought by The Washington Post. But it wasn't until the Twin Towers fell that politics began carving a prominent place in Devine's writing.

"I had these kind of nascent political or social ideas but they weren't activated or radicalized as much as they became after [September 11] or after the war started," he said.

"I don't think [protest art--songwriting, theater, painting, etc.] changes policy. But what I do think it does is encourage dialogue--it makes people think, it makes people process. Whether it's Bob Dylan or...punk rock and hardcore stuff, it's stuff that challenges these assumptions that we have about ourselves and about the world. Am I trying to change anything? I'm definitely trying to get people to think, I guess. I used to be really passive--I don't care, I'm just trying to say what I think. But if I was just trying to say what I think I wouldn't get up and sing it in front of people, probably.

"I write about politics the same way I write about love, or sex, or drugs, or insecurity, or whatever--it's a tuning fork thing in me, a vibration that throws itself up in my mouth. It's very reactionary."

But Brother's Blood isn't a wholly political album. "I Could Be With Anyone" plays with the pop and lightness of a Cars song, it's first seconds bouncing with an upbeat, toe-tapping drum beat and a sweetly chirping guitar melody. In true Devine fashion, though, the tune closes with an epic crescendo, wildly grinning guitar riffs and echoing the passion ripping through Devine's vocals.

"That's the stuff I've always loved about The Smiths or Elliott Smith or…other people named Smith, I guess," Devine said, regarding the volatile nature of his sweeter songs and the jarring lyrics of his political songs. "It sounds really beautiful, but then you listen to what's being said and you're like, Oh, shit, that’s not what I expected.

"It's like a shard of glass in your lemonade."

Undoubtedly, Brother's Blood keeps you on your toes, and keeps you interested. It leaps and twirls in stylistic boomerangs, flying from genre to genre and back again to the same center focus: the undeniable style of Kevin Devine. Watching him eat his begrudgingly bestowed lentil soup, one can tell this is a man who doesn't worry too much about carefully etched societal--or musical--categorizations. He's purely, completely, his own person, and his own musician.

"I think the stylistic breadth [of Brother's Blood] reflects--me," he said simply. And it's an admirable and refreshingly independent reflection.

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We've loved Suckers for quite some time now. Just last summer, in fact, they performed at our Scavenger Hunter after-party along with Amazing Baby. We're super totally awesome and cool, in other words. Always 5 giant leaps ahead of the curve! But that's neither here nor there. Back to Suckers: their debut s/t EP just came out a few days ago on IAMSOUND Records. It was produced by Anand Wilder of Yeasayer, buddies of Suckers (the two bands even share a practice space).

The EP is really great, full of playful harmonies, swelling melodies and, of course, whistling. Led by the always intriguing Quinn Walker, Suckers are really falling into their own sound with this one. We can't wait to see where they go from here. Catch them this Thursday (that's tomorrow) at Glasslands for their record release party, and then again on a bunch of dates this summer (including Prospect Park Bandshell on 7/1 opening for MGMT). -SK

(photo by Victoria Jacob)
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Death+Taxes Issue 19, which features East Bound & Down star Danny McBride on the cover, will hit newsstands nationwide on Tuesday 4/28. Thanks to the Internet you can check out every glorious page before then. Even the ads! Check out the issue below or click here. And if you're gonna do that, we recommend viewing in full screen. -SB

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Late last year Rivers Cuomo hosted a jam session with 150 Weezer fans at a store in Long Beach, CA called Fingerprints. It seemed like Rivers way of bringing his YouTube songwriting sessions to life, since he's gotten over his maniacal obsession with controlling all things Weezer. (Not that this was a good thing. You ever hear the song the dude who plays bass in Weezer wrote? It sounds like Creed.)

Anyway, someone had the bright idea of filming and recording the session, and it's being released as Not Alone - Rivers Cuomo & Friends Live At Fingerprints next Tuesday, 4/28. I saw Rivers jam with a bunch of kids from New York City at the Weezer show in Madison Square Garden last year, and I walked out.

If you're still interested, you can hear more about the event from Rivers himself in a video he made on a LifeCycle after the jump. It's On YouTube of course. -SB

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Los Angeles' Glasser (aka Cameron Mesirow) is stuck on repeat over here. Seriously, I can't stop listening to her. She combines strange, almost carnal beats with the most beautiful voice. At times I'm reminded of White Magic and Panda Bear, but mostly I'm just reminded of making out and cooking really delicious food. Don't ask me why, but both things are amazing, as is Glasser.

Her debut 12" EP, featuring the songs "Apply," "Glad," "Learn" and remixes by Tanlines, Lucky Dragons, and John Talabot, is available May 26 from True Panther, one of our favorite labels out of New York via San Francisco. Her MySpace page has another awesome remix of "Apply" from Brooklyn's Chairlift. And below are some mp3s for all you lucky kids. I'm going to get every last one of you addicted! -SK

Glasser - Apply (mp3)
Glasser - Glad (mp3)

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Andy Milonakis was funny -- then got a little annoying. Then he threatened to punch my friend in the face at a party because he didn't want her to change the reggae jams he was pumping on the stereo. And so I thought he was funny again. I don't know how many times I'll actually listen to his song about twittering ...it's no "I'm On A Boat" -- but it's definitely worth checking out at least once. -IL

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Peep Passion Pit's video for "The Reeling" below. The song sounds considerably more eighties than anything they've done before. Be on the look out for the forthcoming Manners, which will be released on May 19th. Video is up after the jump.-IL

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Click here to watch the preview of Paper Heart starring Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera. Evidently, it's "a documentary about Cherlyne in love." Looks good! -IL

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St. Vincent's new record Actor is now streaming in its entirety on NPR's music site. Click here to listen. The record will officially release on May 5th. Look out for an interview with the lovely Annie Clark in the next issue of D+T.-AM

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Avant-garde electro duo, Empire of the Sun, released their hotly anticipated Walking On A Dream today.

Everyone became super infatuated with the group after the video for "Walking On A Dream" made it's way onto YouTube. The press has been excruciatingly hyperbolic, Arctic Monkey-esque, even. I wouldn't say that track is insanely catchy, or that the guys should be poised for world domination, but the song's great and the video is surreal. There is a super-future Asian thing going with a lot of religious ceremony tropes popping in and out of the video.

Enough blabbing about it though, why don't you become one of the 3.8 million viewers to check out? Video is after the jump. -SB

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Remember the days when every band fronted by a movie star was invariably a total disaster, like Bruce Willis's band or Kevin Bacon's band? Or even bands where a movie star rocked the bass, like 30 Seconds To Mars? There was a certain comfort in knowing that actors could never really cross over and switch hit in the musical realm -- kind of like knowing that Michael Jordan could never seriously threaten the dominance of a really good baseball player or golfer. We want talented celebrities to do certain things exceptionally, but if they can do everything it's too much -- it's not fair.

Well recently Ryan Gosling and Emil Hirsch have started bands, and they are actually good. Like, for real good. Check out Gosling's band Dead Man's Bones here, and Hirsch's band Emil & Friends here. Also, click here to check out the Emil & Friends remix of Passion Pit's "Sleepyhead." It's good -- like, better than the original. Damn these actors and their morphing talents! Did you hear that Kal Penn (i.e. Kumar, of Harold & Kumar) had to leave the TV show House because he joined the Obama Administration as the Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison? What is with these people?! I'm convinced they possess a mutant gene that will allow them to slowly but inexorably take over the world.-AM

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Forget I Can Has Cheezburger and Stuff White People Like. We get it -- they were both pretty funny for like ten minutes two years ago, but it's just the same exact joke over and over again. My new favorite funny blog is Right Place, Right Time. This thing is amazing. These guys manipulate photos to make them look ridiculous, and then write blurbs about them as if they happened to just catch them on camera. Sure it's a "category" blog, but it's a whole new category, and it's broad enough for each joke to be its own thing. You're either gonna think this is the greatest thing in the world or the stupidest thing you've ever seen. Maybe both. But I'm voting for "greatest thing ever."-AM

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Stephen Hawking may not live to see his unified theory realized.

Dr. Hawking is one of the most lauded theoretical physicists of modern time alongside Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan and Roger Penrose. Hawking was the first to realize black holes emit radiation and was the first to support the theory that the universe is infinite. Still, many Americans believe the earth was created less than ten thousand years ago, and some of them hold public office.

Hawking, 67, is currently at Addenbrooke's Hospital, the AP reports. He is suffering from a chest infection.

Like most accomplished physicists, Hawking has spent his life grappling with the discrepancies between relativity and quantum mechanics. He did manage to become a pop culture icon due to his wit, management of the ALS disease, and popular books, namely a Brief History of Time, which a lot of people purchased but few understood (myself included).

What's terrible is losing Hawking at such a crucial time: His exhortations on global warming seem hyperbolic (Earth could turn to Venus!) but he was most concerned with the huge pockets of CO2 -- gigatons actually -- that could be released into the atmosphere if the oceans became warmer. If that happens, is there a looking back? Not likely, according to him, which is why he is such an avid fan of space exploration and the study of planet colonization.

In the world of science, there's not much to be chipper about today. -SB

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This video is just straight up cute. It debuted on Pitchfork earlier today. I'm happy to repost. Enjoy "Saints" by Army Navy. They have a few west coast dates coming up. Click here for more info. -IL

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Check out the video for "Abandon" directed by Austin Peters. The band is currently on tour. Click here for dates. -IL

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Monday's are the worst, huh? Well here's a little something to brighten your day, Chevy Chase in his 20's! Yes please. (Belushi is rad too, but obviously not as foxy).
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