Posts Tagged ‘kevin devine’

Bad Books – II: A Review

Posted: October 7, 2012 by Kevin Collier in Album Review
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Triple Crown Records / Favorite Gentlemen

Two years ago, I started this blog with a few friends because I loved music and writing and I thought it would be fun. Since then, it has become so much more. Now we have four active contributors and I have met some amazing people and heard incredible music. I am excited to continue and for whatever lies ahead. The story of Bad Books mirrors my story. In fact, one of the first albums I reviewed on the blog was Bad Books’ self titled debut, which you can read here. For those who don’t know, Bad Books began as a friendship between Manchester Orchestra‘s lead vocalist Andy Hull and singer/songwriter/all around cool guy Kevin Devine. After meeting a few years prior, they kicked around the idea of jamming together. Eventually, this side project, of which Hull is no stranger (see Right Away, Great Captain!) became less Andy and Kevin dicking around with guitars and melodies and an actual band recording an album over the course of a few days between your dates, consisting of Andy Hull, Kevin Devine and a few other members of Manchester Orchestra. Fast forward two years and my blog has had over 12,000 hits and Bad Books has done it again! Hooray!

 

The appropriately named sophomore effort II is set to release on October 9th, 2012. I was privileged enough to listen to the album early thanks to Ken and Chris at Big Hassle Media.

 

The party starts with “The After Party”. Guitars strum and herald Andy Hull’s signature smooth voice. The lyrics touch on being alone and as is often the case with Manchester Orchestra songs, I get the sense the song stems from personal experiences and stylistically brings to mind their most recent release, Simple Math. The song is not all quiet brooding, as it’s peppered with loud guitars and a drum beat to keep the blood pumping.

Kevin Devine playing in De Nieuwe Anita (Amste...

Kevin Devine playing in De Nieuwe Anita (Amsterdam), 9th of May, 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Next up is “No Reward”, Kevin Devine takes over on vocals, as part two of this singing tag team. At this point I will stress that Bad Books, while a great collaboration, often sounds nearly indistinguishable from the sum of its parts. For example, this song sounds like something that could easily have appeared on Kevin Devine’s solo albums or with his Goddamn Band. Depending on the opinion of the individual listener, this could either be a good thing or a bad thing. Personally, I enjoy both Devine and Manchester Orchestra so much, that more music from either or both is always welcome.

 

“Forest Whitaker” is the first, and likely only, single from the album. They released the single on iTunes and offered listens on Facebook a while back, so if you’re eager to hear the album you can check it out and it may tide you over. It’s a catchy song with plenty of wit no doubt composed as a collaboration of Hull and Devine. It features midi inspired guitar licks and happy whistling that brings to mind the master of the musical whistle, Andrew Bird. It’s poppy, peppy and like most rap songs, most listeners won’t pay attention to the lyrical content because of it. This song, while clearly commercial, isn’t meant for the casual listeners who just want to hear a happy song. One of the best things about these two artists is their thoughtful and interesting lyrics. This song tells a story and while it may be the only song on the album that most people hear, it’s a solid track and a stand out that I recommend.

 

Next up is “It Never Stops”, a track that begins with the calm, cool voice of Kevin Devine. Soon comes a steady stream of guitars, reminiscent of those in “All My Life” by the Foo Fighters. In also comes some great backing vocals and harmonies from Hull. This too is a little catchy, though not nearly as commercial as the track preceding it.

English: Andy Hull - Right Away Great Captain ...

English: Andy Hull – Right Away Great Captain at Monto Water Rats Theatre, Kings Cross, London (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Py0tr” begins with soft acoustic guitar strumming and showcases the trembling voice of Andy Hull. Stylistically and lyrically, it would fit right in on Manchester Orchestra’s Simple Math. It’s a nice change of pace and serves as a sort of intermission on this eleven track album. Andy Hull wrote the song about Peter the Great  having a conversation with a severed head, a la Sin City. Check out what Andy Hull had to say about it:

 

 

Then there’s “Friendly Advice”. Hull takes the helm once more on this one. The instrumentals have a bit of a stuttering effect, which accents the awkwardness of Hull’s persona here. There are some nice harmonies throughout with Kevin Devine’s voice chiming in every once in a while. Fun song.

 

Devine returns to lead vocals on “No Sides”, which features driving, crunchy guitars and clapping to accompany the percussion. This one should be fun to see live. Which reminds me, I am so excited to see Bad Books in concert on their current tour. I’m going to catch them at The Troubadour in Hollywood. They are touring several cities and trying to hit spots they missed on their last tour, so check it out to see if they will be visiting a town near you.

 

The next song is “Petite Mort” or little death. The song, Devine explains, is about relationships that go sour and the feeling of uneasiness at breaking it off. The phrase is also a euphemism for the big O, so there’s that. It’s a fun track with an interesting sound.

 

Hull sings on “42.” If the style seems a little different from the others, it’s because he wrote it back when Manchester Orchestra was working on “Mean Everything to Nothing.” It’s another slower song showcasing the awesome vocals and is more akin to his RAGC work than Manchester Orchestra.

 

The softer side of Bad Books continues with “Lost Creek”. It’s a reflective song about growing up and not following the same ideals of your parents. It’s another story song and Bad Books does a great job invoking feelings in this realm. There’s a cool echoing sound to the drums here and you can really relax listening to it. It’s a good penultimate track on a solid sophomore album from the indie supergroup.

 

“Ambivalent Peaks” closes out the album with Devine again taking on the lead vocalist role. At 5:13, it’s the longest track on the album. The lyrics seem to be somewhat military focused, perhaps a soldier returning home and finding things different, colder and perhaps suffering from PTSD. There is a very interesting lyric: “You laughed at my back, said you could not believe how violent I could be, just brushing my teeth.” Maybe I’m wrong, but if not, it wouldn’t be the first time Devine sang about war. Check out “Another Bag of Bones” and “No Time Flat” for good examples of that.

 

Overall, I think it’s a great second album from a band that doesn’t really tour that much and most of the time, technically doesn’t exist, but somehow, just like the last time, the boys from Manchester Orchestra and Kevin Devine managed to make yet another great record in a matter of days, in between their full-time gigs and amongst other side projects. If you’re a fan of either Manchester Orchestra or Kevin Devine, it’s a no brainer. If you’re a fan of both, you probably already pirated the album and have seen them in concert several times. If you’ve never heard of either, I hope you’ll read and give it a listen. You’ll probably like what you hear.

 

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Four Word Letter, Pt. 1: mewithoutYou and Kevine Devine at The Glass House

Posted: August 28, 2012 by Kevin Collier in Concert
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(Photo Credit: Ely Brothers)

It wasn’t February, 1878 or January, 1979. It was July, 2012 on the twenty-eighth day at The Glass House in Pomona, CA. I, who calls himself a Kevin Devine fan and a mewithoutYou fan was seeing both for the first time. I was very excited. This was the third show for me at the Glass House within the span of a week and I now live about 2 hours, give or take traffic, from the venue. Buried Beds was the opener and I was unfamiliar with their music. Still, I was looking forward to hearing them and experiencing new music. My friend and I ended up underestimating the time and missing Buried Beds’ set altogether (cue sad face.)

Though only two acts remained, to be fair, they were Kevin Devine and mewithoutYou, so it would definitely be worth it. We shuffled in and Kevin Devine took the stage. Though there were certainly a vocal few around me who knew his music, I got the sense the rest of the crowd was either very respectful or had no idea who he was. Early on, he launched into “A Story, A Sneak.” Here is video evidence:

Yes, you’ll hear the aforementioned “vocal few” in the video. These guys were fans, but they were annoying and probably high and almost ruined it for the rest of us. But nothing could ruin it for me. I was finally seeing Kevin Devine live. I get to see him again because I bought a ticket to see Bad Books at the Troubadour in October. He put on a great performance. There is something to be said about a great stripped down set with just a voice and a guitar and I’d be hard pressed to find a better lyricist and performer with this much passion in a solo show. Sure, I would place City and Colour higher on my list of favorites than this one, but mostly because KD’s set was shorter and he was not headlining. Speaking of thought-provoking lyrics, here is one of the best examples from his repertoire, “Another Bag of Bones.”

Then, just because he knew I missed out on Buried Beds, Kevin brought up Eliza Jones of Buried Beds to duet a song called “Cupid.” It was cutesy, but more in a Walk Hard “Let’s Duet” way than a Walk The Line “Hey, wait a minute, Reese Witherspoon sounds better than June Carter” kind of way. Take a listen:

Eliza would later make an appearance on keyboards with mewithoutYou. Kevin Devine played a few newer songs and a few older songs. He did not play “Me and My Friends” which the guy in front of me loudly suggested, but he did play “Enter Sandman” by freaking Metallica. Yes, it was a joke, but it was also kind of awesome because it was so unexpected. After that, he played “All of Everything Erased”, which you can see here. As you’ll see, he got really into the song, which was cool to see live.

He also played “Cotton Crush”, which I did not record because if you like him, you should really go see him in concert and I like to enjoy the concert myself and not watch through a tiny screen the whole time. It was a short set, but it was fantastic. After the show, I got to talk to him for a few minutes at the Merch table. He was really down to earth, nice and actually took the time to talk to me and listen to what I had to say. If by any chance you read this: Thanks, Kevin Devine and keep making great, thought-provoking, intelligent music. Oh, here’s him saying hi:

Next came the main event: mewithoutYou. Their set was like a rollercoaster. Start to finish, energy, passion and delight upon the faces of the individuals in the crowd. I didn’t get a lot of footage of their set, because it really has to be experienced wholly, without video or cell phones clouding the experience. I did let my friend film a little bit and he did his best, okay? Here’s his version of filming a song two songs:

Though I didn’t film much of their set, I did get “The Angel of Death Came to David’s Room” because it’s one of my favorite songs from them, especially lyrically. It’s a bit simplistic and Biblically based, but quite simply the message is we’re all going to die someday, so live your life. Here’s the footage I got. Enjoy!

After the show, I bought Buried Beds’ Tremble The Sails on vinyl and have since listened to it. They’re awesome. I will definitely have to catch them some other time. As I closed out my week/month of Glass House concerts, I felt equal parts excited, accomplished and tired. It took me so long to recover, that I’m just now posting this about a month later. That or, I don’t know, laziness or something. I hope you enjoyed and will check out these bands if you haven’t and find out when they’ll be in a town/city/state near you and experience if for yourself. (Still wish I could have seen mewithoutYou back when they opened for Brand New and Thrice. Oh well. Hindsight’s 20/20.)

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My Concert Calendar: July 2012

Posted: June 26, 2012 by Kevin Collier in Concert, List
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Ben Jorgensen, Nash Breen and PJ DeCicco perfo...

Ben Jorgensen, Nash Breen and PJ DeCicco perform live for Armor For Sleep (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kevin here. Just thought I would give you guys a quick rundown of the concerts I plan to attend in July. Here goes:

Wednesday, July 11th – KROQ Locals Only Presents Robert DeLong w/ Tapioca and the Flea, Incan Abraham – Troubadour

Friday, July 20th - Armor For Sleep (Farewell Show) w/ I, The Mighty, PebaLuna – The Glass House

Monday, July 23rd – Emery w/ My Children My Bride, To Speak of Wolves, Eighth City Takeover, Vale of Avalon – The Glass House

Saturday, July 28th – mewithoutYou w/ Kevin Devine, Buried Beds – The Glass House

(All links lead to Ticketfly for ticket purchasing.)

If you’re in Southern California or even just visiting, you should come to a show and join me! Here’s to a month of awesome concerts!

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Where’s The Band? Not in San Diego.

Posted: February 20, 2012 by Kevin Collier in Concert
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When I first heard about the Where’s The Band? Tour a few years back, I was intrigued. The concept is simple: a couple band leaders go on tour without the other members and perform a stripped down acoustic set. Tickets sold out quickly the first few years I heard about it and I never made it out. This year, though, I made a point to buy tickets as soon as they went on sale. It was an easy decision. This year, the tour went national and for three days only, on the Southern California leg of the tour, Dustin Kensrue of Thrice joined the tour. Thrice has been my favorite band for years and recently announced they were taking a break. So while it’s possible I’ll have more opportunities to see Dustin Kensrue solo, I can’t say the same for Thrice.

Dustin Kensrue obviously would not be the only singer on this tour and as much as I like his music, (a lot) I couldn’t help but be excited about the prospect of getting into new artists (along with their respective bands.) The lineup also included Evan Weiss (Into It. Over It.), Ace Enders (The Early November), Chris Conley (Saves the Day), Matt Pryor (The Get Up Kids), and Anthony Raneri (Bayside).

The first artist to take the stage at the House of Blues San Diego was Evan Weiss. I didn’t know his music. I hadn’t even heard of his project, Into It. Over It. What I found out is that he just released a full length album that he produced all by himself. I found out that he’s really talented and he was a storyteller at heart. I’ll definitely check out his music. The show was off to a great start.

Next up was the calm, cool, Ace Enders. The crowd loved him and I was among them. I had heard of The Early November and I recognized his name from his side project Ace Enders and Million Different People. He was funny, stating about The Early November’s song “When I Hit the Ground”, “Let’s just be honest, this song’s about Nicolas Cage…” See for yourself:

Chris Conley was up next. I was familiar with his band, Saves the Day, but I wouldn’t call myself a fan. I recall they had a music video for their song “Freakish” that featured puppets, reminiscent of Jim Henson’s Muppets, albeit a bit darker as these puppets are shown drinking and smoking in a bar. It’s more Avenue Q than Sesame Street. I do recall liking what little I had heard of Saves the Day, but I can’t say the same about his solo effort. Now I try not to focus on the negative, but his voice grated on me. It just seemed to be the weakest performance of the night in my opinion. But I can’t stress enough that that’s what it is, my opinion. Feel free to disagree.

Bayside front man Anthony Raneri came out and again, I found myself getting into an artist I had no prior experience with. I love moments like that. His set was fantastic, but what really stood out was his closing song. He noted that he actually liked reading reviews of his performances (Psst…Anthony…over here) and someone once compared his voice to that of Kermit the Frog. While I didn’t hear the similarity, I loved what he did with that notion. He called Ace Enders back on the stage, along with Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids and they all sang a rendition of the Muppets classic “Rainbow Connection.”  Going into this show, I never expected to be reminded of the Muppets at all, much less twice. Yes, I have a video of “The Rainbow Connection.” Check it:

Matt Pryor remained on the stage to perform his set. Again, I was somewhat familiar with The Get Up Kids, but I never really took the time to get into their music. Apparently I’ve been missing out. Pryor’s experience showed as he looked extremely confortable and at home on stage. His voice was soothing and his performance captivating. Songs like “From California” probably resonated better due to the California crowd, but I can see that song being popular anywhere else. Even if Dustin Kensrue wasn’t waiting in the wings to close out the show, Pryor’s performance, along with the others before him, would have made for a great reason to make the road trip to San Diego. Take a listen to his performance of the New Amsterdams “From California”:

Though I admit I was less than knowledgeable about the performers thus far, I’ve had more than enough exposure to Dustin Kensrue and his band Thrice. He opened with one of my favorite songs off his solo debut “Please Come Home”, with a love song called “Pistol.” I sampled a line from this song in my wedding vows. My wife, who is such a trooper, tagged along for this show, and she had been sitting in the lounge area, watching the show on the screen and listening for most of the show. She came at just the right time, knowing how much I enjoyed his music. She waded through the crowd to find me when this song started. I tried to get a video of the song, but I had some issues getting a good view and missed part of the song, so I scrapped it, in favor of the more unique cover of Bad Books’ “Mesa, AZ.” What I like about Dustin is he goes out there and plays what he wants, takes a few requests here and there, but generally just puts on the show he wants to put on and you can tell he really enjoys what he does. He’s not the best guitarist alive and his voice cracks sometimes and he flat out said he hates wearing the harmonica around his neck, so he scrapped it after the first song, but that’s Dustin Kensrue; I wouldn’t expect anything else. Some other notable cover songs were “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen and “Hospital Beds” by The Cold War Kids, a song my wife recognized as a song Florence + The Machine also covered, though their renditions could not be more different. He ended his set with a brand new song (unfortunately not a cover of a Brand New song), called “Of Crows and Crowns” a beautiful song he penned for his wife and finished just in time to play for her birthday. Enjoy his take on the Kevin Devine/Manchester Orchestra song “Mesa, AZ.”

Songs that make me think.

Posted: December 8, 2010 by Kevin Collier in List, Music Video
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Kevin Devine – Another Bag of Bones

Smile Empty Soul – This is War

Dustin Kensrue – Cold Cash and Colder Hearts (Acoustic)

Emery – Listening to Freddie Mercury (Acoustic)