DEVOTCHKA

Autores da banda sonora de Uma Família à Beira de um Ataque de Nervos (Little Miss Sunshine), que foi nomeada para os prémios Grammy, os Devotchka são uma banda multi-instrumental e vocal, que funde música romena, grega, eslava, bolero e mariachi com as raízes do folk e do punk americanos. Esta mistura de influências, aliada a uma interpretação virtuosa, emocional e inspirada, transforma os concertos em algo especial.

Baseados em Denver, Colorado, o quarteto é formado por Nick Urata, Tom Hagerman, Jeanie Schroder, que toca "sousafone" (instrumento inventado por um português emigrado nos EUA de seu nome Mr. Sousa) e baixo; e ainda por Shawn King.

A Mad & Faithful Telling, considerado pela imprensa especializada como um dos melhores álbuns World de 2008, é o disco que vem na bagagem do quarteto para esta apresentação no nosso País.

Seguem por estradas à margem das Roots da Folk da América esquecida. Fundem música Romena, Grega, Eslovena, Bolero e Mariachi com "ADN" das bandas emblemáticas do punk.

A sua participação na banda sonora do filme Uma família à beira de um ataque de nervos (Little Miss Sunshine, 2006), valeu-lhes a nomeação para um Grammy Award, pela melhor compilação de banda sonora e é talvez o momento mais alto de uma carreira de sucesso á revelia dos Tops comerciais para uma imensa minoria de fãs espalhados por este e pelo outro lado do Atlântico.

On stage sit a sousaphone, accordion, piano, violin, a bouzouki, an upright bass, percussion, a trumpet, drums, and a theremin.

A woman sets aside an upright bass to pick up a copper tuba adorned with glowing red lights. She left a traveling civil war recreationist band to find a home here.

The drummer stands up behind his kit and lifts a trumpet to his mouth. Raised by Lithuanian polka musicians, he skipped a treatment center in Mexico to right himself in the study of mariachi horns. Here he exorcises demons of a punk past, and dreams ahead to Mexico.

A slight, black-suited man stands beside an accordion waiting to be played. He cradles a violin called ‘Juan Pablo’ (which has graced songs on a Mercury Rev album called All is Dream). In too many cities after too many shows, this beautiful instrument sits unattended, as its owner starts drunken fights with friends and fans alike.

The grandchild of an arranged marriage between a Sicilian and Gypsy, the singer holds an electric guitar in one hand, and with the other draws invisible lines in the air with pinched fingers, manipulating a home-made theremin’s ghostly call. From busking to pay for an infested apartment above the Bucket o’ Suds on Chicago’s Cicero Street a decade ago, to crisscrossing America with three classically trained musicians, he has been developing and refining the sound of DeVotchKa.

As DeVotchKa, these four musicians have quietly become one of the most celebrated bands making music today. A disparate, yet articulate union of Eastern European, Southwestern, South American, and American roots music, both punk and folk. It is music unique enough, performed at virtuosic degree, and teeming with enough intangibles, to rightly be called ‘special.’

Behind four records (SuperMelodrama, 2000, Una Volta 2003, How it ends 2004, Curse Your Little Heart 2006), DeVotchKa began its touring life as a house band for a North American touring Burlesque troupe. Since then, DeVotchKa has traversed the continent with a wide range of like-minded musical peers including Belle & Sebastian, M.Ward, Calexico, 16 Horsepower, Los Lobos, Jim White, and the Dresden Dolls.

The release of How it ends introduced the country to what a burgeoning national audience had been following for four years. A staggeringly good record from far out of left field, How it ends met with nearly universal acclaimed (see attached quotesheet), the exposure turned the band into a growing underground phenomenon. Nationwide sold out shows followed as the band continued to convert with their soaring and beautiful live road show.

The Curse Your Little Heart EP showcases the band’s versatility, reinterpreting tracks by the Velvet Underground, Frank Sinatra, Siousxie and the Banshees, and others, in addition to taking on one of their own older songs. Could the band itself even have predicted what would transpire of the Arcade Fire’s Win Butler’s suggestion to the band that they take on ‘Last Beat of My Heart?’ The end result is the center-piece of the EP, a grand and soaring take on the song; a testament to the band’s true unique ability to transform nearly anything via a sound only DeVotchKa can create, and perhaps a look at the epic nature of where the band’s own recordings may move in the future.

In 2005 DeVotchKa was approached by the award winning music video direction team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris to score their first feature film- a movie at the time without a studio home. The film, Little Miss Sunshine, became a worldwide smash, winning several Academy Awards and a nomination for ‘Best Picture.’ The score- composed primarily of elements drawn from the record ‘How it ends’ -was shortlisted by major industry press for nominations in the best score and best song category. The soundtrack- comprised almost wholly of DeVotchKa songs was nominated for a Grammy Award

DeVotchKa is currently at work on the anticipated follow up to ‘How it ends,’ but will first celebrate the long awaited European release of that record in August of 2007 with a tour in support.