Music Hall of Williamsburg upcoming shows
Kevin Devine
Miniature Tigers / Brian Bonz
- Venue:
-
Music Hall of Williamsburg
- Date:
- Sun 6/07
- Notes:
- 16+
- Doors: 6:30 PM / Show: 7:30 PM
- $13 advance / $15 day of show
- Kevin Devine
- official website
- myspace
- With a musical repertoire that spans the spectrum from hushed finger-picked narratives to bombastic rockers, Kevin Devine is one of those rare talents who straddles a multitude of genres and feels equally at home in each. Whether he’s playing solo to hundreds of his devotees in a cramped NYC club, joining friends on stage at Lollapalooza or touring with artists varying from Rachel Yamagata to Brand New, Devine’s songs enrapture a diverse set of ears like few musicians.
Born and raised in New York and currently dwelling in Brooklyn, Devine is a singer/songwriter who has been quietly honing his craft since the release of his first album in 2002. He’s since been adding idiosyncratic chapters to his unique success story by building his diehard international fanbase with incessant touring and a series of compelling releases that highlight his introspective lyrical wordplay, each displaying an impressive musical evolution.
Brother's Blood, his fifth record and first with Manchester Orchestra's Favorite Gentlemen record label, is the most resounding evidence of that ethic and maturation - a sprawling, confident mission statement about conscience, culture, and personality.
Brother's Blood is a response to the three years Devine spent touring relentlessly behind his major label debut, the Rob Schnapf-produced Put Your Ghost To Rest, initially released by Capitol/EMI in 2006 and later re-issued by Brand New's Procrastinate! Music Traitors following Devine's dismissal from Capitol during its bloody merger with Virgin. True to Devine’s character, he turned a potentially grisly outcome inside out and instead exited the label with a healthier and more thriving career than when he went in.
Devine accomplished this feat the old fashioned way: playing close to 600 shows between June 2006 and December 2008, further broadening his appeal and versatility, and doing it all without the centralized support from a label.
These shows offered him opportunities to share stages (and vans) with artists as diverse as AA Bondy, Annuals, Manchester Orchestra, Elf Power, Rachel Yamagata, Lucero and Corinne Bailey Rae. He appeared at The Sundance Film Festival alongside She & Him and Mandy Moore and at Austin City Limits with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Andrew Bird. He traversed the globe at a feverish pace: the UK with All-American Rejects, Australia with The Offspring, England and Ireland, Europe and Japan, and of course, the States. Back home, he triumphantly oversold two headline gigs at New York's Bowery Ballroom and was asked to join two very different groups of friends, Brand New AND Okkervil River, on their respective stages at Lollapalooza 2008.
Somewhere in all that motion, Devine managed to whip 15 or so songs into shape and started visualizing what would become Brother's Blood. He recorded barebones acoustic versions of the tracks in early '08 and eventually rehearsed and demoed those with his erstwhile Goddamn Band (Brian Bonz on keys & percussion, Chris Bracco on bass, Mike Skinner on drums, Russell Smith on guitar, and Mike Strandberg on guitar) in their Brooklyn practice space all summer.
Carving away at and layering ideas with producers Bracco & Skinner and engineer Dan Long, the band bunkered down in Williamsburg's Headgear Studios (TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Au Revoir Simone, Son Volt) for the first two weeks of August. Devine consciously ceded more control of arrangement to his players, hoping to affect a more live, full-band feel for the first time on record.
The results speak for themselves. Brother's Blood is both the next step and a break in form; it reflects the diverse talents and contributions of The Goddamn Band as much as it speaks to the scope of Devine's influences and commitment to exploring new stylistic territory. Lead single "I Could Be With Anyone" is a charging and hook-heavy pop song equally indebted to The Cars and Superchunk; "Another Bag Of Bones" (initially released as a Rob Schnapf-produced acoustic single around the ramp-up to the election) pins its dystopian and restless vision of a civilization in freefall to a dark and explosive groove before finding release in a choir's hopeful strain. Meanwhile, the title track is a massive and dynamic homage to the epic guitar freakouts of Neil Young and Built To Spill and the hypnotic and ominous "Carnival" sets the tone its with spacious, swirling flares of psychedelia – a dynamic exploration of tension and release which plays against a nightmarish hallucination about lost willpower and the fear of finally waking up to a reality that's even crazier than your dreams.
But far from being one of Devine’s rockingest recordings to date, many of Brother's Blood’s finest moments are its quietest. Opener "All Of Everything, Erased" lays a bed of nimble and rhythmic finger-picking for its vivid description of a world left with no recourse but to cleanse itself of humanity and start over. "Fever Moon" is a sultry, Latin-influenced meditation on lust and its consequences that wouldn't seem out of place on a 1970s Leonard Cohen album, while "Murphy's Song" features a dazzling vocal turn from Jaymay that adds some jazz-era sensuality to the song's trumpet and piano-sprinkled Carribean lilt. On "Tomorrow's Just Too Late," Devine and Brand New's Jesse Lacey deliver a delicate and weaving full-song harmony that would make Simon & Garfunkel proud.
Whether he’s joined in a duet, backed by his Goddamn Band, or singing quiet ruminations into his microphone alone with just his acoustic guitar, Devine deftly illustrates his unique versatility and breadth with each note. Brother’s Blood not only serves as a reminder of this but as the next step in his exciting evolution.
- Miniature Tigers
- official website
- myspace
- A few years back, taking refuge from the deadly rays of the Arizona sun, young Charlie Brand discovered he had a knack for writing songs. Wondrous melodies ricocheted around his bedroom, destroying textbooks and posters, practically bursting through the walls. Songs too big to be contained. And too dangerous. Songs with the potential to cripple civilizations.
How to channel such savage power? How to use it for good? Charlie's path seemed clear.
He left home and set out on a journey to bring this music to the world, eventually finding himself in the wilds of Los Angeles. He had little more than a hobo sack to his name, the songs in his head and a name: Miniature Tigers. Now if only he had bandmates.
Yes, in due time he did find them. The necessary individuals appeared to Charlie in the form of gleeful wildman drummer Rick Alvin Shaier and the mysterious, yet affable, Eli Brandom.
Lineup complete, Miniature Tigers combine influences ranging from The Beatles to The Beach Boys, from "Pinkerton" to Indiana Jones, creating infectious, pitch perfect indie-pop that boldly wears its heart on its sleeve. In the world of Miniature Tigers, songs of unrequited love and relationship anxiety are transformed with animal metaphors and translated into gripping adventure narratives populated by vikings, swashbucklers, gunfighters, cannibals, undersea creatures, and dinosaurs.
- Brian Bonz
- official website
- myspace
- It all began in Sunset Park. A diverse neighborhood with a breathtaking view of the Manhattan skyline, the hilly Brooklyn neighborhood was home to talented musician Brian Bonz. As the city around him went through multiple incarnations, Bonz began writing and recording songs with his older brothers equipment, and eventually booking his own shows, all while still in high school. The first record of seven songs, Sunday Theory (2003), was self-released and was followed shortly by SUSAN THE BOYSCOUT EP (2004, Electric Frog).
A solo-acoustic project that evolved to include an eclectic group of people, Brian Bonz and The Dot Hongs has been recognized as the best of Brooklyn's experimental rock scene (KEXP) creating wistful, intensely precious indie pop (Time Out). Drawing influence from a far-reaching variety of genres and musicians including Sam Cooke, Bjork and Broken Social Scene, the group embodies an indie-rock persona without becoming bound by it.
In 2007, Bonz began writing new songs that would become FROM SUMI TO JAPAN. By that summer the band had begun recording at Seaside Lounge in Sunset Park, accompanied a newly solidified lineup as well as session musicians who played with TV on the Radio, Arcade Fire and Tom Waits. With friend Chris Bracco (Kevin Devine) at the helm, mixing continued at his Buckingham-Nicks studio, allowing the group a brief refuge and change of scenery. The unusual opportunity to explore allowed FSTJ to evolve fully, and gave the group a chance to transform its songwriting both structurally and sonically.
Filled with stories of distance and escape, the new release is a musical journal, an ode to the surreal value of youth. While some might think that growing up in the city affords anonymity, eventually you begin to run into the same people when you pay to get onto the train. What the record really means is outgrowing certain things, friendships and relationships. It's about traveling and adventure and being apart from what you grew up in and seeing things from a different perspective.
Each song is a narrative. Whether the story is about bringing your girlfriend home to meet the parents, traveling with a married couple, or watching kids arrive at your house late at night to fight, these are the true tales of Bonz's Brooklyn. In reality, these are the chronicles of an American life.
Beyond singer/songwriter acoustics, FSTJ's variety of sound becomes the albums standout asset; by incorporating brass sections and the unique hammered dulcimer, Bonz's sparkling pop becomes draped in a colorful, melodic atmosphere. Tracks like Judy and The Alpha Queen and Dee The Dinosaur layer guitars over Bonz's mystical vocals to create the bands own brand of enchanting pop, while Christa McCauliffes Cacophony (Reprise)” and Goodnight, Captain Revelstoke showcase the underlying experimental nature of the record.
Brian Bonz and The Dot Hongs have played with a number of acts including Kevin Devine, Do Make Say Think, Apostle Of Hustle, Pronto, Ramona Falls, Jesse Lacey (Brand New), Travis Morrison (Dismemberment Plan), Owen, Person L, Straylight Run, Roger Miller (Mission of Burma), Joan of Arc, and more. They are currently writing there second release due out Summer/Fall of 2010.
Past recordings done by Kevin McMahon (The Walkmen, French Kicks) and James Flames.
OTHER UPCOMING SHOWS FROM THE BOWERY PRESENTS
© 2010
