ARTiST : Kevin Devine
ALBUM : Split The Country, Split The Street
LABEL : Triple Crown Records
GENRE : Indie
ENCODER : Lame 3.90 / APS
QUALiTY : VBRkbps / 44.1kHz / Joint-Stereo
RELEASE : Oct-14-2005
STREET : 000-00-0000
SOURCE : CDDA
TYPE : Album
PLAYTIME : 47:33 min
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+ TRACK LiSTiNG +
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[#] [Track Name] [Time]
01. Cotton Crush 03:31
02. Afterparty 03:49
03. No Time Flat 04:19
04. Keep Ringing Your Bell 03:10
05. No One Else's Problem 02:40
06. Buried By The Buzz 03:39
07. Haircut 03:29
08. Probably 03:59
09. Alabama Acres 04:36
10. Yr Damned Ol' Dad 02:35
11. The Shift Change Splits The Stree 03:36
12. You Are The Daybreak 02:34
13. Lord, I Know We Don't Talk 05:36
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+ RELEASE iNFORMATiON +
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so yeah, this has been out for a few months. I'm shocked no
one did this earlier... anyways, proper notes... EdN's
"advance" of this was nuked for no preset. so here you guys
are, the retail version of Kevin Devine's "Split The Country,
Split The Street" in alt-PRESET standard...
enjoy!
more information:
Kevin Devine has had a hell of a year.
The 25-year-old Brooklynite played some 300 shows supporting
everyone from Bright Eyes and Nellie McKaye to Bob Mould and
Cassandra Wilson. His flair for grafting deft wordplay to
clever melodies began to earn him some acclaim for "Make the
Clocks Move," his first release on Brooklyn's Triple Crown
Records. He watched horrified while his country had to choose
between two pro-war, pro-corporate presidential candidates and
inevitably managed to pick the 'wrong' one anyway. Most
devastatingly, the prolific young songwriter spent the year
piecing his life back together after suddenly losing his
father to a fatal stroke while touring in Germany.
Kevin's response to this all this tumult was to bunker down
and turn his experiences into his most compelling and
far-reaching work to date: "Split The Country, Split The
Street," his third and best solo album.
A thoughtful, friendly indie rocker with a shock of orange
hair and headful of good words, Devine has already been pegged
by some as an acolyte of Elliott Smith, and his new record
might start you thinking that this is going to basically be
what you expected: a collection of mid-fi folk songs. That'd
be before the huge drums, wall of guitars, and wailing vocals
of "Cotton Crush" deliver one of the biggest explosions you'll
hear this year. Fans of Kevin's prior band Miracle of 86 will
be glad to find him stretching out his powerful, distinctive
voice and getting back to blowing out the PA in the process.
Devine is equally at home strumming an acoustic guitar or
cranking through an amplifier; his words set the songs apart.
Like most songwriters, Devine has a fair fascination with the
themes of love and death. What is remarkable about "Split The
Country, Split The Street" is how he examines the latter topic
from two utterly distinct perspectives, both musically and
lyrically. If "Alabama Acres" makes you want to cry to
yourself alone at home, "Yr Damned Ol' Dad" is the soundtrack
for a night at a whiskey bar with some good friends and a ton
of blow. "I don't wanna think about the world right now/I
wanna go from bar to bar and wash the taste clean out," the
singer intones. "I wanna feel the way I felt when we were kids
messin' around/before I thought about the world like I do
now."
Another more fully developed wrinkle in the songwriting this
time around is Devine's embrace of social protest. The
bounciest, hookiest song on the record, "No Time Flat",
employs a breezy summer bop to question the efficiency of the
American electoral process, challenge government-sponsored and
private corporate contractors in Iraq to pull out, and forward
the notion that true support of the troops involves bringing
them all back home. Album closer "Lord, I Know We Don't Talk"
continues the folk tradition of calling out leaders who invoke
religion to justify repressive and violent agendas in the name
of a higher power.
Devine wrote that song in a New Orleans motel, and sharpened
his arrangements for most of this material while on the road,
performing solo and with The Goddamn Band. The album's more
dynamic moments are driven by Miracle of 86 drummer Mike
Skinner and guitarist/bassist Chris Bracco, who produced the
past two albums, pianist Amy Bracco, violinist Margaret White
(Cat Power/Belle and Sebastian/Sparklehorse), guitarist
Russell Smith, singer Carey Brandenburg, guitarist Mike
Robertson (also from Miracle), percussionist Kevin
Kolankowski, and a guest appearance by Brand New vocalist
Jessie Lacey.
If "Split the Country, Split the Street" doesn't exactly erase
the tough parts of the past year, it does turn those hardships
in something that was worth fighting for. It's the record
Kevin's supporters have been waiting for, and the one that'll
get the others off the fence.