Devotchka
A Mad & Faithful Telling (Anti-)The Digital Age has sparked the globalization of indie pop, heard in everything from Beirut and Gogol Bordello to Vampire Weekend and M.I.A. Not since Doug Sahm’s Texas Tornados, however, has an act so uniquely coined its own multicultural currency as Denver’s Devotchka. A Mad & Faithful Telling, the quartet’s Anti- debut and first full-length since producing the Grammy-nominated score to Little Miss Sunshine, unsheathes a musical realm without boundaries, beginning with opener “Basso Profundo,” which blends Eastern European folk with Morricone-style spaghetti Western noir for Cirque du Soleil acrobatics. “Along the Way” introduces mariachi horns and “Head Honcho” dabbles in Germanic polka, both accentuated by guitarist Nick Urata’s quivering Orbison croon. Stunning Spanish bolero “Undone,” instrumental Russian suite “Comrade Z,” and elegantly stringed “The Clockwise Witness” perfectly balance transcendent moments like “Transliterator.” Devotchka’s captured the sound of a new world order. (Thursday, March 13, Cedar Street Courtyard, 12mid; Friday, March 14, Antone’s, 12mid.)
This article appears in March 14 • 2008.