Devotchka

There's a great but untrue story of pre-Clash Joe Strummer going into a bar and spotting Graham Parker. Strummer says he saw the Sex Pistols a week before. Asked what he thought of the band, Strummer replies, "Whole new thing, man."

Related Content

• Here's Allen West Singing "Pretty Woman" in Its Entirety
  February 15, 2012
• Happy Birthday, Johnny Rotten!
  January 31, 2012
• Backstage in South Florida: The Anti-Valentine's Day List With Terry Radigan
  February 10, 2012
• Less You Know: Bad Brains Guitarist Dr. Know Is a Man of Few, Powerful Words
  September 15, 2011
• Brooklyn Rap Clan Ninjasonik to Bump Grand Central
  September 23, 2010

More About

• Joe Strummer
• DeVotchKa
• Graham Parker
• Roy Orbison
• Punk Rock

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Hearing Devotchka provides the same stunned sense of surprise. This Colorado foursome is fronted by a Ukrainian who reportedly escaped from a Mexican rehab facility (he sings in four languages) and features such unique instrumentation as bouzouki, tuba, bowed vides, glockenspiel, and tenor triangle. How It Ends is, of all things, gothic country and Western meets Eastern European. Cuts like "26 Temptations" and "We're Leaving" come across as a beautiful union of Marty Robbins and the Cure sitting around a gypsy campfire. With a voice equal parts Ian McCullough and Roy Orbison, Nick Urata literally wails over this lonely (and lovely) collection of downbeat folk songs. Producer Craig Schumacher worked with other desert dwellers like Giant Sand and Calexico, whom Devotchka slightly resembles but keeps a melodic distance from. Sometimes originality is either brushed off as novelty or discarded as unlistenable, but in the case of How It Ends, it's praise of the highest order.