On Saturday I saw Cursive and Kevin Devine in Birmingham and both were awesome, so I thought I'd write about some of their records. This is my only Kevin Devine vinyl (so far) and only an EP, but with a title-track so strong it carries the whole thing.
Apparently the first time I saw Kevin Devine was supporting Lucero in Le Pub in Newport, however it had been my work's Christmas do that afternoon and unfortunately I really have no recollection of either band (some bits of Lucero came back to me the next time I saw them). Everyone told me it was very good though. In a separate event, Damaged in Cardiff had copies of Every Famous Last Word by Kevin's old band The Miracle of 86 on cd for £2. Hugh bought a copy and we played it loads in the kitchen and thought it was great. I eventually picked up another £2 copy from there and it's one of my favourite albums (funny story: Hugh regretfully ended up selling his copy when he ran out of cash, which then went into the hands of another friend, who sold it back to me when he was broke which I then gave back to Hugh as a birthday present).
Sometime later I moved to London and found Kevin's most recent (at the time) solo album Brother's Blood in a second hand shop in Soho. Bought it, enjoyed it greatly (especially the title-track), and went with some friends to see him at The Borderline, which was very good indeed. In a final, unrelated event I won some prizes from Big Scary Monsters in the Banquet Records advent calendar a year later, including their endlessly packed (and 3D!) Partied Hard cd. On there I heard She Stayed As Steam and remember thinking it was too great to be an obscure b-side. Luckily I wasn't the only one as this EP got printed.
It's a nice little package: two new songs, two remixes and two live songs, coloured vinyl, limited to 750 copies and a download code. As I said, the title-track is a truly great song; a perfect build up and gang vocals (I have a lot of time for gang vovals). Big Bad Man is pretty good too. I really don't get the point of rock remixes usually. It's a rare event when I think they add much to the song (I have a Snapcase remix that is unlistenable). These two are ok, Another Bag of Bones fares better. The live Leonard Cohen cover is particularly nice. This record wouldn't be at the top of anyone's list of Kevin Devine albums to recommend, but it is a very nice one.
Anyway, the show on Saturday was really good (if a little empty) and it was nice to see Kevin Devine solo after the full-band tour earlier in the year (which I enjoyed a lot too). The highlight was undoubtedly the acoustic rendition of Every Famous Last Word though. It's my favourite on the Mo86 album and I'd never seen him play it before. Sent a chill down my spine.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 6
Cost: £12.50 new
Bought: Big Scary Monsters website
When: 03/05/12
Colour: Clear
Etching: none
mp3s: download
