There's a joke in Parks & Recreation that I always really liked - Ann makes a passing comment about Diddy being on Instagram and Mona-Lisa replies "How did I not know Diddy was on Instragram, you jagweeds?" - "Who are you yelling at?" - "The jagweeds"; the intonation on the last line is what really makes it (and doesn't remotely work in written form). A few months ago I found this reissue of Miracle of 86's incredible album Every Famous Last Word and I felt what Mona-Lisa was feeling - how did I not know this had been reissued? Why did no one tell me? Surely I follow all the right Twitter accounts to know about such things? Clearly not.
My introduction to Kevin Devine's music came about from two potentially related events - we saw Kevin supporting Lucero in Le Pub in Newport and at some point, a copy of this album appeared in our kitchen. I don't know which happened first - the Lucero gig was the same night as my work Christmas party and being sober felt like a distant memory at that point; similarly, the four of us were routinely adding cds to the collection in the kitchen - but I'm pretty sure it was a while before I made a connection between Miracle of 86 and Kevin Devine (we also had a copy of Circle Gets the Square, seemingly unrelated and equally vaguely-owned). Damaged Records in town always had copies of this and Circle amongst a collection of very cheap cds that often found their way in raffle prizes at charity gigs so that might be how we ended up with them.
What I do know is that on March 28th 2009 I bought a copy of this album on cd for £2 in Damaged (along with Milloy's excellent More Than a Machine), and already knew I was a big fan of the album; I was pleased to have my own copy. Nearly ten years have now passed and I still play it often; the title track has made it onto countless mixtapes and I play it to anyone who'll listen. In those years, I saw copies of the LP appear on eBay every now and again, but never bought one - they were often in the US (expensive postage) and in poor condition. The prices weren't horrifying though.
Fast-forward to ArcTanGent festival this year and my "jagweeds" moment. We were browsing the records in the Big Scary Monsters distro (a local label who have put out a lot of Kevin's albums over here and been very supportive of his music) and as I got to the back of the second box I saw this record and got very excited. I've browsed their online distro many times and never seen this on there, and had zero idea that it had been reissued. Part of me wondered if it was an original that had somehow been found stored away, but Sarah pointed out the Devinyl logo on the back, Kevin's new label, so I concluded it was a reissue. Either way, I was very happy with my purchase and rushed back to the car to store it away safely for the rest of the weekend.
A few years ago I saw Kevin Devine play an incredible acoustic solo set in Kingston's lovely All Saints' Church. Banquet had started putting on shows there around the time I left London but I was lucky to see a few shows there (the Survival Tour just before I left, the La Dispute show that ended up on the Tiny Dots LP and Kevin Devine). It's an incredible venue and shows there work really well. I travelled from Oxford for the Kevin Devine show because I knew it would be a special show. Anyway, at some point during the show he asked if there were any requests and the words "Every Famous Last Words" came out of my mouth before I even realised. He obliged and it was incredible. I'd seen him play it once before (in Birmingham supporting Cursive) but this time was perfect - the echo of the church adding so much as he screamed out the chorus. Between that and Brother's Blood I could have left happy.
There are other great moments throughout the album too - Southern States is a highlight, Knife has a great lead-up to the chorus and the duo of Nice Shirt, Salvador Dali and Keep on Charging the Enemy provide some great late-album energy. I love this album. I think in the right circles there are plenty of other people who love it too, but I also think that there are huge swathes of people who have never heard of the band, let alone heard the album and it's been a mission of the last ten years - and many years to come - to educate people otherwise. Progress is slow, but I'll get there.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £15 new
Bought: ArcTanGent festival
When: 17/08/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
