DeVotchKa

Summerfest 2012

Contest: Win eight general-admission tickets to Summerfest 2012

Now on its 45th go-round, Milwaukee’s massive Summerfest returns from June 27 to July 8, offering 11 days of high-profile and independent musicians performing around the 75-acre Henry Maier Festival Park along Lake Michigan. This year, our favorite performers include The Hives, Foo Fighters, Ben Folds Five, Devotchka, The Promise Ring, Galactic, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Atmosphere, The Roots, Common, Thievery Corporation, Mayer Hawthorne, and Lupe Fiasco.

50 Unheralded Albums from 2011

50 Unheralded Albums from 2011

In just one more trip around the sun, another swarm of immensely talented but under-recognized musicians has harnessed its collective talents and discharged its creations into the void. This list is but one fraction of those dedicated individuals who caught our ears with some serious jams.

DeVotchKa

DeVotchKa: Gypsy-Fusion Quartet Hits the Big Time

Achieving public familiarity through featured songs in Little Miss Sunshine, DeVotchKa has worked hard to make a name for itself. Its Gypsy-influenced sound employs a wide variety of styles and instrumentation, celebrating a genre that has been around for hundreds of years.

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Concert Photos: DeVotchKa @ House of Blues (Chicago, IL)

Last fall, when experimental Balkan-pop quartet DeVotchKa played a show in Chicago, it was at Lincoln Hall in support of its 2008 release, A Mad and Faithful Telling. Since then, the band has released a new album, 100 Lovers (Anti-, 3/1/11), and embarked on a new tour, this time playing with Nashville seven-piece Kopecky Family Band in support. Photographer Wallo Villacorta caught the multi-instrumentalists at a recent stop at House of Blues in Chicago.

DeVotchKa

DeVotchKa

DeVotchKa: New Direction from Rejection

Led by songwriter Nick Urata, DeVotchKa takes its wildly inventive Balkan pop in new directions on 100 Lovers — an album born of filmic discards and endless tinkering.

100 Unheralded Albums from 2010

Among the thousands of under-appreciated or under-publicized albums that were released in 2010, hundreds became our favorites and were presented in ALARM and on AlarmPress.com. Of those, we pared down to 100 outstanding releases, leaving no genre unexplored in our list of this year’s overlooked gems.

Joanna Wecht: The Drive-by Truckers concert poster

Posters & Packaging: Joanna Wecht’s New Feminism

In an art field dominated primarily by men, Joanna Wecht’s work stands out not just because it is eye-catching and full of wit, but also because it has a gender. Wecht exclusively integrates both women and the concept of femininity into her alluring designs.
 

Joanna Wecht: DeVotchKa concert poster
Joanna Wecht: DeVotchKa concert poster

DeVotchKa

Concert Photos: DeVotchKa @ Lincoln Hall

The indefatigable DeVotchKa, with its distinctive brand of Eastern European and Southwestern pop music, rolled through Chicago recently, playing a show at Lincoln Hall. The long-independent, critical foursome — Nick Urata, Tom Hagerman, Jeanie Schroder, and Shawn King — was supported by Angus & Julia Stone and Scotland Yard Gospel Choir. The band’s most recent album, A Mad & Faithful Telling, was released on March 18, 2008 on Anti-.

DeVotchKa