As Kevin Devine started work on his sixth solo album, Between the Concrete & Clouds, he decided to make some fundamental changes. The first notable difference was the way he structured his day when he woke up each morning. Having spent most of his time on the road during the last few years, he needed some adjustment when he was stationary, at home in Brooklyn.
 
“As odd as it is, there is a routine to your day as a touring musician, so it’s always jarring when I come home from being on tour,” he says. “So I started to go into our rehearsal space almost like someone going in to his office, from like 2 to 7 o’clock every day. I was coming up with melodies and multi-tracking ideas, and not worrying about lyrics right away.”
 
And this marked the second big change for the New York City-born singer and songwriter. Rather than starting his process with a tight focus on the words, he allowed himself to follow “the things you unconsciously stumble upon—almost like the lyrics are a color more than a narrative.” Not, of course, that it meant any less of a commitment to that element of his writing.
 
“I love words so much,” he says, “that I think I’ve kind of overstuffed my songs sometimes, at the expense of melodic strength or concision. I tend to write songs that are complicated, in terms of the people in them and what they’re going through. So the point this time was to make a record that still dealt with those themes, with what was happening in my head, but to do it in four-minute pop songs.”
 
This focus on musicality and succinctness indicated yet another new direction for Between the Concrete & Clouds. “I grew up listening to Weezer and the Cars as much as to Nirvana and Bob Dylan,” says Devine, “and on tour we were listening to a lot of Kinks and Zombies records.” His recent touring partners Nada Surf helped him reconnect with the power-pop side of his personality, which came straight to the surface in the new batch of songs. (read more here)

 
Kevin Devine – songs, vocals, guitar, bass, piano, percussion
 
The Goddamn Band:
Brian Bonz (keys, vocals, melodica, percussion)
Amy Bracco (keys, vocals, percussion)
Chris Bracco (bass, keys)
Carey Brandenburg (vocals, percussion)
Mike Fadem (drums, percussion)
Ben Homola (drums, percussion)
Harrison Hudson (bass, vocals)
Andy Prince (bass)
Russell Smith (electric guitar, bass)
Mike Strandberg (electric guitar, vocals, bass, mandolin)
Mike Skinner (drums, percussion)
Margaret White (violin, vocals, percussion)
 
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A make-your-own CD recording booth was privy to Rachel Browne’s first recording in 1999, a cover of No Doubt’s “Just a Girl”. It would be another many years before she enrolled at SUNY Purchase, where she majored in music composition and met Andrew Futral, a producer and musician. The two began collaborating musically and in 2010 Field Mouse was officially formed.

If 2014’s ‘Hold Still’ Life was the fruition of Field Mouse’s evolution from a fiery two-piece into a fully-fledged band, then new album Episodic (August 5, Topshelf Records) is the letting go; the abandonment of past persuasions for something altogether more untamed. Where the band’s initial work was self-recorded by founding members Rachel Browne and Andrew Futral, the new record signifies the first time that the quintet has composed an album together from start-to-finish – and the result is a record that feels altogether more defined.

Recorded in Philadelphia with Hop Along’s Joe Reinhart, and written through a twelve month period which delivered sudden family illness and a deteriorating relationship, ‘Episodic’ is fashioned from ten feverish bouts of guitar-pop; led by Browne’s fearsome and fearless vocal and informed by an instrumental backing that underpins the entire record with a vibrant concoction of guitar, drums and keys.

Showcasing the band’s ability to switch between mood and tone, the record shifts from the spiky immediacy of tracks such as “Accessory” and “A Widow with a Terrible Secret”, to the more spacious moments, such as monumental center-piece “Beacon”, without ever losing sight of the scuzzy, melodic pop songs that remain Field Mouse’s distinct forte.

Featuring guest turns from Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz), Allison Crutchfield (Swearin’/Waxahatchee) and Joseph D’Agostino (Cymbals Eat Guitars), Episodic is the sound of a fully-realized band truly coming in to their own; honest, direct and immensely powerful.