Y'all are sleeping on Devin Davis

Note to self: Must buy this record now.

He guest-blogged at Said the Gramophone last week: Bonzo Dog Band, National Lampoon, Plunderphonics and Chuck Berry.

what happened to this guy?

Here's what he told me on 1/5/11:

hey there Mike,
thanks so much for writing, I'm very very sorry it took me so long to reply. was out of town (at the folks' house) for the holidays, and they kind of have this knack for just hanging around when i'm trying to write emails and what not.. ha. anyway, well, i can attest to the truth of your statement "i know making records these days is maximum effort for minimal reward".. but, at this point, the only "reward" i seek is just to get these new songs (dozens or so) that have been in my head SO LONG.. out of my head.

i've been working on stuff on and off (off when i was moving my studio around town.. ugh) for what seems like ages.
i'm pretty bummed, honestly, that it is taking me so long..
but i have this idea in my head of what i want to do.. and until its done.. i guess i'll keep working on it.

anyway,
thanks again for writing, it really does mean a lot to hear from people still curious about what i'm up to after such a long time.

i hope you're doing well,
hopefully i'll have some new tunes for you here very soon.

best regards,
-Devin

hm. that's a long time ago.

Lonely People is a great record, but I gave up on hearing anything from him a long time ago. He makes The Wrens look like Ty Segall.

is he gonna be the next Rodriguez, Gary Wilson, Death, etc?

Those records were unprecedented in some way. Lonely People is just a good record that didn't find its audience.

it's a shame it didn't find an audience, because a lot of stylistic elements that make this album unique seem to have gotten bigger in the years after its release.

in addition, i'm only listening to this album again after ages, and i'm noticing how wonderfully produced it is. the production is very warm and organic, with a nice fullness to it. there's no harshness or production trickery in any of it; even the drums sounds really... round (the only word I can use to describe them). This warm, organic sound of sort of reminds me of the Microphones a bit in terms of the sonic characteristics, though the music is not very similar.

So what are your favorites? 'Iron Woman', 'Giant Spiders', and 'Turtle and the Flightless Birds' are the standouts for me. All brilliant!

so true. it's a great, forgotten record. love "Iron Woman", "Giant Spiders", "Canons at the Courthouse"... Drums are insane.

Iron Woman is so great, maybe one of my favorite songs of the previous decade. I could see why he might have trouble surpassing that. It's what you want an anthem to sound like. And yeah this is a really nice sounding record. Closest thing to this is maybe the New Pornographers I guess.

Yeah, I never get tired of this song. Could put it on repeat 100 times.

http://youtu.be/M2XzReC2YWQ

i keep thinking i should make a documentary about this guy. it has all the elements needed for a compelling narrative.

his Twitter an odd mix of "inspiring because he seems to not care one bit about what others think" and "funny because he keeps saying things like 'yeah, maybe i should record songs / press 10th ann'y vinyl / do something'" and "sad for the same reasons as it's funny" ... i dunno. ultimately it's his life.

https://twitter.com/SirDevinDavis/with_replies

also the song he references here is so gorgeous: https://twitter.com/SirDevinDavis/status/575393564667990018

thanks for the tip on that other song. I was not aware of it at all! It can be heard here, for anyone interested.

https://killrockstars.bandcamp.com/album/the-sound-the-hare-heard