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Written by Aaron Brummet Sunday, 19 November 2006 08:49

On tour through December 18

at Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room, St. Louis
8 p.m. | 21+ |  INFO: 314-534-1111 | TICKETS: http://www.blueberryhill.com

“Buzz” can be quite misleading. Record labels have departments devoted to it, public relations companies create it for a living, bloggers artificially inflate it, careers often live and die by it. After a while, you learn to tune out buzz like static on the radio. Every so often buzz comes too late. In the case of DeVotchKa, the buzz didn’t hit until the soundtrack of a successful film was based around a single epic song, 50,000 sold albums into their career. Acclaimed film Little Miss Sunshine did not make the band famous, but it has triggered a continuing rush toward the unsigned eclecticism of DeVotchKa.

The band absorbs influences, distorts expectation, and revels in its own strange world, whether on originals from How It Ends or their fantastic covers record Curse Your Little Heart. On the latter, they range from Sinatra to the Velvet Underground and back, never sounding like anything but themselves. And maybe Morrissey now and then. Live, they pile more instruments on stage than a Junior High Orchestra’s year-end yard sale. Luckily, they play them more like Calexico covering the Smiths. If that sounds as interesting to you as it is does me, you shouldn’t miss seeing the spectacle in person. | Aaron Brummet

On tour through December 18: 11/29: Omaha, NE | Sokol Underground; 11/30: Minneapolis, MN | First Avenue; 12/1: Madison, WI | Annex; 12/2: Chicago, IL | Logan Square Auditorium; 12/3: St. Louis, MO | Blueberry Hill; 12/4: Lawrence, KS | Bottleneck; 12/6: Park City, UT | Suede; 12/7: Boise, ID | Neurolux; 12/8: Portland, OR | Berbati's Pan; 12/9: Bellingham, WA | The Nightlight; 12/10: Seattle, WA | Showbox; 12/13: Eugene, OR | Wow Hall; 12/15: San Francisco, CA | the Fillmore; 12/16: Los Angeles, CA | Avalon; 12/17: Solana Beach, CA | Belly Up Tavern; 12/18: Tucson, AZ | Plush