for the official site of The Devastations click here

The Devastations will release their album in Europe, February 14th on Munster Records.

Live Reviews

Press Photos

Double click the previews to download them (around 1.2 megs each)

 

(Photos: Oliver Shunt, 2003)

 

        

 

 

Cover Art

 

 

 

 

BIO

"I heard this for the first time in Australia. Within five minutes I had tears streaming down my face. It is one of the most emotionally accessible albums. It gives me feelings I can tap into outside of myself because I can’t quite tap into what is going on inside. That for me is most precious."

Karen O. ('Yeah Yeah Yeahs') -  ‘The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Year’. MOJO Magazine. Dec, 2003.

"The Devastations are all about Silence. Holes; big enough and empty enough to fill The Grand Canyon. Silence and how you fill it. And how much you fill it, and what you fill it with, and when? And the answer to the last part of that puzzle is song. And song is where The Devastations come in. Messrs. Standish, Cran and Carlyon are life-long devotees of song. And you can hear it, a whole history of song. They neither sound like the past or this year’s fad. This is timeless, because it is of the heart, and the soul is always timeless.”

Rowland S. Howard. (The Birthday Party) – Beat Magazine (Aust). 2003

 

The Devastations first played in Melbourne, Australia in September 2002. After just 4 gigs they were invited to join UK band, Tindersticks, on their Australian tour, and their reputation further enhanced with support from legendary Birthday Party guitarist, Rowland S. Howard, who was moved to write an insightful and lengthy article on the band in the Australian press, as well as join them from time to time onstage.

As Howard notes in his portrait, The Devastations are followers of the ancient art of song; exploring eternal themes of sorrow, surrender, lust, abandonment and isolation. While lyrics explore excruciating, deeply graved emotions, the musical accompaniment paints a soothing monochrome landscape. Simple and direct.

Critical praise for the band’s eponymous debut album, originally released on Australian indie, Spooky Records, in mid-2003 and the follow-up 7" single 'Loene/Lena', led to further invitations for the band to tour Australia with Dirty Three, Black Heart Procession and Cat Power, and convinced The Devastations it was time to venture overseas.

They landed in Berlin and made their concert debut on September 11^th, 2003 – exactly one year after their first ever gig - as part of Alexander Hacke’s (Einsturzende Neubauten) concert series Bada Bing, at notorious Berlin venue, The Big Eden. Live they are a completely different proposition. What is suggested on disc is delivered – lean and direct, physically intoxicating and vulnerable. We witness something obviously real.

Relentless touring throughout Europe since then - including an extensive tour as opening band once again for Tindersticks - yielded similar results, not to mention a European deal with Munster Records and yet another tour to promote this release in May/June 2004. Critics were quick to praise the album. Rolling Stone (Germany) proclaiming it the best debut release of 2004, while in Mojo (UK), Karen O declared it 'the best thing she'd heard all year'.

Throughout this time The Devastations worked on some interesting side projects. In late 2003 they collaborated again with Alexander Hacke on a score for German film, Sehn Sucht. They also provided the backing tracks for the new album, '76/77', by German electro-punkers, Cobra Killer. And recently, whilst briefly back in Australia, they recorded with Rowland S. Howard as his backing band for an upcoming 7" single release, ‘Autoluminescent/Ocean’.

At the time of writing the band is working on their 2nd album whilst preparing for another tour of Europe and the UK in November and December 2004.

www.thedevastations.com

thedevastations@yahoo.com