{"id":3198,"date":"2011-08-09T01:56:59","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T08:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3198"},"modified":"2011-08-09T01:56:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T08:56:59","slug":"bad-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/bad-books\/","title":{"rendered":"BAD BOOKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BAD<\/h1>\n

BAD BOOKS<\/h1>\n

Indie rockers Kevin Devine and Andy Hull join forces and get a little freaky<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Asked to describe Bad Books, the new joint side project between indie troubadour Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra frontman Andy Hull, the twosome will point to one song in particular on their self-titled debut. The grungy \u201cBaby Shoes\u201d was inspired by a six-word short story often (and probably wrongly) attributed to Ernest Hemingway: \u201cFor sale: baby\u00a0shoes. Never worn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hull filled out that scenario with a song about a couple that loses a young daughter, asks Satan to bring her back, then faces the consequences: a demonic child bent on murdering her parents. Hull jokes he wrote the exceedingly dark song \u201cbecause I\u2019m a freak. I wanted to write something wacky, and I wanted it to have this Pixies vibe, like slow-burning acoustic guitar with\u00a0weird electric stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hull and Devine each wrote five songs for the album, and helped to shape and color one another\u2019s compositions along with members of Hull\u2019s Atlanta-based Manchester Orchestra. \u201cOne thing that impresses me a lot about Andy is his melodic capability,\u201d Devine says. \u201cHe\u2019s strong with harmony and a strong singer, and can really build out some impressive stuff around the structure of a song.\u201d For his part, Devine took the opportunity to lay back and focus on his guitar work. \u201cPutting on my [Pixies guitarist] Joey Santiago hat is something I love being able to do,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you don\u2019t always get to do it live, when you\u2019re focused on being in front and singing your own material. Sometimes it\u2019s tough to be the frontman and the sideman at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its gnarly centerpiece song aside, Bad Books<\/em> actually makes for quite pleasant listening. Devine\u2019s \u201cThe Easy Mark and the Old Maid\u201d is a gentle pop ballad, while his \u201cYou Wouldn\u2019t Have to Ask\u201d is a Weezer-style rock song penned in 10 minutes. Devine says that he doesn\u2019t generally work so quickly, but that spontaneity is crucial to the chemistry of Bad Books. Now Devine and Hull are laying plans to continue pushing one another in new directions for at least a couple more albums together. (Never fear, fans of Manchester Orchestra and Devine\u2019s solo work\u2014each has a new individual album on the way in the coming months.) \u201cIt\u2019s great to have another outlet for songs and collaborating,\u201d Hull says. \u201cThere\u2019s a cool element of trusting people and letting go and letting them do whatever they\u2019re going to do, just because they\u2019re talented and you have a similar vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Kenneth Partridge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAD BOOKS Indie rockers Kevin Devine and Andy Hull join forces and get a little freaky Asked to describe Bad Books, the new joint side project between indie troubadour Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra frontman Andy Hull, the twosome will point to one song in particular on their self-titled debut. The grungy \u201cBaby Shoes\u201d was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2327,1175,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3200,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions\/3200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}