DeVotchKa went from being Dita von Teese's burlesque backing band to the Billboard-charting, most-popular-gypsy-rock-band-in-America that they are today in large part thanks to the movies. Their songs' inclusion in films like Everything Is Illuminated, I Love You Phillip Morris and most notably Little Miss Sunshine won the Denver quartet massive amounts of exposure.
In keeping with this, DeVotchKa's newest album, this month's 100 Lovers, the follow-up to 2008's swoony and romantic A Mad & Faithful Telling, is intense and moving on a cinematic scale. DeVotchKa's music has always been nothing if not passionate, but on 100 Lovers, they've got a full orchestra backing them (although they're touring just as the original band). In these songs, the bouzouki still strums, the sousaphone still blares and Nick Urata's tenor still ripples and wails. And it's all enhanced and expanded by the swelling strings—gothic grandeur at its boldest and most dramatic.
