Hey there,

I write from my 'office' in my apartment, overlooking a moderate February Brooklyn afternoon, enjoying a moment of relative calm in what's been a pretty tumultuous couple weeks.

I need to thank everyone that's made the KD/Jennifer O'Connor/Koufax/Pablo tour such fun, promoters and fans alike. It's been eye-opening...even when crowds were relatively spare, the vibe was right on, and people were passionate and committed. It's kind of a trip to me that with my limited tour experience here in the States prior to this record we can roll into Grand Rapids, MI on a sub-zero January weeknight and play to a group of 50 or so folks who are familiar with and fervent about these songs.

It's also a headfuck to sell out the Knitting Factory here in New York - the first club I ever went to in the city, in 1995 or 1996 to see Jeremy Enigk play...very powerful for a 15 year old kid and Saturday night was one of those totally surreal, cold water pinch yourself moments. At the risk of sounding totally ridiculous, it was kind of a milestone, so thank you.

And I couldn't have been happier than to share the stage for the past two weeks with Koufax, some of the smartest, coolest, most fun guys you could ever ask to be on tour with. Good friends, freedom fighters, intellectual boundary pushers, and trouble makers for sure...http://www.koufaxmusic.com. They will be missed.

On that note, here are the last four dates of the run - advance tickets are available for all the shows. All shows with JENNIFER O'CONNOR and PABLO. We'd love to see you, so come on down:

Feb 21 2007 7:30P @ First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA
Feb 22 2007 9:00P @ Great Scott, Allston, MA*
Feb 23 2007 7:00P @ Pearl Street (Clubroom), Northampton, MA^
Feb 24 2007 7:00P @ The Space, Hamden, CT^

* - with CHOO CHOO LAROUGE
^ - with AEROPLANE, 1929

I was recently dropped by Capitol Records as part of the collateral damage swirling around the Virgin/Capitol merger. I was not surprised, as you need to be acutely aware of sharks when you decide to swim that far out in the ocean, and had been expecting this strange and fun experiment to end almost from the day I signed the dotted line. People like me aren't really supposed to flourish in environments like that, but it was worth a shot, and I definitely gained and learned much more than I lost over the course of my time with the label, and would like to thank the people I worked with there for treating me well and making my transition a surprisingly smooth and rewarding one, both at the outset and ultimately at the end.

I hold no ill will and harbor no grudge against Capitol Records; I'm thankful I had the opportunity to make a record I love with a producer I've long respected and admired in studios I'd read about but never expected to track in. I'm thankful for the initial faith and realize the 'they' that brought me in and worked closely with me for the past year and a half were largely turned over, and so not the same 'they' that ushered me out.

I also see nothing but naivety and futility in being personally offended by business decisions that I see as symptomatic of not only an industrial but a global systemic illness: profit over people. It's a board meeting, about stock options and the bottom line, not a humanitarian awards dinner or a gallery opening. That's not exactly, or rather only, the fault of Capitol Records, or Virgin, or EMI; it's the rules we exist by in a system that encourages accumulation and high profit margins over, er, human dignity. I'm lucky to be in a line of 'work' from which I can relatively easily rebound and keep moving; I worry for some of the people I worked with at the label and, more broadly, for normal working people not in a glamorous field like rock n' roll marketing who have to figure out how to maintain a living wage in a minefield of layoffs and cutbacks and outsourcing and all other manner of shorthand for sitting handcuffed while your options get dwindled against your will so some dickhead blueblood can walk away with your benefits and pension plan folded into his healthy severance package. No wonder we're all so anxious all the fucking time.

As for me: I've sold 3,000 records in 4 months, roughly, with very little help, and nothing at all in terms of a proper 'label push.' I've gotten to tour consistently since June 2006 with a wide assortment of cool and interesting musicians across a broad range of genres and approaches. I've gotten some slight financial security (for the time being) and I got to pay my friends to come out and play and record, for the first time ever. The press has been kind, college radio has been kind, promoters have been kind, and the amazing and dedicated fans I'm lucky to have pre-date my flirting with the bright lights anyway, and I know they'll be around whether I put my records out myself or choose short-term selective amnesia and sign with J Records tomorrow (omg jk).

That's hugely successful to me; the most successful I've been to date, and I plan on continuing to work my ass off and tour and play these songs for as many people as are willing to hear them. So that's that. More to come as it develops, but for now, I'd rely on getting out to a show or iTunes and amazon.com if you want to order a record, because I don't think you're going to find them in a store.

And on that front, I am stupid amped to remind y'all that following a short break, I will be hitting the road again with The Goddamn Band in support of BRAND NEW, alongside MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA. Here are the dates again - we'll be selling a limited edition tour only EP on this run, so come out and get hip to it:

Mar 15 2007 @ Town Ballroom, Buffalo, New York
Mar 16 2007 @ Newport Music Hall, Columbus, Ohio
Mar 17 2007 @ Royal Oak, Royal Oak, Michigan
Mar 18 2007 @ House of Blues Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio
Mar 20 2007 @ House of Blues Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Mar 21 2007 @ The Vic Theatre, Chicago, Illinois
Mar 22 2007 @ First Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mar 23 2007 @ The Rave, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mar 24 2007 @ The Beaumont Club, Kansas City, Missouri
Mar 25 2007 @ Ogden Theatre, Denver, Colorado
Mar 27 2007 @ In The Venue, Salt Lake City, Utah
Mar 29 2007 @ The Fenix, Seattle, Washington
Mar 30 2007 @ Roseland, Portland, Oregon
Mar 31 2007 @ Warfield, San Francisco, California
Apr 3 2007 @ Avalon Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Apr 4 2007 @ Avalon Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Apr 5 2007 @ House of Blues Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada
Apr 6 2007 @ SOMA, San Diego, California
Apr 7 2007 @ Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Arizona
Apr 9 2007 @ Ridglea Theatre, Fort Worth, Texas
Apr 10 2007 @ Stubb's, Austin, Texas
Apr 11 2007 @ Warehouse Live, Houston, Texas
Apr 12 2007 @ House of Blues New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana
Apr 13 2007 @ House of Blues Orlando, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Apr 14 2007 @ Revolution, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Apr 16 2007 @ Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, Florida
Apr 17 2007 @ Center Stage, Atlanta, Georgia
Apr 18 2007 @ Center Stage, Atlanta, Georgia
Apr 19 2007 @ House of Blues Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Apr 20 2007 @ The NorVa, Norfolk, Virginia
Apr 21 2007 @ Ram's Head Live, Baltimore, Maryland
Apr 22 2007 @ Irving Plaza, New York, New York
Apr 24 2007 @ Avalon Ballroom, Boston, Massachusetts
Apr 25 2007 @ Electric Factory, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Afterwards, I'll be pond-hopping along with Brand New to play at the 2007 Give It A Name festival in the UK. There are a shitload of bands on these shows; please visit http://www.giveitaname.co.uk/ for more information.

Apr 28 2007 @ London Earl's Court, London, UK
Apr 29 2007 @ Birmingham NIA, Birmingham, UK

Thanks for everything. Really. Take care.

xo
Kevin
http://www.kevindevine.net
'Put Your Ghost To Rest' out NOW via Capitol Records - iTunes & Amazon.com

Current reading: "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris; "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair
Current viewing: "Notes On A Scandal" and, tonight, "Children Of Men"