Donovan, Mike

Donovan, Mike

Exurbian Quonset

Drag City

***From sunshiney, smog-filled streets to an avian-strewn state of ur-nature, MIKE DONOVAN’s seen his share of the world, making records and playing shows all over the past 20 years with, chronologically, THE ROPERS, YIKES, THE HOSPITALS, SIC ALPS, TY SEGALL, THE PEACERS and most recently, himself. Time goes by and just seems to get faster as it goes. In June of 2017, MIKE led THE PEACERS sophomore effort, Introducing the Crimsmen, into the world. On 4/20 of ’18, his own sophomore solo release How to Get Your Record Played In Shops hit down. And now, a hot 23 months after the inauguration of the Crimsmendom, a third long-player in the time-frame arrives, as MIKE D whisks us away to his remote Exurbian Quonset. Exurbian Quonset sticks up like a fork in the road—it was drawn together as Mike prepared to be the last man from the old gang to leave SF, where he broke so many rules and new ground, working as a driver, a trimmer and a craftsman, cementing bricks into the foundation of the new centurion west coast rock and roll movement from his place alongside Thee Oh Sees over the past decade. It’s dedicated to the woman who married him and taught him both words in the title of the album—exurbian and quonset—and who he’ll whisk away with to somewhere just like the title. Mike's ouvre all the way down the line has been wedding silvery falsetto shiver-rock with sirens of noise, stand-up tin-pan pop singer performance...

Donovan, Mike

Wot

Drag City

***Coming down from the ALPS-aintop recently, our boy MIKE DONOVAN broke away from the medicine show where they preached ol’ testament SICness. Something in the forest was calling. Signals emanated from the old dark hollow, with portraits of the Old Masters stacked in silence, collected the dust they are owed. Transistorized tunes echoed from inside a mossy log, crackling and rambling in the air of watery sunlight and tensed moon mist alike. Transfixed, Mike washed his hands in muddy water and wandered on to the oracle. And this is Wot he/she said... Here is a mysterious man, cheerful and dark. You don’t want to get in too deep but it’s too late. It is Donovan’s way this time around, and he’s flying the flag himself. Wot’s the name of this bolt from weed-ridden left field, the most hands-down, top-up debut alb. rolling ’round in 2013. Rife with riffing TUNES! Of course, Donovan’s debut comes following a distinguished run of tunesmithing for noise-popster poster boyz SIC ALPS, so he’s well prepared to go the solo route with a sac fulla songs. But shedding Sic skin so cleanly while still retaining the thing called “essence.” Lyrically, Mike’s sharpened the lead for a less random line drawn in the sand—but he’s still alit on allusive trips, lost in crystal canyons, turning a phrase with an acid flick of the wrist-watch. In this life, there is a brooding pregnance as he intones over some front-porch 21st-century j’accuse-tic blues with a blur of bygone, half-plugged,...