DeVotchKa

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DeVotchka
King, Hagerman, Schroder, Urata.
Background information
Origin	Denver, Colorado USA
Genre(s)	Rock
Years active	1997 - current
Label(s)	Dago Records Cicero Recordings, Ltd. Ace Fu Records
Website	Devotchka.net
Members
Nick Urata Tom Hagerman Jeanie Schroder Shawn King

This article is about the Denver indie rock group DeVotchKa. For the New York punk band, see The Devotchkas.

DeVotchKa is a four piece multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble that fuses Romani, Greek, Slavic, Bolero, and Mariachi music with American punk and folk roots. They take their name from Anthony Burgess' Nadsat word for "young girl," which is itself derived from the Russian word (девочка) of the same meaning. Based in Denver, Colorado, the quartet is made up of Nick Urata, who sings and plays theremin, guitar, bouzouki, piano, and trumpet; Tom Hagerman, who plays violin, accordion, and piano; Jeanie Schroder, who sings and plays sousaphone and double bass; and Shawn King, who plays percussion and trumpet.

Originally a backing band for burlesque shows, in their early years DeVotchKa also toured with fetish model Dita von Teese. Numerous nationwide tours in support of self released records earned the band a widespread underground following. The cinematic aspect of the band's music became strikingly clear when their song "How It Ends" was featured on the trailer for the film Everything Is Illuminated, introducing the band to a widening audience. Their performance at the 2006 Bonnaroo music festival was considered a breakout event. In between tours the band was handpicked by first time feature film directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris to score Little Miss Sunshine, a film that would go on to set the Sundance Film Festival record-selling to a studio for more money than any film in the history of the festival. DeVotchKa, along with composer Mychael Danna, composed and performed the majority of the music for the soundtrack of the 2006 movie Little Miss Sunshine, which became one of the most celebrated musical scores behind one of the year's most commercially successful and critically lauded films.

In their history, DeVotchKa have performed alongside a wide swath of artists including: M.Ward, The Dresden Dolls, Calexico, Gogol Bordello, Belle & Sebastian, Crooked Fingers, Regina Spektor, Mike Doughty, Marilyn Manson, Donovan, Sixteen Horsepower, and My Brightest Diamond.