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Chris McAllen: bass, background vocals
Kevin Devine: vocals, guitar, background vocals
Mike Robertson: guitar, vocals on "Southern State,"
keyboard, piano, glockenspiel, background vocals
Mike Skinner: drums, background vocals
Photo © by O. Klobes |
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Biography
Miracle of 86 was formed by Kevin Devine and Christian McAllen
back in the day on Staten Island, New York. The most recent line-up,
including Mike Robertson (guitar/vocals) and Mike Skinner (drums),
was solidifying 3 years ago as the bands second full length album,
Every Famous Last Word (2001) was released on Defiance Records/Lakeshore
Records. The album was received to much critical acclaim and was
followed by successful tours in the US (with Sorry About Dresden)
and Europe (with the National Anthems) including sold out shows
with bands like Desaparacidos, Rilo Kiley and Cursive. The title
track for Every Famous Last Word was included on the soundtrack
to the feature film, “Wrong Turn”.
Following the last Miracle tour, the band took a break to work
on other projects. Christian began touring/recording with psych-pop
legends The Lily ’s as well as with Pablo (ex-AWEK/Realistics)
– Mike Robertson formed and fronted Mason Dixon, playing
shows around the New York area – Mike Skinner worked with
Kevin Devine on his solo record (Defiance), re-mixes for Black
Moustache as well as the latest album from Onelinedrawing. These
different bands played on the same bill when possible until talk
about recording and touring moved from drunken late night ramblings
to sporadic daytime rehearsals. With support from Defiance Records
(Germany) and Immigrant Sun (US) the band entered the studio in
June for a cannonball weekend of recording with friend and producer
Chris Bracco to assemble a new EP of unrecorded material and new
alternate versions of songs like Every Famous Last Word and Surprise
Me. The new recordings reflect the influences of the varied projects
the band has been working on individually; it may surprise some
long-time fans who discovered the band many years ago on the emo
diaries.
Miracle of 86 will tour Germany and Austria in August/September.
It will probably be a while before the band will return to Europe
and no dates are being planned in the US at this point. In typical
Miracle fashion there’s a lot of uncertainty and no one
is sure what the future will bring...
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