A Wild and Crazy Band.

Imagine yourself at a traveling gypsy carnival with a dizzying array of exotic sights and music that is so full of gusto that you never want to leave. That’s how you’ll feel after listening to the new cd by DevotchKa, “A Mad and Faithful Telling.” It’s the fourth album by this band from the very ordinary city of Denver, Colorado. Their blend of Eastern European, klezmer, mariachi and gypsy-punk styles almost begs for the songs to be sung in a foreign language, but they’re not. Nick Urata’s longing vocals wrap around violin, tuba, bouzouki and squeezebox arrangements of such complexity it leaves your head spinning.

The new album is the follow-up to their 2004 release “How it Ends” which was transformed into the soundtrack to the hit film “Little Miss Sunshine.” That exposure did a lot to make their adventurous rhythms and the crazy, joyous, multi-layered vocalizing more mainstream. They’ve been known to perform with an accordion orchestra of scantily clad women in live performances and the new songs open up many more possibilities for their stage show.

The first song, “Basso Profundo” jumps right into the musical absurdity with a tight, stop and start klezmer style arrangement. “Along the Way” plays off its mariachi theme as Urata implores “Let me die in my lover’s arms, let me love through this night.” A toy piano gives way to rock rhythms and soaring strings in the plucky “The Clockwise Witness.” There are instrumentals, spaghetti western meanderings and heartbreaking love songs. DevotchKa’s everything and the kitchen sink approach recalls the genre mixing of rock’s early years and just might take you on an adventure that you never knew you wanted to go on.      

Listen for songs from DevotchKa’s  album “A Mad and Faithful Telling”” all this week on Paul Shugrue’s new music show “Out of the Box” on Hampton Roads public radio 89.5 WHRV Monday through Thursday from 7pm until 9pm, Saturday afternoon from 1pm to 5pm and on-demand at www.whrv.org/outofthebox.