The Devotchkas were a four-piece American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 street punk

Street punk

Street punk is a working class-based genre of punk rock which took shape in the early 1980s, partly as a rebellion against the perceived artistic pretensions of the first wave of British punk. Street punk emerged from the Oi! style, performed by bands such as Sham 69, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney...

 band from Long Island, NY. Their name was derived from the popular film and novel A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....

. Devotchka in Nadsat

Nadsat

Nadsat is a fictional register or argot used by the teenagers in Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange. In addition to being a novelist, Burgess was also a linguist and he used this background to depict his characters as speaking a form of Russian-influenced English...

 means "girl", which is itself derived from the Russian word (девочка) of the same meaning.

An all-girl group, the band was formed by three friends in 1996. The early period saw drummers come and go, including Jon from The Krays

The Krays (band)

The Krays are a street punk band from Brooklyn, New York who formed in 1994. John writes all the lyrics.The Krays played one of the last shows at CBGB...

. Wanting a regular drummer, they eventually recruited Gabrielle in 1999 to complete the line-up.

In 1998, they were signed to Punk Core Records

Punk Core Records

Punk Core Records is an inactive record label founded in 1989 by Dave Amcher, alias Dave Punk Core. The label is based on Long Island, New York.Punk Core originally started out a punk zine/distro in the late 80's, but became a record label in the mid 90's...

 for the release of their debut EP, which sold in excess of 5,000 copies, a surprisingly high number for a band's debut EP, especially on vinyl

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 format. After the release of their second EP, Annihilation, in 1999 singer Stephanie left the band to be replaced by JJ. JJ sang on their 2001

2001 in music

See also:* 2001 in music Record labels established in 2001-Events:*January 1**Comeback of Guns N' Roses in House of Blues**Hum disbands.*January 17 – Bass player Jason Newsted leaves Metallica after 14 years with the band....

 full-length album Live Fast, Die Young. At that point, with original singer Stephanie out of the fold, the band decided to change their name to the 99's. JJ left the band shortly thereafter and was replaced by Jessica. At that point the band reverted their name to The Devotchkas but split up soon after.

Discography

• OiToy - 1998
• Devotchkas EP - 1998 Punk Core Records
  Punk Core Records
  Punk Core Records is an inactive record label founded in 1989 by Dave Amcher, alias Dave Punk Core. The label is based on Long Island, New York.Punk Core originally started out a punk zine/distro in the late 80's, but became a record label in the mid 90's...
  
  
• Annihilation - 2000 Punk Core Records
  Punk Core Records
  Punk Core Records is an inactive record label founded in 1989 by Dave Amcher, alias Dave Punk Core. The label is based on Long Island, New York.Punk Core originally started out a punk zine/distro in the late 80's, but became a record label in the mid 90's...
  
  
• The Same - 2000
• Live Fast, Die Young - 2001 Punk Core Records
  Punk Core Records
  Punk Core Records is an inactive record label founded in 1989 by Dave Amcher, alias Dave Punk Core. The label is based on Long Island, New York.Punk Core originally started out a punk zine/distro in the late 80's, but became a record label in the mid 90's...
  
  

External links

• [ Devotchkas entry] on Allmusic