PRESS
Noise Pop Piece
San Francisco Bay Guardian | Ken Taylor
hasn't forgone his knack for allowing the unexpected to seep in and take over
Like Anticon and Jandek, the once San Francisco-based Devendra Banhart (Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m., Swedish American Hall) also lets listeners into his ultrapersonal world through a sprawling collection of shoestring recordings. His debut a couple of years back was so clumsily beautiful that the first thing you actually heard was the recorder's dense tape hiss. From there, Banhart – a protégé of Swan's Michael Gira – doubled up his vocals so that they were at times mismatched, shifting and locking and fucking with your brain till the two phases hit that sweet, sweet spot of convergence. For his latest record, the eerily indulgent Rejoicing in the Hands, Banhart has slightly upgraded his equipment but hasn't forgone his knack for allowing the unexpected to seep in and take over. And he doesn't change his approach so much as he opens the door for new curiosity seekers to timidly peek in.