PRESS
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Devendra Banhart: Niño Rojo
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Just Add NoiseBeautiful creativity in simplistic form...Without a doubt, Devendra Banhart's two album releases of 2004 are among the best of the best. Beginning earlier this year with Rejoicing In The Hands and now the follow up Niño Rojo, both comprised of recordings done at the same sessions, a new, fresh, young face has been brought to the folk world. No less whimsical or honest, this record doesn't break as much new ground as the original, but that's not to say it's of any lower quality. Just with the amount of attention Banhart has gotten this year, it's more of a companion piece to Rejoicing than a real breakthrough. As you found out with Rejoicing, Banhart's music is the perfect combination of catchy guitar picking, irresistibly charming voice and lyrics that range from entertaining to nonsensical, and this album is no different. While the melodys hook from the very first note, Banhart's unmatched lyrical writing is what puts him in a league all his own. "Little yellow spider laughin' at the snow / maybe that spider knows somethin' that I don't know / 'cause I'm goddamn cold." Beautiful creativity in simplistic form, just a man with his guitar, voice, thoughts......
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Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
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L.A. Times | by Steve Hochmanshow reviewOften you can tell more about an artist when things go wrong than when things are all perfect. With Devendra Banhart and his band, it was a totally go-with-the-flow Saturday when half the power failed on the stage at the Echo's new downstairs hall. The musicians simply started a jaunty hand-clapped rhythm and improvised a stoner campfire chant. What else would you expect from a bunch of hippies? As they sang in one later song, "We had a choice, we chose rejoice." With that sense and with the elastic folk-blues at the root of many songs, Saturday's show was a treat for anyone who has fond memories of the Incredible String Band, the Holy Modal Rounders or Donovan (though most of the fans on hand were way to young to remember any of them). Banhart, raised in Venezuela and California, arrived a couple of years ago as if beamed down from another planet, his debut album collected from songs recorded on answering machines and other low-tech gear. Now he's the center of a rapidly expanding universe of hippie-folk, and this show made it clear that he is rising to the challenge of that status.......
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Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
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L.A. Times | by Steve Hochmanshow reviewOften you can tell more about an artist when things go wrong than when things are all perfect. With Devendra Banhart and his band, it was a totally go-with-the-flow Saturday when half the power failed on the stage at the Echo's new downstairs hall. The musicians simply started a jaunty hand-clapped rhythm and improvised a stoner campfire chant. What else would you expect from a bunch of hippies? As they sang in one later song, "We had a choice, we chose rejoice." With that sense and with the elastic folk-blues at the root of many songs, Saturday's show was a treat for anyone who has fond memories of the Incredible String Band, the Holy Modal Rounders or Donovan (though most of the fans on hand were way to young to remember any of them). Banhart, raised in Venezuela and California, arrived a couple of years ago as if beamed down from another planet, his debut album collected from songs recorded on answering machines and other low-tech gear. Now he's the center of a rapidly expanding universe of hippie-folk, and this show made it clear that he is rising to the challenge of that status.......
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Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
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L.A. Times | by Steve Hochmanshow reviewOften you can tell more about an artist when things go wrong than when things are all perfect. With Devendra Banhart and his band, it was a totally go-with-the-flow Saturday when half the power failed on the stage at the Echo's new downstairs hall. The musicians simply started a jaunty hand-clapped rhythm and improvised a stoner campfire chant. What else would you expect from a bunch of hippies? As they sang in one later song, "We had a choice, we chose rejoice." With that sense and with the elastic folk-blues at the root of many songs, Saturday's show was a treat for anyone who has fond memories of the Incredible String Band, the Holy Modal Rounders or Donovan (though most of the fans on hand were way to young to remember any of them). Banhart, raised in Venezuela and California, arrived a couple of years ago as if beamed down from another planet, his debut album collected from songs recorded on answering machines and other low-tech gear. Now he's the center of a rapidly expanding universe of hippie-folk, and this show made it clear that he is rising to the challenge of that status.......
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Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
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L.A. Times | by Steve Hochmanshow reviewOften you can tell more about an artist when things go wrong than when things are all perfect. With Devendra Banhart and his band, it was a totally go-with-the-flow Saturday when half the power failed on the stage at the Echo's new downstairs hall. The musicians simply started a jaunty hand-clapped rhythm and improvised a stoner campfire chant. What else would you expect from a bunch of hippies? As they sang in one later song, "We had a choice, we chose rejoice." With that sense and with the elastic folk-blues at the root of many songs, Saturday's show was a treat for anyone who has fond memories of the Incredible String Band, the Holy Modal Rounders or Donovan (though most of the fans on hand were way to young to remember any of them). Banhart, raised in Venezuela and California, arrived a couple of years ago as if beamed down from another planet, his debut album collected from songs recorded on answering machines and other low-tech gear. Now he's the center of a rapidly expanding universe of hippie-folk, and this show made it clear that he is rising to the challenge of that status.......