PRESS
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Devendra Banhart
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Time Off | by MATT CONNORSBaby on BoardWhen it comes to American singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart, it clearly pays to expect the unexpected. Or should that be expect the expecting? In what must be the oddest place to conduct an interview, the neo psych/folk hippie is speeding along in a car on his way to the hospital with his pregnant sister who’s about to have a baby – right now! While most sane people would attend to the matter at hand, Banhart seems just as eager to meet his interview obligations (clearly he’s out of his sister’s reach). Polite offers to call back later are dismissed as Banhart starts yammering about becoming an uncle for the first time, visiting Australia and, erm… goats and toupees. Between contractions, screeching tyres and tangential mental conniptions, Banhart also reveals he’s every bit the nutter he’s supposed to be. Born in Texas and raised for many years in Venezuela, Banhart started writing songs at age 12. His family returned to LA when his mother remarried and years later he attended the San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship. Banhart was clearly not made for academic life and, after dropping out, started to roughly record his......
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Devendra Banhart
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Time Off | by MATT CONNORSBaby on BoardWhen it comes to American singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart, it clearly pays to expect the unexpected. Or should that be expect the expecting? In what must be the oddest place to conduct an interview, the neo psych/folk hippie is speeding along in a car on his way to the hospital with his pregnant sister who’s about to have a baby – right now! While most sane people would attend to the matter at hand, Banhart seems just as eager to meet his interview obligations (clearly he’s out of his sister’s reach). Polite offers to call back later are dismissed as Banhart starts yammering about becoming an uncle for the first time, visiting Australia and, erm… goats and toupees. Between contractions, screeching tyres and tangential mental conniptions, Banhart also reveals he’s every bit the nutter he’s supposed to be. Born in Texas and raised for many years in Venezuela, Banhart started writing songs at age 12. His family returned to LA when his mother remarried and years later he attended the San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship. Banhart was clearly not made for academic life and, after dropping out, started to roughly record his......
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Devendra Banhart
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Time Off | by MATT CONNORSBaby on BoardWhen it comes to American singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart, it clearly pays to expect the unexpected. Or should that be expect the expecting? In what must be the oddest place to conduct an interview, the neo psych/folk hippie is speeding along in a car on his way to the hospital with his pregnant sister who’s about to have a baby – right now! While most sane people would attend to the matter at hand, Banhart seems just as eager to meet his interview obligations (clearly he’s out of his sister’s reach). Polite offers to call back later are dismissed as Banhart starts yammering about becoming an uncle for the first time, visiting Australia and, erm… goats and toupees. Between contractions, screeching tyres and tangential mental conniptions, Banhart also reveals he’s every bit the nutter he’s supposed to be. Born in Texas and raised for many years in Venezuela, Banhart started writing songs at age 12. His family returned to LA when his mother remarried and years later he attended the San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship. Banhart was clearly not made for academic life and, after dropping out, started to roughly record his......
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Devendra Banhart
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The Toilet Online | by Andy 5Rejoicing in the Hands / Nino RojoWhen Devendra Banhart went into the studio to record his new album(s), it must have been apparent to everyone involved, that none of the songs he recorded could have been cut out or disregarded. At least thirty-two songs were finished when the decision came about that they all must be heard. This is how the two albums "Rejoicing In Hands" and "Nino Rojo" came to be. Not a single song on either of these albums seems rushed or appear to have been used as filler. Everything out of the twenty three year old, Devendra Banhart's mouth seems to be so completely perfect, that once his voice is heard, he will be a singer/songwriter that no one will ever overlook or disregard. His young talent only shows us that he will continue to be a musician who will stand above the rest. Many songwriters reach their prime early in their careers, but Devendra's ghostly voice that haunts and embraces these two separate, yet undeniably related albums tells us that he has only begun. The idea of releasing these two albums months apart from each other gave everyone time to......
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Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
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Boston Weekly | by J. BennettHis music is brilliant and mnemonicA brief recitation of the facts: This album contains 16 songs laid to tape at the same time as Banhart's Rejoicing in the Hands (released earlier this year); it sounds like it was recorded in Leadbelly's prison cell, circa 1925. Banhart may or may not have been named by an Indian mystic, but he's definitely the prodigy of ex-Swans/current Angel of Light main man Michael Gira, which makes no sense whatsoever but is nonetheless the case. Since the release of Rejoicing, Banhart has gone from a smelly homeless hippie to a smelly Manhattan-dwelling hippie with photos of his beard in everything from The New York Times to, um, Nylon. His music is brilliant and mnemonic in that sparse, Django-Reinhart-meets-Syd-Barrett, non-coffee-house folkie kind of way that is (somehow) devoid of pretension - and exposes all us glib, cocksucker critic types as the uncultured brutes we truly are. Yeah, jams like “Little Yellow Spider†and “Water May Walk†may sound suspiciously like nursery rhymes, but slagging Banhart is like beating up a retarded kid for lunch money. You'd kind of just rather give him a balloon or something....