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Beauty in a Corn Silk Mermaid
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Popmatters | by Jason ThompsonDevendra Banhart, Niño RojoI'd like to preface this review by saying that I don't get people who don't get Devendra Banhart. The man now has three exquisite albums and one EP under his belt (along with an album by group Vetiver), and for the most part all I still see are reviews by reviewers who can't seem to grasp what is going on in Banhart's world. They seem a little put off all the time by the whole sound, and usually just wind up spewing the same old facts. You know 'em by now if you're a fan, so say them along with me. 1. Devendra Banhart is a worldly guy and recorded tons of songs on various lo-fi machines, including an answering machine. 2. Michael Gira ex-Swans hears Banhart and decides to put him on his Young God label and release the recordings as-is. 3. People can't figure the dude out. What's there to figure out? Banhart writes beautiful acoustic-based semi-folk/partially-psychedelic tunes that cannot be pegged into the usual "sounds like" categories. Perhaps this is where people get frustrated. They are so used to being able to compare and contrast apples and oranges that when......
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Devendra Banhart: Nino Rojo
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The Yale Herald | by Rachel KhongDevendra at his story-telling bestMaybe it's just me, but something about 23-year-old psych-folk artist Devendra Banhart just screams "campfires," especially the part about friends telling life stories in sleeping bags. With Banhart, the stories are frequently breathtaking—tales backdropped by acoustic guitars, sung by a voice that sounds like a cross between a pirate and some gung-ho gospel singer. The influences are hard to pinpoint. Marc Bolan? Captain Beefheart? His newest album, Niño Rojo, which comes after Rejoicing in the Hands from earlier this year, opens with "Wake Up, Little Sparrow," giving nods to Ella Jenkins. Resonating closely with Rejoicing in the Hands while stepping it up a notch, Banhart's fourth effort surprises in the best of ways. Niño Rojo is, at times, a charismatic Kumbaya; at others, it's a sustained lullabye straddling the whimsical and the poignant. Mostly, though, it's Devendra at his story-telling best, singing about happy squids "moving psychedelically"—the nonsensical stuff of acid-tripped fairy tales, maybe, but gorgeous, and oddly meaningful still. When Banhart sings about coming across a dancing crab in "Little Yellow Spider," he asks the crab to "dance for him just one more time/Before you hibernate and you come......
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Devendra Banhart: Nino Rojo
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The Yale Herald | by Rachel KhongDevendra at his story-telling bestMaybe it's just me, but something about 23-year-old psych-folk artist Devendra Banhart just screams "campfires," especially the part about friends telling life stories in sleeping bags. With Banhart, the stories are frequently breathtaking—tales backdropped by acoustic guitars, sung by a voice that sounds like a cross between a pirate and some gung-ho gospel singer. The influences are hard to pinpoint. Marc Bolan? Captain Beefheart? His newest album, Niño Rojo, which comes after Rejoicing in the Hands from earlier this year, opens with "Wake Up, Little Sparrow," giving nods to Ella Jenkins. Resonating closely with Rejoicing in the Hands while stepping it up a notch, Banhart's fourth effort surprises in the best of ways. Niño Rojo is, at times, a charismatic Kumbaya; at others, it's a sustained lullabye straddling the whimsical and the poignant. Mostly, though, it's Devendra at his story-telling best, singing about happy squids "moving psychedelically"—the nonsensical stuff of acid-tripped fairy tales, maybe, but gorgeous, and oddly meaningful still. When Banhart sings about coming across a dancing crab in "Little Yellow Spider," he asks the crab to "dance for him just one more time/Before you hibernate and you come......
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Devendra Banhart: Nino Rojo
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The Yale Herald | by Rachel KhongDevendra at his story-telling bestMaybe it's just me, but something about 23-year-old psych-folk artist Devendra Banhart just screams "campfires," especially the part about friends telling life stories in sleeping bags. With Banhart, the stories are frequently breathtaking—tales backdropped by acoustic guitars, sung by a voice that sounds like a cross between a pirate and some gung-ho gospel singer. The influences are hard to pinpoint. Marc Bolan? Captain Beefheart? His newest album, Niño Rojo, which comes after Rejoicing in the Hands from earlier this year, opens with "Wake Up, Little Sparrow," giving nods to Ella Jenkins. Resonating closely with Rejoicing in the Hands while stepping it up a notch, Banhart's fourth effort surprises in the best of ways. Niño Rojo is, at times, a charismatic Kumbaya; at others, it's a sustained lullabye straddling the whimsical and the poignant. Mostly, though, it's Devendra at his story-telling best, singing about happy squids "moving psychedelically"—the nonsensical stuff of acid-tripped fairy tales, maybe, but gorgeous, and oddly meaningful still. When Banhart sings about coming across a dancing crab in "Little Yellow Spider," he asks the crab to "dance for him just one more time/Before you hibernate and you come......
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Devendra Banhart: Nino Rojo
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The Yale Herald | by Rachel KhongDevendra at his story-telling bestMaybe it's just me, but something about 23-year-old psych-folk artist Devendra Banhart just screams "campfires," especially the part about friends telling life stories in sleeping bags. With Banhart, the stories are frequently breathtaking—tales backdropped by acoustic guitars, sung by a voice that sounds like a cross between a pirate and some gung-ho gospel singer. The influences are hard to pinpoint. Marc Bolan? Captain Beefheart? His newest album, Niño Rojo, which comes after Rejoicing in the Hands from earlier this year, opens with "Wake Up, Little Sparrow," giving nods to Ella Jenkins. Resonating closely with Rejoicing in the Hands while stepping it up a notch, Banhart's fourth effort surprises in the best of ways. Niño Rojo is, at times, a charismatic Kumbaya; at others, it's a sustained lullabye straddling the whimsical and the poignant. Mostly, though, it's Devendra at his story-telling best, singing about happy squids "moving psychedelically"—the nonsensical stuff of acid-tripped fairy tales, maybe, but gorgeous, and oddly meaningful still. When Banhart sings about coming across a dancing crab in "Little Yellow Spider," he asks the crab to "dance for him just one more time/Before you hibernate and you come......