PRESS
-
Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
()
Pollstar | byAlthough he's a seasoned performer at 23, indie singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart had a tough crowd his first time out. "I'm from Caracas, Venezuela," he told Pollstar. "It has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world. It's to the extent of giving pets plastic surgery, so we gave our schnauzers plastic surgery to look like my grandmother. "And I remember I wrote a song about it called 'We're All Gonna Die.' I was about 8 years old and I sang it in front of the family - uncles, cousins, aunts and the whole thing." "I sang the song a cappella, and they asked me to never sing again." Was it the lyrics or the performance that made such an impression? "Probably both." However, he wasn't deterred. "It created this little secret world of playing, where I would dress in drag and sing to myself in the mirror by candlelight." After a few more years of private solo gigs, the Texas-born Banhart's family moved back to the U.S. He spent his teens in California and continued to refine his craft. "It took until I was about 17 before I felt like I had some songs I could actually......
-
Devendra Banhart, Niño Rojo
()
Pollstar | byAlthough he's a seasoned performer at 23, indie singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart had a tough crowd his first time out. "I'm from Caracas, Venezuela," he told Pollstar. "It has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world. It's to the extent of giving pets plastic surgery, so we gave our schnauzers plastic surgery to look like my grandmother. "And I remember I wrote a song about it called 'We're All Gonna Die.' I was about 8 years old and I sang it in front of the family - uncles, cousins, aunts and the whole thing." "I sang the song a cappella, and they asked me to never sing again." Was it the lyrics or the performance that made such an impression? "Probably both." However, he wasn't deterred. "It created this little secret world of playing, where I would dress in drag and sing to myself in the mirror by candlelight." After a few more years of private solo gigs, the Texas-born Banhart's family moved back to the U.S. He spent his teens in California and continued to refine his craft. "It took until I was about 17 before I felt like I had some songs I could actually......
-
Devendra Banhart - Nino Rojo
()
Subba Cultcha | by Ross Breadmorethis album is strongest when melancholy is the wordRemember Mrs. Doubtfire? Late-nineties comedy proving that divorce was nothing to fear as long as your dad was willing to imitate a fat, annoying Irish hulk. Remember the annoying little girl who would over-pronunciate every word as though it were a biscuit-tin escaping? Well, if she were to grow up, grow a willy and buy a guitar, she would no doubt sound like Devendra Banhart. Not that he sounds like a small girl, but he has a cool habit of twisting his mouth until he has given every letter more time than it surely deserves. Opening track, and albums only cover, Wake Up, Little Sparrow is a sad tale of winged apathy, but minimalist lyrics feel luscious and warm thanks to Banhart’s skill for rounding a word off as though it was it was the last time he would be allowed to sing it. However, his vocal dexterity reaches greater heights on Ay Mama, as he meows and sighs through barely intelligible lines, but manages to make the whole thing sound irresistible. Some of the tracks that follow can verge uncomfortably on amateurish pub-song territory, but clean......
-
Making it big underground - artists who haven't sold out yet
()
Standford Daily | by Bonnie JohnsonDevendra BanhartFormerly an art student in San Francisco, Devendra Banhart is perfect in his role as the new darling of the acoustic lo-fi scene. His eccentric, pared-down folk style makes it difficult to tell when he’s being tongue-in-cheek and when he means business (if he ever does), but it’s hard not to love the queries addressed to animals and the finger-picking backed by tambourine. As a companion to spring’s “Rejoicing in the Hands,†Banhart has released “Niño Rojo,†the highlight of which is the love song “At the Hop†(it sounds nothing like whatever you imagine you would hear at the fabled “hopâ€). Banhart performed at this year’s South by Southwest showcase. He is currently on tour in Europe....
-
Devendra Banhart
()
Various PublicationsQuotes‘A shoo-in for indie-folk’s next big thing.’ - Vice ‘Timeless barefoot folk that signals there may be a classic songwriter in our midst.’ - i-D ‘His raw songcraft is terrifyingly effective at communicating the breadth of human emotion…beautiful, damaged, naked and utterly compelling.’ - The Wire ‘A complete one-off, the world would be a poorer place without him.’ - NME ‘It's been awhile since an obsessive, naïve, utterly original musical visionary – a Beck, a Vic Chesnutt – emerged from a private sanctum into the embrace of the rock cognoscenti. But we've got one now.’ – The Los Angeles Times ‘Essentially the only bearded eccentric you’re likely to need.’ - The Guardian ‘One of the more original new voices to emerge lately.’ - The Times ‘Something quite magical.’ - The Independent ‘Banhart’s cryptic lyrics are enthralling.’ - Evening Standard ‘It’s brittle, enchanting and scissor sharp.’ - Time Out ‘Banhart sounds like a feral man-boy-man: his compositions, plucked out on a battered acoustic, are minimal, sing-song affairs of magic-realist proportions.’ - The Observer ‘Utterly brilliant and original.’ - Rave ‘The most romantic figure to rise from the American underground since Cat Power.’ - The Melbourne Age ‘A prodigious new talent.’......