PRESS
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Devendra Banhart | Nino Rojo
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Rockfeedback...is a continuation of the lustrous, romantic minimalism that coated his peculiar, yet beautiful, firstExquisite, distinctive beard fetishist Devendra Banhart returns with a second album in under four months. Recorded during the same sessions of his fast-gaining-notoriety UK debut, ‘Rejoicing In The Hands Of…’, ‘Nino Rojo’ is a continuation of the lustrous, romantic minimalism that coated his peculiar, yet beautiful, first. How can it fail. Banhart is rockfeedback’s self-styled ‘Man of 2004’ – whether lollingly covering Ella Jenkins’ ‘Wake Up, Little Sparrow’, singing about monkeys on the sublime ‘Little Yellow Spider’ or verbally squawking along to such brass patterns as featured in the closing embers of ‘We All Know’, it’s fascinating how diverse a collage of sentiments and emotions the simplicity of a tattered, personally-illustrated lyric-book, beguiling and quivering vocal and acoustic guitar can convey. Banhart is an open sort of fellow, too. He doesn’t mind us peering in. ‘I want to sleep with, with, with… you,’ he bluntly exhales on ‘A Ribbon’; ‘I ain’t never coming back,’ he drops during ‘At The Hop’; ‘My cheques are also useless,’ he even suggests amidst a sumptuous Buckley-aping-Waits ‘My Ships’. But that’s his most precious commodity – to attract, create fiction, unravel......
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Devendra Banhart, Nino Rojo
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MojoQuoteNino Rojo is no mere best-of-the-rest affair, but a sibling piece of equal intimacy and inspiration. [Oct 2004, p.102]...
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Devendra Banhart | Nino Rojo
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Philadelphia Inquirer | by Steve KlingeSurreal lyrics about animals and insectsDevendra Banhart, the young Texan with the penchant for surreal lyrics about animals and insects, heads the so-called freak-folk movement that includes harpist Joanna Newsom and Philly's Espers. Although his music shares the homemade, untutored unconventionality of folk art, he's schooled enough to cover octogenarian Ella Jenkins' "Wake Up, Little Sparrow" to open his third album, Nino Rojo. He also coaxed obscure British folkie Vashti Banyan to sing on Rejoicing in the Hands, the Nino companion album from earlier this year. Banhart, who likes to warble atop haunting, finger-picked acoustic guitar figures, can be captivating, especially when he fleshes out "We All Know" and "Be Kind" with swinging horns and joyful sing-along choruses. But he can also be frustratingly and willfully obscure, singing lists of non sequiturs or impenetrable streams of consciousness in brief ditties....
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Interview with Devendra Banhart
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Jaded Times | by Sarah StedmanDevendra Banhart's new album, Niño Rojo, was recently released by Young God RecordsDevendra Banhart is one enigmatic dude. Officially, he is a folk singer who has just released his second full-length record entitled Rejoicing in the Hands of the Golden Empress, the studio-recorded follow-up to an album laid down at home and a European EP with The Black Babies. Unofficially, the talk about Banhart sounds more like folklore. In preparation for this interview, I asked my friends what they had heard about him that intrigued them and the responses varied from, "I heard he is a squatter", to "I think he only plays atop tables without shoes", to "I saw him curled up on a park bench once", to "He is so nice!" Needless to say, I had no idea what to expect and was more than slightly nervous when I knocked on the back door of Berbati's Pan on the evening of June 4th. So here it is: my slightly awkward, but thoroughly enjoyable, chat with Young Gods recording artist Devendra Banhart. SARAH STEDMAN: So what is your favorite kind of muffin? DEVENDRA BANHART: Poppy seed. SS: Do you like to bake poppy seed......
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Interview with Devendra Banhart
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Jaded Times | by Sarah StedmanDevendra Banhart's new album, Niño Rojo, was recently released by Young God RecordsDevendra Banhart is one enigmatic dude. Officially, he is a folk singer who has just released his second full-length record entitled Rejoicing in the Hands of the Golden Empress, the studio-recorded follow-up to an album laid down at home and a European EP with The Black Babies. Unofficially, the talk about Banhart sounds more like folklore. In preparation for this interview, I asked my friends what they had heard about him that intrigued them and the responses varied from, "I heard he is a squatter", to "I think he only plays atop tables without shoes", to "I saw him curled up on a park bench once", to "He is so nice!" Needless to say, I had no idea what to expect and was more than slightly nervous when I knocked on the back door of Berbati's Pan on the evening of June 4th. So here it is: my slightly awkward, but thoroughly enjoyable, chat with Young Gods recording artist Devendra Banhart. SARAH STEDMAN: So what is your favorite kind of muffin? DEVENDRA BANHART: Poppy seed. SS: Do you like to bake poppy seed......