PRESS
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Experimental Folk
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Los Angeles Times | by Susan Carpenter A song and dance manMaybe it's just good, old-fashioned reactionary-ism -- the natural byproduct of a culture that's been saturated and subsequently weighed down by too much self-obsessed hip-hop and shrieking, aggressive rock. But a softer, gentler side of music is coming to the fore, one that's as traditional as it is contemporary. Call it the new folk. More of a shared sensibility than a formalized genre or movement, it's being woven together by a growing collection of young artists from strains of bluegrass and jazz, country and blues and even vaudeville into stripped-down songs that sound strangely outside the present era. Unwittingly nudged into the light by plaintive singer-songwriters like Cat Power, this new folk, or avant folk as it's sometimes called, is now being propelled by a diverse crop of artists. Singing spooky Americana with a quivering Marc Bolan spin, Devendra Banhart is often hailed as new folk's vanguard. Other male artists such as Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine are also getting a lot of attention for their modern takes on traditional music, but it's the lesser-known female artists who seem to be pushing folk beyond its acoustic guitar and......
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Experimental Folk
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Los Angeles Times | by Susan Carpenter A song and dance manMaybe it's just good, old-fashioned reactionary-ism -- the natural byproduct of a culture that's been saturated and subsequently weighed down by too much self-obsessed hip-hop and shrieking, aggressive rock. But a softer, gentler side of music is coming to the fore, one that's as traditional as it is contemporary. Call it the new folk. More of a shared sensibility than a formalized genre or movement, it's being woven together by a growing collection of young artists from strains of bluegrass and jazz, country and blues and even vaudeville into stripped-down songs that sound strangely outside the present era. Unwittingly nudged into the light by plaintive singer-songwriters like Cat Power, this new folk, or avant folk as it's sometimes called, is now being propelled by a diverse crop of artists. Singing spooky Americana with a quivering Marc Bolan spin, Devendra Banhart is often hailed as new folk's vanguard. Other male artists such as Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine are also getting a lot of attention for their modern takes on traditional music, but it's the lesser-known female artists who seem to be pushing folk beyond its acoustic guitar and......
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Devendra Banhart / Vetiver / Joanna Newsom
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Justaddnoise.comShow preview - Dallas, TX - 07/02/04So Lollapalooza got cancelled this year due to poor ticket sales despite the fact that there were some great artists on the bill including Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips and TV On The Radio. Don't despair, spend a fraction of the ticket price and go see Devendra Banhart and the band he is also a member of, Vetiver. If that isn't enough for you, they bring with them special guest Joanna Newsom to blow the unsuspecting audience's mind with only her harp and intense, Björk-flavored vocals between their sets. Polar opposite of a two-day festival in the sun, you can see these guys in intimate settings with no viewer having to be more than 30 feet from the stage. Vetiver took the stage first at around 10pm with a stirring rendition of Oh Papa, starting the show in the same attention-demanding fashion as heard on the album. After six or seven songs performed to perfection (all sans-Banhart) in Andy Cabic's hushed vocals, Vetiver leaves the stage with a quiet reminder from Cabic that they are Vetiver from San Francisco and the question is raised of "Has Joanna played Dallas before?" Nobody seems to have......
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Devendra Banhart / Vetiver / Joanna Newsom
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Justaddnoise.comShow preview - Dallas, TX - 07/02/04So Lollapalooza got cancelled this year due to poor ticket sales despite the fact that there were some great artists on the bill including Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips and TV On The Radio. Don't despair, spend a fraction of the ticket price and go see Devendra Banhart and the band he is also a member of, Vetiver. If that isn't enough for you, they bring with them special guest Joanna Newsom to blow the unsuspecting audience's mind with only her harp and intense, Björk-flavored vocals between their sets. Polar opposite of a two-day festival in the sun, you can see these guys in intimate settings with no viewer having to be more than 30 feet from the stage. Vetiver took the stage first at around 10pm with a stirring rendition of Oh Papa, starting the show in the same attention-demanding fashion as heard on the album. After six or seven songs performed to perfection (all sans-Banhart) in Andy Cabic's hushed vocals, Vetiver leaves the stage with a quiet reminder from Cabic that they are Vetiver from San Francisco and the question is raised of "Has Joanna played Dallas before?" Nobody seems to have......
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REJOICING IN THE HANDS | DEVENDRA BANHART
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Bandoppler | by Brian WhitneyDevendra is a supernatural songwriterIf Devendra Banhart comes across as someone who may have crawled out from the basement of ex-SWAN front man Michael Gira's New York home, that’s because he practically did. In M. Gira's own words: “Two years ago I first heard the crude homemade recordings of Devendra Banhart, then a homeless, wandering, neo psych/folk hippie artist and musician, not yet 21 years old.†Taking Devendra under his potent wing, M. Gira has overseen the recording, production, and releasing (on his own Young God label) of Devendra’s debut LP, Oh Me, Oh My, the UK-only EP release, The Black Babies, and his most recent follow-up LP, Rejoicing in the Hands, garnering young Banhart strong critical acclaim and oft-comparisons to the quirky, dark genius of Will Oldham – even down to the back woods beard. And why shouldn’t he be compared to such brilliance? Devendra is a supernatural songwriter with a penchant towards 1920s and 30s ragtime and minstrel jazz. The trumpeting warble in his quivering choral seemingly conjures the spirits of Calloway, Armstrong, and King Oliver. The majority of Devendra’s music balances on his unforgettable voice and guitar, whose picking style at times hints......