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Devendra Banhart | Rejoicing in the Hands
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Sctas.com | by KalebSixteen tracks of mesmerizing guitar plucking" It's like finding home, in an old folk song that you've never ever heard, still you know every word and fo' sure can sing along" Having seen his face in way too many places, and read a few bittersweet reviews, I was prepared to pass up on Devendra Banhart. That said, since I began to allow his collection of song titled 'Rejoicing in the Hands' to enter the mind, it has owned me. Sixteen tracks of mesmerizing guitar plucking, much in the learned style of the late John Fahey (see: "Tit Smoking In the Temple of Artisan Mimicry", an instrumental that is part dedicated to the man himself) or as of recent M. Ward. As for the vocals - just when you had thought Jack White had mastered the warble of Blind Willie McTell, circa "Broke Down Engine Blues", it looks as if Devendra has a one-up on the peppermint kid ("There Was Sun"). The songs are certainly part that of a madman's doing, but they are full of charm and imagination. Captured by the bizarre imagery this album possesses is like staring into the sun, entranced by it's beauty yet......
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Devendra Banhart, Rejoicing in the Hands
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SCTASInterviewIn today's musical landscape, there are some adjectives and artist comparisons that get referenced far too often. "Genius" comes to mind when I think of descriptives put on many of today's performers that just aren't deserving of this title - I think the term "special" could relate to many. As far as comparisons, Nick Drake has been compared to more artists than days he lived. Another would be Jeff Magnum, a genius who decided to stop recording music at exactly the right time, years before his songs became main attractions for reproduction. What is to be learned from this "watering down" of artist inbreeding is that rarely does an artist come along who actually delivers an album deserving of mighty superlatives. A performer who can still awe you with their voice and guitar alone. Devendra Banhart is pretty fucking close. The 23 year-old singer / songcrafter has been compared to (a couple that make valid relation) Syd Barrett, Marc Bolan and Daniel Johnston. One I'll add to the list is John Fahey, a legend whose guitar style Devendra is a graduate of. GO! Room 4 studios in Carborro, North Carolina is small, two-level venue that immediately showcases it's performers talents.......
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Devendra Banhart with Vetiver and Joanna Newsom
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Houston Press | by John Nova LomaxIf he doesn't slide off the rails, just you watch -- he'll prove to be one of this century's musicians who matterHeading another package tour of San Franciscans (see above), Devendra Banhart is a neo-folk oddball with a lot in common with Sam Beam, his Miami-based counterpart who records as Iron & Wine. Both cut their first album in their homes, on what in both cases are almost always described as "shoddy," "cheap" or "broken" four-track recorders. (It seems if you're destined to be regarded as a neo-folk weirdo, you can't record yourself on a brand-new four-track in good working order.) The music of both men is said to be able to take you away from whatever place and time you happen to be situated in. Both play live, seated cross-legged, to super-hushed audiences of true believers, most often smart kids from expensive and prestigious colleges, sophomores in search of "authenticity," which they generally think can come from only mentally ill people like Daniel Johnston or Wesley Willis or freaky-looking dudes like Beam, whose beard is abnormally large. Or the Texas-born Banhart, who according to a recent article in Uncut was dubbed "Devendra" by......
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DEVENDRA BANHART
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Kitty Magic | by Kristina FranciscoInterviewLast year, Devendra Banhart toured with Xiu Xiu mastermind Jaime Stewart, bringing his kinda weird/kinda cool folk music to indie rock masses everywhere. The two drove cross-country, took turns at the wheel, and made an unlikely but somehow understandable duo. Both make emotive music but in decidedly different ways. Stewart’s work is often a controlled chaos of instrumentation and personal, tormented, and sometimes violent words. Contrastingly, Banhart uses acoustic guitar, quivering, Nick Drake-like voice and intimate, gentle lyrics. This time around, Banhart took off on his own, touring in support of his sophomore effort, Rejoicing in the Hands, off Michael Gira’s (ex-Swans, now Angels of Light) Young God label. With the hype and fanbase growing, Banhart took a little bit of time to answer a couple of questions while in Portland on the second day of his tour. I’ve read you spent time as a drifter before settling down in New York. Did you find what you were looking for during that time? Were you looking for anything at all? I am still drifting! But not looking, simply drifting, getting used to nothing belonging to me, come with nothing, leave with something..... How did you......
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Devendra Banhart
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LOOP | by José Miguel Salazar Z.Emergente artista folk editado en Young Gods Rec Spanish + EnglishDevendra Banhart es un músico mitad americano, mitad venezolano, de sólo 23 años. Con dos grabaciones previas, el álbum "Oh Me Oh My... The Way the Day Goes by the Sun is Setting Dogs are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit" [2002] y el EP "The Black Babies (UK)" [2003], lanza ahora su primer registro de estudio producido por Michael Gira, ex líder de Swans. Lo anterior es relevante, dado que sus dos anteriores producciones habían sido grabadas en una casetera de cuatro pistas y en distintas grabadoras telefónicas, usando sólo una guitarra acústica y su peculiar voz. Su crudo folk, que recuerda a Mark Bolan acústico y a los olvidados Comus [aunque para algunos también es una suerte de nuevo Nick Drake], ha tenido un gran impacto, en parte por la precisa forma en que transmite emociones y por la atmósfera íntima y frágil que es capaz de producir. Estamos frente a un músico que, en oposición a las tendencias más consolidadas, desconfía de la tecnología para materializar sus ideas y de los discursos académicos del arte para fundamentar su obra, sobre la......