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SUN KISSER
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THe Wire | Issue 245, July 2004 | by Marc MastersDevendra Banhart23 year old prodigy Devendra Banhart has led a beatnik existence, arriving in California after wandering I from Venezuela several years ago with a bottomless cassette of mercurial, will-o’-wisp songs that caught the attention of Michael Gira. Now ensconced at the heart of a bohemian folk scene in San Francisco that includes renegades from Mazzy Star and My Bloody Valentine, Banhart has delivered his first ‘proper’ studio offering. “I have a high tolerance for painkillers, and the shit they gave me is really not happening,†winces Devendra Banhart, spitting his words out through an aching mouth. While the wiry, warbling voice that graces Banhart’s two albums of hand- crafted folk is beautifully strange, it’s nearly normal compared to what he’s saddled with this mid-May morning, having endured oral surgery the previous afternoon. This is his third interview of the day, and his speech is a swamp of slurred syllables, strung between exasperated declarations of “Goddamn!†following each painful swallow. “Those motherfuckers, there’s not even codeine in this,†he spits, “it’s like Ibuprofen.†Even worse, he has to board a plane to Europe in less than 24 hours, starting an......
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MICHAEL GIRA | I AM SINGING TO YOU FROM MY ROOM
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The Wire | Issue 245, July 2004 A gripping series of songs and wordless song sketchesThe title of this album- which is only available from Gira’s www.younggodrecords.com Website- is descriptive rather than poetic. It was mostly recorded in Gira’s office onto DAT. It’s almost impossible to listen to this intimate solo acoustic set without picturing Gira in the mind’s eye. It sounds like he looks, from the intimidating death’s head expression, through to his tastefully austere tailoring and that smoke wreathed voice dried out by endless cigars. Gira’s lyrics include allusions to pestilence, death, sailor songs, an avenging angel in “Destroyer†and the haunting, unfathomable characters of “Michael’s White Handsâ€. It’s tempting to surmise that he is tapping into folk archetypes. One pictures the sharp suit and haunted face of early 20th century Country blues singer Dock Boggs, to whom Gira bears a passing physical resemblance, and his songs of betrayal and murder. But Gira is undoubtedly of his age, sophisticated and urbane. I Am Singing To You is a gripping series of songs and wordless song sketches. However, rather than giving any insight into Gira’s work, it demonstrates what has untied all of it since early Swans recordings like......
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Devendra Banhart | Rejoicing in the Hands
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especial.com | by Alejandra Bustamanterin SpanishDevendra Banhart nuevamente hizó. Esta vez fue gracias a Rejoicing in the Hands (2004), un disco que emociona no sólo por la lírica transparente y desnuda de cada uno de los track que lo componen, sino también por la voz melancólica e infantil del artista, que nos regala un mundo surrealista dividido entre lo concreto y lo imaginario. El trabajo de Banhart sorpende. Sobre todo, teniendo en cuenta que en la actual escena musical ya no surge el talento de los escenarios sino que se construyen en el departamento de marketing de las disquerías. Por lo mismo, "Rejoicing in the Hands" se destaca a causa de una luminosidad honesta que hace mucho tiempo no constatabamos en un folk singer. Lo cierto es que Devendra Banhart con sólo 22 años crea un sonido muy personal a causa de su atinada interpretación de lo que significa hacer música, donde mezcla estilos tan variados como el gospel, el blues y el folk, y que recuerda el legado de Tim Buckley y el primer T Rex. Del disco destacan temas como "This is the Way", "The Brody Breaks" y "Todo los Dolores", las cuales se acrecentan a causa de......
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Devendra Banhart | Rejoicing in the Hands
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xtm.it | by Hamilton Santià in ItalianLa seconda prova del menestrello Devendra Banhart è un convincente esempio di lo-fi/folk che affina ancora di più quanto espresso con l’esordio “Oh me oh my…â€; non rifacendosi a modelli classici (Bob Dylan e Neil Young ad esempio) ma citando gente come Caetano Veloso, i 16 episodi di questo “Rejoicing the Hands†ci offrono un ritratto spassionato ed intimo di un personaggio singolare e onesto. Attraverso le tracce del disco - registrate sempre in una maniera casalinga ma con qualche velleità professionale in più - l’artista si mostra nudo, con una chitarra e qualche eventuale percussione o arco e ci descrive il suo mondo con una leggerezza e una fragilità positivamente sconcertante. Il mondo di Devendra è quel limbo di terra tra l’immensità del deserto e il mistero dell’oceano, un mondo fatto di suggestioni e di immagini dipinte su tela o tradotte in delicati arpeggi che riescono ad aprire la porta di questo affascinante universo al quale è impossibile non rimanere coinvolti....
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Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the hands
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Rien - the ugly culture | by D.S.Conclusion: a small marvelBeards... Them obscure filamentous composites of the cheeks and chins that certain humanoid specimens carry, as with the burden of this quasi-daily ritual that became known as "shaving". Might they be a fabulous resting place of our friends the muses? In order to confirm this extravagant - albeit plausible - theory, and listening only to my own courage, I decided to start a meticulous inspection of the bushy population of my own face. The spoils were few: an important colony of lice, a rusty secator and the putrefied remains of a pizza from another era... Not a single trace of a muse of any kind. Elementary: Which divinity in its own right would dare distill her precious inspiration to a hygenically challenged hobo like me? Quite obviously, Devendra Banhart takes care of his beard. At least as much as Samson did of his hair. Sufficiently in any case for Euterpe to reign supreme within. And as if the precocious detention of musical genius wasn't enough to me, our man also seems to revel in necromancy; the crossed shadows of Robert Johnson, Nick Drake and John Fahey permanently float over the......