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Biography of Lisa Germano
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Author Unknown I wrote an entire opera when I was seven January 2003Lullaby for Liquid PigIt would be so easy to say that lullaby for liquid pig is a record about alcohol, but as Germano herself is learning as she discusses the CD, it’s just not that simple. “It’s about all these thoughts rushing through your head in the middle of the night, keeping you from sleep as you try to figure out why you’re so alone. It explores behavior in relationships, one being with alcohol. In all of her music Germano conveys her search for something that’s just out of reach. This restless irresolution informs the beauty of her lyrics – a beauty too painful to be confined to words, it spills into her music, bringing sound and substance into an uncanny accord. As Rolling Stone put it, “her songs take a harrowing swan dive into the depths of her soul, baring all and sparing nothing.” Born in Mishawaka, Indiana, both of Germano's parents were teachers and musicians. They brought six kids up in an atmosphere surrounded by music, passion, and Italians as her father was born there. “My dad’s mom and dad never spoke English,” she says, “so whenever we......
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Devendra Banhart, Oh Me Oh My
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Phildelphia City Paper | by Sam AdamsRecalls the posthumous bootlegs of Nick DrakeMore than a quarter of the song titles on Devendra Banhart’s debut album trail off in an ellipsis, which might just be a way of making room for the album’s Fiona Apple-esque title: Oh Me Oh My … The Way the Day Goes By the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Love Songs of the Christmas Spirit (Young God). But it’s also a good indicator of the Austin-based singer’s penchant for sticking with a song only until his interest runs out: Oh Me Oh My … crams 22 songs into 50 minutes, the shortest being the 39-second “Tick Eats the Olives.†As that title indicates, Banhart favors the surreal, and his eerily double-tracked warble only increases the sense of unease. Even a relatively straightforward number like “Michigan State,†which proclaims Banhart’s affection for the titular territory, gets sidetracked into observations like, “My toes have my favorite feet.†In instrumentation and in fidelity, Oh Me Oh My … recalls the posthumous bootlegs of Nick Drake jamming alone in his parents’ house, but the feel is less pastoral than extraterrestrial....
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Our Dead Bodies are Like Honey to the Flies
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ARTHUR MAGAZINE #2 | by Gabe SoriaOh Me Oh My...It's a cold and gray afternoon in Brooklyn. I‚m sitting in Devendra Banhart‚s 4th floor walkup apartment and we're both slightly hungover. The furniture in the apartment is old and scrounged looking, full of ramshackle character. Devendra asks me if I want to hear a new song, something he wrote the evening before. Keep in mind that I‚ve known the guy for a grand total of five minutes, and in those five minutes, we've already been witnesses to the aftermath of a car accident on a nearby street. It's a good, we're-unemployed-so-what-the-hell feeling, and there's nothing to do but roll with it.Of course, I say.He begins to play me a lilting, sexy lullaby, something that sounds as if it could have been written in 1910. It's gorgeous. Later I‚ll learn it was partially inspired by a new girlfriend. But now, once he finishes playing, a little wobbly (there's that hangover again) but unaffectedly so, Devendra announces that he "sucks" this morning. I assure him that that's not the case, but he's unconvinced. A week later I will see him play for his record release party, and the song formerly known as......
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Devendra Banhart | Interview
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indiepop.com | Amanda BristowDevendra Banhart Fights Sammy Hagar at the Sushi BarI've been waiting a long time for someone like Devendra Banhart to come along, borne on a wave of amber, gypsy, lone mystique that is usually reserved for outsider artists or musicologist findings. My information on Devendra is patchy, but lore leads me to believe that he's a fledgling 22-year old Texas native who spent a goodly portion of his youth in Venezuela and somewhere along the way picked up a guitar. He moved back to the States, attended art school, and then abandoned art instruction to pursue the Holy Sound. Enter Michael Gira, ex-Swans vocalist and founder of Angels of Light, who happened upon Banhart and his homemade tape, and released the 22 tracks that comprise Oh Me Oh My the Way the Day Goes By the Sun is Setting Dogs are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit on his Young God Records label late last year. The fact that a scrappy lad such as Devendra has reaped much oooing and ahhing from the usually smirking public is testament to the rough-finish beauty of his songs and to the honesty of his approach. Recorded mostly on borrowed 4-tracks......
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Devendra Banhart | Oh Me Oh My | Review
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Magnet Magazine | Patrick BerkeryIf you could write songs this freakily enticing, you¹d be laughing, too.Devendra Banhart has a warbly-yet-warm voice that sounds like a thick slab of dusty old vinyl spinning on a poorly calibrated turntable. His songs are filled with more than enough non-sequiturs and cartoon nihilism (³I¹m burying your head in a bed of swords²) to color him a loose screw beyond compare. He uses the incidental tape hiss of a four-track recorder as a backdrop for his voice and finger-plucked acoustic guitar. The 21-year-old singer/ songwriter writes such beautifully crackpot songs that there will no doubt be a cult of like-minded souls hanging on his every line about ³white-ass suits² and ³lion tattoos² one day. For musical precedents, think the folkie Marc Bolan, Daniel Johnston and Syd Barrett at his most dour. For spiritual precedent, think Crispin Glover¹s infamous Letterman appearance. Oh Me Oh My... proves Banhart is a prolific troubadour (22 songs ranging in length from 39 seconds to 4:30) seriously fucking shit up with his fragile fairy tales, accidental spirituals, warped glam blues and even the odd love song. ³Roots (If The Sky Were A Stone)² is Banhart¹s very spooky explanation of nature¹s way,......