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Devendra Banhart | OH ME OH MY... | Review
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San Francisco Bay Guardian | Lynn RapoportWhen I closed my eyes, I heard a crazy lady sing the blues.Devendra Banhart, 20 years old, extravagant of hair, skinny as a rail, looked like he knew something about the cracks in the sidewalk when I saw him play in the back room of Club Waziema last year. He sat hunched over his guitar and drifted through a set of short, skittery songs in a voice that hung around in falsetto a lot, with sudden drops in altitude I could feel in my stomach. When I closed my eyes, I heard a crazy lady sing the blues. A year later, Banhart's come out with an album whose full title, Oh Me Oh My ... the Way the Day Goes by the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit (Young God), is a skittery, crazy-lady conversation all its own. For the record, I think he could stand up to Justin as a boy idol if he had to. Banhart's vocals are no less affected than Justin's and twice as unnerving. The nation's teenagers might not go for him, but undersocialized young adults on anti-anxiety medication may be waiting for trading......
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Devendra Banhart | archived internet broadcast
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.listen to Devendra's in-studio appearance on WFMULISTEN HERE Devendra Banhart performed live, in the studio on Strength Through Failure with Fabio. Devendra has a new CD out on Young God records called "Oh Me Oh My..." and is a tornado of songs and guitar pickin'. Tune in and check him out.. ...
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Devendra Banhart | OH ME OH MY... | Review
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dustedmagazine.com | Nathan HoganFalsetto Truths Artist: Devendra Banhart Album: Oh Me Oh MyÅ The Way The Day Goes By The Sun is Setting Dogs are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit Label: Young God Devendra Banhart's voice is a strange and ineffable instrument. It whistles eerily like the wind through loose boards, changes shape and drops into the realm of a scratchy and androgynous blues, toys with a vowel in a faux British accent, and emerges as a child recounting a dream to the tune of his music box. It strings non-sequiturs across a fifty minute Freudian slip-n-slide, and convinces you of nothing less than its dead-earnestness. When you're in the mood for it, it's an exciting trip. The lists of Banhart comparisons I've so far encountered tend to number no fewer than five or six different singers, and it's difficult to take issue with any of the selections. To a list already including early Marc Bolan, Daniel Johnston, Karen Dalton, Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, and Tiny Tim, I propose to add Skip Spence, Nikki McClure, and Oliver Brown, a ukulele player who used to haunt coffee shops in the town where I grew up. I don't mean to mention......
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Davendra Banhart | Oh Me Oh My | Review
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Aquarius Records | Jim, along with Marcy and Windysomewhere in between the magical voices of Marc Bolan, Karen Dalton, Syd Barrett, Tiny Tim, Daniel Johnston, and Nick DrakeDevendra Banhart -- who appears to be living his life as an indie-rock gipsy touring with whomever and squatting wherever, including a stint wowing locals here in SF -- crafts his neo-folk songs with the primitive instrumentation of voice and acoustic guitar, spanning a vast spectrum of fragmented emotions through a manic-depressive persona that can be as beautifully charming as it can be terrifyingly devastating. Michael Gira, who released this album through his Young God label, accurately described Banhart's voice with its skewed vibrato and unnerving warble as somewhere in between the magical voices of Marc Bolan, Karen Dalton, Syd Barrett, Tiny Tim, Daniel Johnston, and Nick Drake; and fortunately, Banhart uses that voice to tell a wholly unique set of stories that hold a succinct poetry. Hastily stitched from bizarre stream of consciousness associations and absurdist conditional clauses, Banhart's lyrics expand the realm of possibility into psychosexual surrealism. On occasion, Banhart's tales are anthropomorphic love songs, wistfully dreaming of archaic steam ships and the state of Michigan (yes, he pines for Michigan)......
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Jean Marie Mathoul | 48 Cameras
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.bio and information I Swear I Saw Garlic Growing under my Father's Steps with Rodolphe Burger (F) DJ Olive (USA) Jem Finer (UK) Michael Gira (USA) Andrey Kolomitzev (R) Chris Long (UK) Gerard Malanga (USA) Philippe Poirier (F) & Agnes Ponizil (D) INTERZONE 007 – mai 2002 Distribution BANG ! (B) &LIMONADE (Fr) I Swear I Saw Garlic Growing under my Father’s Steps is the ten year old Belgian band’s sixth album release. The band’s personnel have changed with each project. Some interesting collaborations have occurred : Eugene Savitzakaya, Gerard Malanga (Andy Warhol’s assistant at the Factory), Rodolphe Burger & Philippe Poirier (Kat Onoma), DJ Olive (We / Sonic Youth), Michael Gira (Swans / Angels of Light). This international network of artists is a musical project of variable geometry. The eclecticism of the participants has created a hard-to-define yet highly accessible mixed bag of exotic musical styles. The press has described 48 Cameras’ music as: Industrial, psychedelic neo-folk, gothic rock ( ! ), ethnic, Art Rock. Comparisons are often drawn between the work of 48 Cameras & artists as diverse as Swans, Psychic TV, Robert Wyatt, Bill Laswell, Eyeless in Gaza. In 2001, having contributed to previous 48 Cameras albums,......