The Curious Case of Devendra Banhart

The first time I laid eyes on Devendra Banhart was back in my teens when coming back from the local half cut and hoping to catch a bit of Jools Holland. The cheeky chap Holland was waltzing around the floor like he usually does, squeekily enthusing over each act. The show then cut to the middle of the stage floor, Holland promising "a wondering, beautiful, psychedelic minstrel". Despite looking like the evil witch girl from 1973 film Don't Look Now, Banhart performed Sight To Behold on some sort of Aladdin style persian rug, surrounded by candles and an entranced audience. 

Alas I was late to the phenomenon that was/is Banhart. Back in 2004, America became obsessed with him and a new genre, dubbed Freak Folk. The New York Times published an article, describing Banhart as "the most prominent of a highly idealistic pack of young musicians whose music is quiet, soothing and childlike, their lyrics fantastic, surreal and free of the slightest trace of irony." It is also interesting to read that they portray him as some sort of Charles Manson (a thought never lost on me) who has his own harem of musicians including Animal Collective, The Dodos and Vetiver.

After becoming the poster boy for a new but slightly rehashed genre and releasing two albums in a year, the American/Venezuelan became rankled with the press attention and retreated for another year. Whilst he was away, the US market was still keen milk the new found fame, Orange using "Little Yellow Spider" in their ads and the Hollywood remake of The Hills Have Eyes II eerily channeling "Insect Eyes" in the trailer .

The past few years have expectedly been no different, releasing solo albums such as Cripple Crow, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon and readying What Will Be Will Be. Back in 2004, the music press wrote that musicians flocked to him, now it seems it is the other way round. Banhart has lended his talents to the Megapuss album, remixed Oasis and Phoenix tracks and performs regularly on Beck's Record Club. Just last week, papers, magazines and blogs were rife with rumours that he and Wu-Tang legend The GZA were going to record an album out of the fact GZA remixed Banharts new single, "Baby". 

Released on October 26th, What Will Be Will Be is his debut release for a major label, Warners. Banhart himself joked "it was shocking that a major would want anything to do with me". Reading press for the new album, he has been his usual verging on the insane self. Snippets include telling Uncut that he'd "like to own Paul McCartney's foreskin" and that "Michael Jackson belongs to the same race of 'future' people who built the pyramids and Stonehenge". It is clear listening to the new tracks such as "Baby" and "Angelika" that he has shed his rustic sheen and is easily his most polished record to date. Unsurprisingly and unfortunately there is a couple of 'filler' tracks that have always followed Banhart's career but "What Will Be Will Be" is a reassuring case that he is America's most creative and curious artist.

Martin

Recordstore's Rated & Slated

Every month I’ll be letting you know what’s getting me all lathered up in a frenzy of excitement and what’s making me more miserable than Robbie Williams with a fistful of prescription meds.

Rated

1.    Part Chimp – Thriller Check out the front cover for a start: zombie arms, space soldier, laser gun – and that’s fucking amazing enough without even listening to the sludgy genius that lurks within. If you buy one heavy rock album this year make it this one.

 

2.    James Buckley playing a young Del Boy. The foulmouthed, sex starved star of The Inbetweeners is playing the sixteen year old Derek Trotter in a new Only Fools And Horses. Lovely jubbly!

 

3.    Flashforward  - will it replace Lost? Who knows, but after 2 episodes full of cracking dialogue, stunning visuals and a delectable premise (can you change a future that you’ve already seen?) this could be the most discussed show on the ol’ goggle-box for some time.

 

4.   Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 – I’m not a massive gamer but this is just too much fun to ignore. Take control of a bunch of Marvel superheroes in this updated Streets Of Rage style beat ‘em up that involves hours of button bashing but a satisfying sense of achievement every time you kick someone’s butt. My preference is to play as The Hulk – hilarious dialogue and maximum devastation.

 

5.   DIY gigs – why pay through the nose to see a second tier indie band fail to sparkle in Brixton Academy when you could head down to your local boozer and catch a plethora of hip young things plying their trade for less than the price of a pint? No booking fees, no rip off merch and no sound problems – rock’n’roll as it should be heard.

Slated

1.   People who bring their bike on the train. For fuck’s sake either ride the thing or get public transport don’t do both. You look all smug in your lycra get-up and your little helmet pretending you're super fit when in fact you cycle 2 mins to the station and 2 mins to your office (the same distance the rest of us WALK!)  and your bike takes up valuable space on the train that the rest of us could use for little things....like breathing.

 

2.   Lil Wayne’s appearance in the new Jay Sean video. a) Jay Sean is utter shite and b) Lil Wayne turns up looking like some weird amalgamation of a high school nerd and an alien who hasn’t quite worked out how to look completely human yet (like that fella in Men In Black)...and then he raps.....badly.

 

3.   NME’s dead Rock star issue. With a new editor I mistakenly thought we might be in for really exciting changes in the UKs favourite (only) indie weekly. Sadly, the “New” in the title has been completely ignored in favour of a whole issue dedicated to “Old” music. If I wanna read about a load of forgotten heroes I’ll read Mojo, stick to your remit NME and tell me about someone I haven’t already heard of.

 

4.   The filesharing debate. Bored now. People have been illegally sharing music for ages (I’ve still got loads of tapes made by my mates from when I were a nipper) and they’ll continue to do so. There will always be people who want to own and collect music (my flat looks like a record shop it’s so packed with records) and meanwhile there will always be people who want it for free (whether that be listening to the radio, copying CDs, illegally downloading or filesharing). The fact is the music industry had a lovely time for a while whilst everyone wanted CDs and sales rocketed. Now it faces the reality that there isn’t a universal format that people want to pay for anymore. Deal with it and move on.

 

5.   Kids wearing glasses with no lenses in them. I’m not having this new fashion for being a spectacles wearer. I’ve worn glasses since I was 4 ‘cause my eyes are fucked. I was called ‘four-eyes’ and ‘speccy’ as a kid and quickly moved onto contact lenses as soon as I could. Now it seems that glasses are fashionable...so much so that kids are wearing them without any  bloody lenses in them  - what the hell is that all about? If you’d spent your formative years with the nickname Joe90 you wouldn’t find them so pissing cool now....you cunts.

until next time

Steve