Devendra Banhart "Oh Me Oh My ... The Way The Day Goes By The Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of The Christmas Spirit" Young God Records YG20 2002 (50:19)
Tick Eats The Olive (:40)
Roots (If The Sky Were a Stone) (1:35)
The Charles C. Leary (2:49)
Nice People (3:17)
Animals In My Play (1:28)
Cosmos and Demos (3:35)
Michigan State (3:50)
Lend Me Your Teeth (1:58)
Miss Cain (3:23)
Soon Is Good (4:07)
Tell Me Something (1:12)
The Red Lagoon (1:16)
Gentle Soul (2:03)
Happy Happy Oh (1:30)
Pumpkin Seeds (4:34)
Thumbs Touch Too Much (2:07)
Legless Love (2:12)
Marigold (1:57)
Make It Easier On Me (:59)
Donal and Colter (2:25)
Little Monkey (1:54)
The Spirit is Near (1:28)
Seemingly out of nowhere comes Devendra Banhart, a 21-year-old oddball whose four track demo tape piqued the interest of Michael Gira and thus this release on Young God and membership in The Angels of Light. Banhart's biography reads like a transient David Lynch. He has lived everywhere from Texas to Caracas to Paris to a NYC squat, attended art school in San Francisco and played gay weddings and Ethiopian restaurants. Somehow it all makes sense. Selected for this disc are 22 of the 75 or so songs recorded over the past three to four years. Gira wisely decided not to polish the diamond in the rough, i.e. he has simply released the original demos rather than quarantine Banhart in a studio for new versions. This is bare Banhart: double tracked voice and acoustic guitar with whistles and hand claps, plus tape hiss and whatever else happened to be going on in the background for extra character. Most of the time the finger picking is plaintive and the vocals are hushed (recalling Nick Drake some), at others it's much more frantic with wild strumming (recalling Syd Barret some) and the falsetto morphing into the call of some yet to be discovered rain forest bird. The lyrics are suitably simple and/or surreal with deceivingly naive plays on words and word associations that reveal a sharp mind. Prime examples are in "Roots (If The Sky Were a Stone)": "when the roots of the tree / are as cold as can be / when the wind and the sea / are the moth and the bee / when the rays of the sun / lick your skin with its tongue / and the grass with its green / and the shine with its sheen / and the trains with their tracks / and the spines with their backs / and your sway with its slow / and the wind with its blow" and in "Michigan State": "well my snail has my favorite slow / the shell helps the snail still the skin lays low / and if my snail has my favorite slow / then my cold has my favorite snow / but if my snail is cold and comes to a halt / then my sea has my favorite salt / the salt keeps the sea from feeling sweet / and my toes have my favorite feet / and if I sweat salt and the Earth sweats heat". And then there's "Lend Me Your Teeth" with it's strange single line mantra: "I'm lost in the dark / lend me your teeth / come on!" Everything is fair game as subject matter for Banhart's songs (10 are less than two minutes long and many come to a sudden, unexpected end) including lovers, teachers, friends and family. I never get the impression that he's being weird for weird's sake - it's eccentric but genuine, child-like but brilliant, raw but real. These songs are extraordinarily touching, melodic and infectious ... you'll be humming and singing along in no time, laughing here and there, mentally mulling over a lyric later, etc. Trust me. Banhart is currently opening for and playing with The Angels of Light in North America through late April ...
Devendra Banhart at Young God Records
Where did I get this CD? - promo.