Devendra Banhart

Latest Articles

Review: Wretches and Jabberers

Documentary searches for the heart of autism
Imagine having as much inside you — thoughts, feelings, desires, needs — as you really do, but being unable to express them.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 08, 2011

The historical strum of Bert Jansch

Folk lure
There was a time not too long ago when British folk-music titan Bert Jansch would have been remembered mostly as a footnote in pimple-faced Led Zeppelin mythology.
By JONATHAN DONALDSON | December 10, 2010

Leaves of Life from Arborea, and other Portland music news

Sibilance
BUCK AND SHANTI CURRAN , the husband-and-wife team behind ethereal folk band ARBOREA , have been touring nearly non-stop and curating compilations right from their home base in Lewiston.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | May 19, 2010

CocoRosie | Grey Oceans

Sub Pop (2010)
Freak-folk fans disappointed by the relative accessibility of recent efforts by Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom should check out CocoRosie’s latest.
By MIKAEL WOOD | May 19, 2010

A band, a part

Devendra Banhart and the Grogs live at Berklee Performance Center, November 14, 2009
My lingering qualms with Devendra Banhart's new album have very little to do with its substance and more to do with its consistency, a quality that throughout What Will We Be? seems present only in its glaring absence.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 24, 2009

Photos: Devendra Banhart at Berklee

Devendra Banhart, live at Berklee Performance Center, November 20, 2009
Photos of Devendra Banhart at the Berklee Performance Center.
By BRAD MINTZ | November 23, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Devendra Banhart | What Will We Be

Warner/Reprise (2009)
With the title of his latest album, this lovably polyglot erstwhile (and unwitting) “freak” folkie turned gallery darling and global lounge lizard asks a valid question. Indeed, what will we be this time?
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 10, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Portland Music News: June 19, 2009

Sibilance
Yeah, this makes us feel a little old: The June 27 show at the Port City Music Hall will be a 20th anniversary show for TWISTED ROOTS . SUN GODS IN EXILE (fresh off a release show for their debut album) and SIDECAR RADIO open, and there's word that original TR bassist NEIL COLLINS will sit in for a few songs.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | June 17, 2009

LA story

Little Joy's journey starts at home
Ask people around here why they'd never move to LA and "the traffic" will reliably top the list. That sure sounds reasonable, but check it out: by not languishing in belching cars and rotting the sky for hours at a time, by not submitting to the forced downtime imposed by cities like Los Angeles...we're missing out on a ton of good music.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 16, 2009

Campfire blues

Snock a/k/a Michael Hurley
Snock (a/k/a Michael Hurley) is a banjo-strumming Woody Woodpecker whose campfire is a constant blaze of dreamy, peculiar Americana.
By PETER SMITH | May 28, 2008

Solo shot

Gary Louris leaves the Jayhawks behind
Gary Louris had no grand designs for the beginning of his solo career.
By MIKAEL WOOD | March 25, 2008

Blndsght offers eye-opening art

Venue watch
Watson Atkinson is a dynamic man.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 20, 2008

The Writ stuff

Cass McCombs finds his indie-folk footing
Cass McCombs upends standard persona-building moves.
By FRANKLIN BRUNO | November 01, 2007

Folk of ages

Fire on Fire snag a label, make it count
Young God Records is one of the country’s more prominent DIY record labels.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | October 03, 2007

Unfreaked Folk

Devendra Banhart, Roxy, September 25, 2007
Devendra Banhart may have found his true calling at the Roxy last Tuesday as a small-time professional entertainer.
By RICHARD BECK | October 01, 2007

Irish sprung

Fionn Regan makes his way to America
Irish singer-songwriter Fionn Regan answers straightforward questions with beguiling sidesteps.
By WERNER TRIESCHMANN | September 24, 2007

Akron/Family

Love Is Simple | Young God
Already digested the latest from Devendra Banhart and Animal Collective and still hungry for more new freak-folk sounds?
By MIKAEL WOOD | September 24, 2007

The 100 unsexiest men 2007: 90-81

These guys couldn't turn on a radio
These guys couldn't turn on a radio
By | April 12, 2007

Take two

Ben Potrykus gets a second shot with Christians & Lions
In 2003, Ben Potrykus, then a freshman at Emerson College and the singer of the post-hardcore band the Receiving End of Sirens, made a decision that most aspiring musicians would call crazy: he turned down a major-label record deal to stay in school. VIDEO: Behind the scenes with Christians and Lions Christians and Lions, "Sexton Under Glass" (mp3)
By WILL SPITZ | November 27, 2006

Brazil nuts

The return of Os Mutantes
Last winter, word got out that the original members of the notorious and influential Brazilian psych-pop group Os Mutantes were preparing to perform together for the first time in more than 30 years.
By SIMON W. VOZICK-LEVINSON | November 20, 2006

Rare, please!

Versions found only on the web
The Internet and all it represents has never struck me as fitting very well into the faux Appalachian, outsider-artist æsthetic that Will Oldham has cultivated for himself in his various Palace incarnations and, of late, as Bonnie “Prince” Billy.
By MATT ASHARE | September 26, 2006

Soft sells

The rise of indie rock’s cult of the singer-songwriter
Quiet is the new loud, pretty is the new rocking, and acoustic is the new electric. The Mountain Goats, "Woke Up New" (YouTube)
By FRANKLIN BRUNO | September 22, 2006

The New New Age

The movement pulls away from the mainstream and gets apocalyptic
“In the United States,” wrote novelist and poet Jim Harrison in 1976, “it is a curious habit of ours to wait for the future when it has happened already.”| Daniel Pinchbeck discusses 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (mp3)
By JAMES PARKER | August 17, 2006

Syd Barrett

1946-2006
Without meaning to, Barrett invented one of rock’s enduring archetypes: the visionary who burns brightly just long enough to become a bona fide star before plummeting into introversion and, in this case, a silence lasting more than 30 years.
By FRANKLIN BRUNO | July 21, 2006

Various Artists: Strange Folk

Albion
Given the hypnotic arrangements and talk of fairies, the 19 tracks compiled on Strange Folk might more accurately be termed “enchanted folk” or, more skeptically, “dippy folk.”
By ANDREW MARCUS | May 08, 2006

Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice

Gipsy Freedom | 5RC
This sprawling New York–based freak-folk collective, led by James Toth (who’s recorded solo as Wooden Wand, minus the Vanishing Voice), play some of the scene’s loosest, least crossover-concerned music.
By MIKAEL WOOD | April 14, 2006

Bundles of Bolan

Rhino reissues T. Rex
If news of the Arctic Monkeys’ recent British chart triumph reached Marc Bolan, chances are he was smiling.
By BRETT MILANO | February 14, 2006

I Am Resurrected: A Tribute to John Fahey

Various artists

I AM THE RESURRECTION: A TRIBUTE TO JOHN FAHEY | Vanguard
The late guitarist’s best tribute is his own legacy of recordings, but those already familiar with this troubled master of the six-string’s work may dig hearing how various indie rockers from Boston’s Cul de Sac to neo-hippie Devendra Banhart to ex-Plimsoul Peter Case interpret a baker’s dozen of Fahey’s compositions.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | January 18, 2006