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Devendra - Obi - (yes, from Obi-Wan Kenobi) Banhart is a SUPERFREAK!
A versatile penniless artist (he also did the cover drawing), he was born in Texas 22 years ago and after wandering through Venezuela, California, San Francisco, and Paris, he stops for a while in New York. He takes his guitar to a squat (an occupied house in Manhattan) without heating or telephone and there he composes whatever comes to his mind.
Acoustic guitar and voice multiplied by a 4-track, technically that's all. The recordings end up in the hands of Michael Gira, (former Swans member and now Angel of Light) who releases them on his label Young God Records, without changing a comma.
The first to be published—in 2002—is "Oh Me, Oh My, The Way The Day Goes By, The Sun Is Setting And Dogs Are Dreaming Love Songs Of The Christmas Spirit".
It is followed this May by "The Black Babies," an 8-track EP, an ideal extension of the first work, few chords, surreal lyrics, and all the hissing dirt stuck between the strings.
8 small lo-fi pieces, vaguely folk melodies, childish nursery rhymes illuminated by an irresistible non-sense for me... I must, I must, I must quote this text: "When your arms learn to breathe they stick to your sleeve and when your sleeves learn to walk your legs learn to leave and when your leaves learn to stay your legs run away... now I was born in may but then that moved away to the end of june towards mid july now I'm on my way..." Ha! A genius!
I can't resist... here's another one: "Old Thunderbird, All Yellow, Old Thunderbird, All Yellow, When the nighttime came, you looked the same, still yellow, still yellow". Raw diamonds!!!
Bizarre Associations: It brought back to my approximate memory the adventures of Dirty Sock and Tin of Beans narrated in the beautiful pages of "Skinny Legs and All," a book by Tom Robbins that I love very much, the same clear and sparkling atmosphere.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Bluebird (01:22)
My baby is a redbird
Flying cross the sky
My baby is a bluebird
Learning how to fly
Your feathers want to
Your feathers want to tickle me
In the shower she swims right by me
Freezing water so she's swimming rapidly
Clouds are sleeping
Sleepin in the sky
Over Sara's eyes
Lurking by the bed
And all I'm thinking are all things you said
03 Cosmos And Demos (03:32)
I've never told this story to another living soul
For fear it might awaken and the story would unfold
Candles in a courtyard and a paper colored cat
While demos danced on feathers and cosmos held the hat
Next came their profession and a paper colored purr
An umber armed albino and the crowd began to stir
I slid behind a linden to swallow what I'd seen
I slid behind a linden and to swallow what I'd seen
Threads of grass and thumbles, needles made of hair
Leaves a dance that stumbles, limbs laughed in the air
Threads of grass and thumbles, needles made of hair
Leaves a dance that stumbles, limbs laughed in the air
And on the day you fall, whose name would you call
The only thing you taught me is the only thing you know
How to start a fire once the umbers cease to glow
The only thing you taught me is the only thing you know
How to start a fire once the umbers cease to glow
06 The Charles C. Leary (02:46)
I lost the gloves that my mother gave to me
While on my ways to the make believe sea
And I lost the rings that my lover gave to me
While on my ways to the Red Salt Sea
Dadaladoo-rargh
And I lost my ways to my happy pen club
And ended up where I still can't say but
I lost my favorite pen on the way
And I lost my friend but that couldn't be
I lost the friend who sang with me
I lost my son but that couldn't be
I lost the son who sat on my knee
I lost my man but that couldn't be
I lost the one I let inside me
And I lost my friend that my love and I shared
While on my ways to the make believe cares
Dadaladoo---rargh
And I lost the tunes that stuck to my ears
While on my ways to the make believe hears
And I saw Sapiena she sang to the sea
The only person left on the island was me
Dadaladoo---rargh
And I love the man who took care of me
He owns the ship the Charles C. Leary
Yes I love the man who took care of me
He sails the world on Charles C. Leary
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