Devendra Banhart

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Review: Wretches and Jabberers

Imagine having as much inside you — thoughts, feelings, desires, needs — as you really do, but being unable to express them.
Documentary searches for the heart of autism
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 10, 2011

The historical strum of Bert Jansch

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.
Folk lure
By JONATHAN DONALDSON | December 10, 2010

Leaves of Life from Arborea, and other Portland music news

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.
Sibilance
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | May 21, 2010

CocoRosie | Grey Oceans

Freak-folk fans disappointed by the relative accessibility of recent efforts by Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom should check out CocoRosie’s latest.
Sub Pop (2010)
By MIKAEL WOOD | May 21, 2010

A band, a part

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.
Devendra Banhart and the Grogs live at Berklee Performance Center, November 14, 2009
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 27, 2009

Photos: Devendra Banhart at Berklee

Photos of Devendra Banhart at the Berklee Performance Center.
Devendra Banhart, live at Berklee Performance Center, November 20, 2009
By BRAD MINTZ | November 27, 2009

Weekly Mixtape: Listen to this week's issue of the Phoenix

Click on the player above to stream tracks from bands featured in this week's music section, hand-picked by Boston Phoenix music editor Michael Brodeur. Live...
By Michael Brodeur | November 25, 2009

Devendra Banhart | What Will We Be

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?
Warner/Reprise (2009)
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | November 13, 2009

Beck launches covers series with VU's "Sunday Morning"

Yesterday, Beck Hansen announced via his official site that he was going to begin working on a ser...
By Ryan Stewart | June 19, 2009

Portland Music News: June 19, 2009

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
Sibilance
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | June 19, 2009

LA story

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
Little Joy's journey starts at home
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 19, 2009

Campfire blues

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

Solo shot

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

Blndsght offers eye-opening art

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

The Writ stuff

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

Folk of ages

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

Unfreaked Folk

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

Irish sprung

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

Akron/Family

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

The 100 unsexiest men 2007: 90-81

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

Take two

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. V
Ben Potrykus gets a second shot with Christians & Lions
By WILL SPITZ | November 27, 2006

Brazil nuts

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.
The return of Os Mutantes
By SIMON W. VOZICK-LEVINSON | November 20, 2006

Rare, please!

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.
Versions found only on the web
By MATT ASHARE | September 26, 2006

Soft sells

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

The New New Age

“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)
The movement pulls away from the mainstream and gets apocalyptic
By JAMES PARKER | August 17, 2006

Syd Barrett

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.
1946-2006
By FRANKLIN BRUNO | July 21, 2006

Various Artists: Strange Folk

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.”
Albion
By ANDREW MARCUS | May 08, 2006

Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice

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.
Gipsy Freedom | 5RC
By MIKAEL WOOD | April 14, 2006

Bundles of Bolan

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

I Am Resurrected: A Tribute to John Fahey

Various artists

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-Pli
I AM THE RESURRECTION: A TRIBUTE TO JOHN FAHEY | Vanguard
By TED DROZDOWSKI | January 18, 2006

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