Devendra - Obi - ( siiiiii, da Obi Uan Kenobi ) Banhart è un SUPERFREAK!
Poliedrico artista squattrinato (è suo anche il disegno della copertina), nasce in Texas 22 anni fa e dopo aver girovagato per Venezuela, California, San Francisco e Parigi si ferma per un po' a New York, porta la sua chitarra in uno squat (casa occupata di Manhattan) senza riscaldamento né telefono e lí compone quello che gli passa per la testa.

Chitarra acustica e voce moltiplicata da un 4 tracce, tecnicamente tutto qui. Le registrazioni finiscono nelle mani di Michael Gira, (ex Swans e ora Angel of Light ) che le fa uscire per la sua etichetta Young God Records, senza cambiarle di una virgola.
Primo ad essere pubblicato - nel 2002 - è "Oh Me, Oh My, The Way The Day Goes By, The Sun Is Setting And Dogs Are Dreaming Love Songs Of The Christmas Spirit".
Lo segue nel maggio di quest'anno "The Black Babies" un EP di 8 brani, prolungamento ideale del primo lavoro, pochi accordi, testi surreali e tutto lo sporco frusciante rimasto impigliato fra le corde.

8 piccoli pezzi lo-fi, melodie vagamente folk, filastrocche infantili illuminate da un non-sense per me irresistibile... devo, devo, devo riportare questo testo: "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! Un genio!

Non resisto... eccone un altro: "Old Thunderbird, All Yellow, Old Thunderbird, All Yellow, When the nighttime came, you looked the same, still yellow, still yellow". Diamanti grezzi!!!

Bizzarre Associazioni: Ha riportato alla luce della mia memoria approssimativa le avventure di Calzino Sporco e Scatola di Fagioli raccontate nelle bellissime pagine di "Coscine di Pollo" un libro di Tom Robbins che amo molto, stessa atmosfera limpida e scintillante.

Elenco tracce e testi

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

02   Surgery I Stole (03:33)

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

04   Onward The Indian (02:48)

05   Lagoon (02:22)

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

07   Long Song (02:24)

08   Old Thunderbird (04:38)

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