With the release of major-label debut What Will We Be (Warner Bros.), Devendra Banhart proves once again he has the potential to be one of his generation’s major players. His voice, with its careening vibrato and fuse-blowing intensity, sounds something like Marc Bolan’s, but his repertoire may be more all over the map than anyone making records today. He combines a love of arcane folk music with hard-rocking psychedelia and an ability to sing beautifully in English or Spanish, a skill he learned growing up in Caracas, Venezuela. He refers to himself, jokingly, as a “fake hippie,” but he appears to be the real thing, a refreshing return to the revolutionary thinking that once seemed capable of changing the course of human events. Who’s to say it couldn’t happen again? Banhart is guest editing magnetmagazine.com. Read our Q&A with him. For his posts this week, Banhart will be sharing 60 videos that are dear to his heart.
Caetano Veloso
Ineffable. Though I will say that Caetano said the best thing about our shows that I’ve ever heard. It was 4 a.m., after the show at this festival in Brasil. I’m so relieved ‘cause even though I knew he was in the crowd, there’s no way he stayed around for how long it took us to fumble and foible our way through our superlaggedflopfest of a set. But lo and holy moly behold, he comes rushing backstage with a huge smile and says, “Guys, that was awful, but I loved it!” Yes!!!!
Kseniya Simonova
This is one of those emails that gets sent around to everyone. I’m sending it to you.
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins And Serge Gainsbourg
Quite ineffable, wouldn’t ya say?
The Only Ones
This is recent: 2008. How amazing does Peter Perrett still sound?
