Found in translation.

Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Posted by Rachel Lux on 16-Jan-08 @ 03:25 PM

[4/5] You may need subtitles to truly grasp the psychedelic splendor of Devendra Banhart's Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. Any number of the album's highlights find him leaving English by the wayside, easing you into the album with a melancholy Spanish-language ballad, "Cristobal," and then following through with such standouts as the Tropicalia-flavored "Samba Vexillographica" and "Carmencita." While most cuts find him favoring a wistful early-morning vibe, the music is also all over the map, from the previously mentioned "Samba" to cuts that feel like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (a side effect, it seems, of recording your album in Topanga Canyon). "Saved" is full-on gospel; "Lover" sounds like disco as John Lennon would have understood it; and "Tonada Yanomamonista" rocks like the Doors as produced by Ennio Morricone. But the weirdest, most infectious cut is easily "Shabop Shalom," a Jewish doo-wop novelty featuring two separate monologues-one in the style of Donovan; the other in the style of Elvis-and the classic line, "You want to know who wrote the Book of Job." (XL) Ed Masley

Rocks Like:
Tyrannosaurus Rex's My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair... But Now They're Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows
Beck's Mutations
Os Mutantes' Os Mutantes

IN-STORE SESSION WITH DEVENDRA BANHART

Were you conscious at all of how you wanted this new record to compare to 2005's Cripple Crow?
Although I do believe you have to change from record to record, I think those things happen organically. So it's different based on the fact that I'm different, and I've been through different things since I made that record. We also recorded it under completely different circumstances. The only thing I think is premeditated is the conscious awareness that in making art, some part of it has to be collaboration with the moment. Sometimes what seems like a distraction ends up shaping the record. So one thing we always do is to leave our door open to that chance, that possibility.

Can you think of examples of songs that came from leaving that door open?
The whole record. The whole thing was written in Topanga Canyon except for the beginning of the last song, which was written in winter in New York, and I think that reflects winter in New York-for me, anyway. But the rest was all written the moment we got into that house. The beautiful thing about that is that we were hanging out with Matteah Baim, who a couple months ago put out my favorite record of the past 10 years, Death Of The Sun. Someone she sings with, Birdie Lawson, she's a Tarot card reader. We asked Birdie, just for fun, "Could you read the Tarot on a house in this specific canyon that we really want to live in? Could you give us an address?" I wasn't expecting a specific answer, but she read the Tarot, which to me is really just the language of possibilities. It's not something specific. This is a really rare case, but she came up with some numbers, then when we went to the address, it was for rent, so we took it. It blew our minds, but it felt pretty normal.

You sing a lot of songs in Spanish on this album.
I grew up in Venezuela, so it's not like a second language. I'm equally bad at both languages. What's interesting to me is that on the last record, the songs that were more romantic or addressed things in a more direct way were the ones in Spanish, and the ones in English were, to me, the more kind of animistic or even psychedelic. [On] this record, there's kind of a reversal that happened. All the ones in Spanish are the more kind of fantastical or psychedelic, and then the ones in English came out to be the more personal, direct songs. -Ed Masley


Official Website: http://www.xlrecordings.com


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