It was with little fanfare this past fall that singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart released his seventh album, What Will We Be. Not surprisingly, the public shrugged at the latest release from a guy better known for his early 70’s Morrison beard and a tabloid tryst with Natalie Portman than his music.
By many accounts, Banhart has been more shtick than star – a five tool player who can’t seem to crack a starting lineup. But something funny happened on the way to disappointment…a beardless Banhart dropped the album we’ve been waiting for.
Calling Devendra Banhart interesting is like calling Paul McCartney merely well-to-do. Banhart’s bio reads like a Dos Equis commercial: Born in Houston, raised in Caracas, and educated at the San Francisco Art Institute while living in the Castro neighborhood of Harvey Milk fame. He opened for indie rock bands in Paris, wrote songs in Morocco and sold demos outside of shows in LA, before being “discovered” prior to his 21st birthday. His first name comes from Indra, the Hindu God of Rain and Thunder; his middle name, Obi, pays homage to a certain saber wielding Jedi. (No wonder Portman was impressed).
Yet while all these fun facts make for a terrific VH1 Pop-Up video, Barnhart had never written a song worthy of one (not necessarily a criticism by the way). While I always found his music to be intriguing, I never found it to be particularly fun. His previous album, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, showed flashes of brilliance (check out “Lover,” or the hilarious “Shabop Shalom”) amidst stretches of mediocrity.
That trend changes on What Will We Be, which plays as an album, rather than just a compilation of singles (minus a few snoozers at the end). His latest effort is a road trip of versatility, channeling Paul Simon (”Goin’ Back”), Jack Johnson (”Baby”), The Doors (”Rats”), Beach Boys (”Maria Lionza”) and Peter Tosh (”Foolin’”), and featuring a schizophrenic folk/singers & standards mash up (”Chin Chin & Muck Muck”) that personifies Banhart’s originality.
WWWB is worth diving into for the right reasons this time. Finally, Banhart has focused his eccentricity into songs that can be appreciated by more than festival heads, new age hippies and tabloid hounds hunting the next indie rock stud.
In short, it is the album that has finally made Devendra Banhart as entertaining to listen to as he is to read about. And it is one of my favorites of 2009.
MP3: Devendra Banhart – “Rats”
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MP3: Devendra Banhart – “Angelika”
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Edge, Page & White turn up the volume on the big screen
- Posted by AGM -
“You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten…all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?” asks the immortal Nigel Tuffnel in the mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap.
The answer may be coming soon to a theatre near you…
Not since 1984’s release of Spinal Tap has a “Rockumentary” caused so much of a ruckus. But this summer’s It Might Get Loud is going to make a hell of a lot of noise.
It Might Get Loud is a homage to the electric guitar, paid with a backstage pass to the lives of three rock icons from three generations – Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s The Edge and White Stripe/Raconteur Jack White. The film gives an up close look at each guitar hero’s style, habits and influences and culminates with what promises to be an epic jam session.
Directed by Academy-Award winner Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), the documentary was conceived by producer Thomas Tull (The Dark Night). The film premiered at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival, was well received at Sundance and garnered a standing ovation last month at the LA Film Festival.
“You could find other guitarists that were virtuosos, and you could find other guitarists that are legends, but you may not find three that are all searchers,” Guggenheim told Rolling Stone. “Each one of them is still searching and still trying to figure out what it means to make music.”
Though I haven’t seen the film yet, I haven’t been as psyched for a rock’n’roll movie since Scorcese made Shine a Light. I applaud Tull for selecting three perfect subjects – different in style, attitude and influence. Rolling Stone ranked all three in the top 25 all time (Page 9, White 17, Edge 24) and it should be interesting to hear White’s dirty, feedback infused-sound meld with The Edge’s melodic, anthem-style riffs.
Loud will be released in LA and NYC on August 14 with wider release to follow. Let’s hope your local cinema is ready to turn their amp up to eleven.
In a city that never sleeps, it takes rock’n’roll royalty to be that cream of the crop of the top of the heap. On Wednesday afternoon, Sir Paul McCartney was just that.
Forty five years after the Beatles invaded the US on the Ed Sullivan Show, McCartney was back at the Ed Sullivan theatre – this time to rock the rooftop. A guest of David Letterman on The Late Show, McCartney performed on top of the Ed Sullivan theatre marquee overlooking Broadway in Midtown Manhattan.
After a two segment interview on set, McCartney was shown climbing the stairs up to the roof. At street level, Letterman introduced the former Beatle and his band who blasted into the Beatles hit “Get Back” and a new song (under his Fireman alias) “Sing the Changes.”
Not to disappoint, McCartney stuck around after Letterman signed off with an encore including “Band on the Run”, “Helter Skelter” and “Back in the USSR” – “a song about a place that doesn’t exist anymore.”
Sir Paul, who is back in NYC to christen the newly opened Citi Field (home of the Mets) with three shows this weekend, gave the Broadway audience quite the performance.
Thousands crowded the corner of Broadway and 53rd street hoping to get a glimpse of the lefty playing his hits. Many a midtowner ran onto rooftops, leaned out of office windows or simply pressed their faces against the glass of their buildings to catch a view.
Around 6 pm, Macca signed off and the city picked up where it left off – businessman back to their buildings, commuters to their trains and tourists back down to Times Square.
The Long Road Back for John Forte -Posted by AGM -
It has been over ten years since Wyclef Jean introduced John Forte to the world with the unforgettable lyric “ah huh ah huh, John Forte, grab the mic and won’t you sway it this way…”
“I’m more than just a rhymer,” Forte proclaims – his distinctive voice smoothly contrasting the remade Bee Gees beat. And that has certainly proven to be true.
Forte is not your average rapper. Born in the notoriously tough Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, the young musician was awarded a violin scholarship to the prestigious Phillips Exeter academy in New Hampshire (fellow alumni range from Gore Vidal to Mark Zuckerberg). At Exeter, Forte rubbed shoulders with New England elite, making friends who would play an important role in his life many years later.
After graduating, he was introduced to Wyclef and the Fugees by Lauryn Hill and garnered a grammy nomination for writing and producing songs on the multi-platinum album The Score. Forte released two solo albums after the Fugees broke up, 1998’s Poly Sci and 2002’s I, John, but neither was well received commercially. It was an incident in 2000 however that threatened to keep the singer/songwriter out of the studio and off the stage for good.
In 2000, John Forte was arrested at Newark Airport after accepting a briefcase containing $1.4 million worth of liquid cocaine. The struggling rapper was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute. He was convicted and sentenced to the mandatory minimum 14 years.
Through friends from Exeter, Forte befriended Ben Taylor – the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. For a stretch in the late 90’s, the two were so close that Forte even lived at Simon’s house in Martha’s Vineyard. After his arrest, Carly Simon put up $250,000 of his $650,000 bail money and began lobbying on his behalf. Teaming up with Senator Orrin Hatch, Simon pushed to repeal the mandatory minimum drug sentence and to pardon Forte.
On November 24, 2008, President George W. Bush commuted John Forte’s sentence with a presidential pardon. Four weeks later, the rapper was a free man.
I caught Forte onstage with The Roots last Wednesday where he sang four songs and played guitar. The introspective artist crooned about his prison sentence and how it changed him and finished with a cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang, Bang” (video below). It has been a long road for him, but it’s good to see his intelligent songwriting back on stage. He’s working on a new album; first single is below as well as a collab with fellow Brooklyn-native Talib Kweli.
“I just don’t know what to do with myself,” Jack White moans on a 2003 White Stripes track off the Elephant album. He is certainly full of ideas though.
White is a restless soul. The Detroit rocker who Rolling Stone once ranked as the 17th best guitarist of all time has never been able to sit still too long. After garnering critical acclaim (a Grammy win) and selling over 12 million records as the front man of The White Stripes, White has spent the much of the last 5 years on a whirlwind of new projects.
The shaggy haired guitarist has tried his hand in acting (Cold Mountain, Walk Hard), producing (Loretta Lynn’s Grammy Award winning Van Lear Rose) and sharing the mic with Brandon Benson as part of The Raconteurs.
His latest project, however, has put White in unfamiliar territory – behind the drum set.
White, who moved to Nashville to unveil his Third Man Records Headquarters, recently debuted his newest side project – The Dead Weather.
Dead Weather is a four piece blues-rock powerhouse fronted by the Kills’ Alison Mosshart. The idea for the group was born on last year’s Raconteurs/Kills tour when a case of bronchitis put Jack’s voice on the sidelines and threatened to cancel some shows. Instead, Mosshart was asked to fill in and impressed the crew so much – “it reenergized the tour,” White told Rollins Stone – they created a new band around her. Weather is rounded out by the Raconteurs’ Jack Lawrence on bass and Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dan Ferrita on guitar.
The band, who debuted for 150 of their closest friends in Nashville last month, will release their first album Horehound in June on White’s Third Man label. They also plan to tour and will hit NYC’s Bowery Ballroom this week.
Here is the first single “Hang You by the Heavens.”
Mosshart’s sireny voice and the track’s lyrics and attitude remind me of the White Stripes first album. It is a bit less polished than a Raconteurs track and it seems like White is steering the group back toward his Detroit garage beginnings.
It’ll be interesting to see how White handles being out of the spotlight and what this means for the White Stripes, Raconteurs and Kills…
From Dave Chappelle’s opening introduction impersonating Nelson Mandela, Train of Thought, the 2000 debut album from Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek (aka Reflection Eternal), is nothing short of ground-breaking.From the first bass drop, the marriage of Kweli’s Brooklyn metaphors and Hi-Tek’s raucous Midwestern beats hydrated fans in thirst of originality.
Nine years after Train’s release, the innovative duo is back in the studio and was back on stage in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village for a four set reunion.Choosing the celebrated Blue Note jazz club – a seated only, wait service style venue – for their long awaited return was undoubtedly a curious choice.But in last Tuesday night’s opening show, Reflectionfans were treated to an unplugged encore of epic proportions.
The legendary jazz spot, once host to the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Charles, was hardly prepared for the onslaught that Tek, Kweli and their five-piece band unleashed on the small, but well versed crowd – one that included Kweli’s own father.
“I don’t know if we can get that aggressive in the Blue Note,” the playful Talib laughed after lifting the table-seated crowd with a bumping rendition of the head banger ‘Move Something.’ After opening the set with a track off their forthcoming album, Reflection brought fans back to the days of Y2K with jams like ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’, ‘Memories Live’ and ‘Eternalists.’
The nine year layoff certainly left the pair fighting off some rust.Kweli excused some botched lyrics by deferring the negative attention to his beat-making counterpart, who “needed to download his own albums on iTunes” in order to prepare for the show.Cobwebs aside, Reflection Eternalhit their stride on the classics before launching into some new jams for the ages.
Talib’s self proclaimed “country cousin,” Bun B of UGK, bucked the Yankee crowd with his baritone Texas drawl on ‘Set it Off’, a surefire new single that brought the nostalgic crowd back to ‘09.The duo closed with a never before performed song, ‘Back Again,’ featuring Kweli’s Idle Warship collaborator Res – a soulful Philly beauty with Erykah Badu-like vocals and a Rihanna-like bob. Sure to be Reflection’s first single, ‘Back Again’ demonstrated all that the pair has to offer…soulful rhythms, drum banging beats and the thoughtfully robust lyrics that only Kweli can provide.
Train of Thought is one of the best Hip-Hop albums of the decade. Though Kweli received more commercial success and popularity with his Kanye produced later albums, true fans will always recognize this revolutionary debut with Hi-Tek for setting the bar so high.
It’s good to see the Brooklynatti duo reunited and bringing back sweet memories…
Hip-Hop heads shouted a collective “what the f*ck?” when NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon announced that The Legendary Roots crew would take up residency as the late night talk show’s house band. Fallon, the former SNL star who recently replaced Conan O’Brien as the host of Late Night, casually approached The Roots at a Comedy Central special last fall and asked them to join the show. Six months later, Black Thought, ?uestlove and the rest of the band have parked their tour bus in the Big Apple for a permanent M-F gig.
While hardcore fans have criticized the group for selling out, many recognize the opportunity for the critically acclaimed (but album sales-challenged) band to rock out in front of a broad, national audience every night. The group has written over 200 original songs for the show and Fallon will use them creatively as more than just a side act (click here to see clip from the show’s premiere). The band will also accompany some of the show’s musical guests, like they did here with Ludacris at Thursday night’s show:
The nightly gig has also been a gift to New Yorkers who will benefit from the Philly natives permanent move to NYC. The Roots announced a residency at Highline Ballroom called “The Jam” – a string of 14 shows at the cozy Chelsea club for only $10 a night (the same price as a pack of Parliament Lights at a Manhattan bodega.) The inaugural show went off Thursday night with a line of fans stretching two blocks, braving the icy temperature to get the first look at the best live band in hip-hop. Inside, the energy was bursting out the walls as the packed house seemed to know something special was about to go down.
The Roots did not disappoint, unleashing a 70 minute set that kicked off just before midnight and included guest appearances by longtime Roots collaborator Dice Raw, Brooklyn native Talib Kweli, Rawkus Record’s Pharaoh Monche, The Fugees’ Jon Forte (another WTF?) and the soulful Chrisette Michele (who kills it on the Roots track Rising Up off their latest album).?(Broken Cool has some great video- click here)
Rocking a black fedora, the vibrant Black Thought welcomed the amped-up mass to “the best deal in town” with a new jam before inviting Kweli onstage for an impromptu freestyle battle – highlighted by Kweli ripping on the Roots’ white bassist Owen Biddle, “I don’t even know who this guy is”). The Roots steered clear of their major hits in favor of a jam-like atmosphere with a mix of freestyling, crazy keyboard collaborations, torrid guitar solos by Captain Kirk and even scatting by the jazzed-out Michele.
In addition to the Highline residency, The Roots’ afro-sporting drummer, ?uestlove, announced that he will be DJing every Thursday night at Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village. According to the club, the weekly event promises to feature “familiar faces both in the crowd and the DJ booth with ’special surprise guests’ bringing their own flavor to the party.”
The band will also continue to tour the rest of the country 10 weeks a year when not filming the show.
Keep it locked here for more updates on The Legendary’s New York state of mind.
