I WANT THAT KID TO BE A LONG-HAIRED KID by Fran Hakim

First of all, i would like to say thanks to God for the grance

and bless, so writer can accomplish a coffee table book titled I WANT THAT KID TO BE A LONG-HAIRED KID well.

Music, Art, and Fashion are close with youth and as a influence

in youth culture. That youth culture giving a big effect to themself in economy, social, and also lifestyle.

One of great artist who giving a big contribution in youth cul-

ture movement is Devendra Banhart, a freak-folk psychedelic artist. A journey of Devendra Banhart’s career is a sample of getting success with passion in Music, and Visual Arts. This must be a guide to Indonesian youth how to get a success in other way and giving a big effect in youth culture.

Writer take that phenomenon as a set of problems and finding a

solution that aim to communicate of Devendra Banhart’s career, especially to all Devendra Banhart’s fans.

This book made with passion and pride of writer, if there are

some absence here, pardon.

Writer

Devendra Obi Banhart (born May 30, 1981) is a singer-songwriter and

visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he moved to California as a teenager.

He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998,

but dropped out to perform music in Europe, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Banhart released his debut album in 2002, continuing to record his material on the Young God and XL labels, as well as other work on compilations and collaborations.

Devendra Banhart was born May 30, 1981 in

Houston, Texas to a Venezuelan mother and an American father. His given name is a synonym for Indra, the Hindu god of rain and thunder, which was suggested by Prem Rawat, an Indian religious leader whom Banhart’s parents followed.

Banhart’s middle name Obi was modeled after

the Star Wars character. Banhart’s parents divorced two years after his birth and he moved with his mother to Caracas, Venezuela.

early life

In 1998, Banhart began

studying at the San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship while living in The Castro, San Francisco’s gay neighborhood.

He began to busk instead of

attending classes and played his first show in a church at a gay wedding, performing Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender” and the classic hymn “How Great Thou Art.”

early life

Banhart dropped out of

art school in 2000 and left San Francisco after the dot-com bust worsened the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy. He moved to Paris, France, over the summer and opened shows for indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth.

Banhart returned to the

United States in the fall of 2000 and played music in San Francisco and Los Angeles, until he was discovered by Michael Gira, owner of Young God Records, after Siobhan Duffy, Giraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife, bought a copy of Banhartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s demo CD The Charles C. Leary and gave it to Gira.

When he was 11, Banhart first heard Nirvana’s

“Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and that served as a direct inspiration. After moving to California as a teenager, Banhart took up the guitar.

He discovered he was incredibly prolific (“that

just means I write a lot of bad songs!” he gags) and wrote intently whilst studying at the San Francisco Art Institute.

He dropped out as a 19-year-old, and traveled

to Paris, before returning to San Francisco with the intent to pursue music, inspired by an album he’d just heard: Vashti Bunyan’s Just Another Diamond Day, a then-obscure folk-revival record from 1970 that had just been rediscovered.

music career 31

Banhart and Gira compiled an

album from Banhartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recordings, and in 2002, Oh Me Oh My, which was made up of short fragments, was published by Young God Records and received favorable reviews. He recorded two other albums and an EP for the label: Rejoicing in the Hands, NiĂąo Rojo, and The Black Babies the releases had a simple acoustic sound.

Banhart changed to XL Recordings in 2005

and released Cripple Crow, which was recorded in Bearsville Studios, New York and had a more elaborate sound. He recorded his second album for XL Records, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, at his home studio in Topanga, California.

The album charted on

the Billboard 200 at number 115. The album’s song “Lover” was featured in the soundtrack of the movie Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which included a cameo appearance by Banhart.

music career 33

Banhart performs with the band Vetiver and

has performed in Carnegie Hall and Hollywood Bowl opening for Gilberto Gil, as well as at Bonnaroo and Coachella music festivals.

He founded a record label, Gnomonsong, with

Andy Cabic of Vetiver, in 2005. In 2007, he signed with Neil Youngâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manager Elliot Roberts, who also contributed vocals to Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon.

In 2008, Banhart released the album Surfing

in a collaborative project with multi-instrumentalist Greg Rogove named Megapuss. In 2009, he signed to Warner/Reprise and plans to release a new album, What Will We Be.

He has, at the band’s request, produced a

remix of Oasis’ “(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady”. Along with “Neighbors”, Devendra remixed the Phoenix song “Rome” from their 2009 album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

music career 35

Yet, when Banhart released Cripple Crow in

2005, it crossed over to bastions like Rolling Stone, who were drawn to its Beatles pastiches in a way they’d never been to his bizarre folksongs.

Banhart moved to a property

in Topanga Canyon in 2006 (“there are coyotes in the night time that sing through the valley,” he enthused to Uncut, “if you were here, you’d live here”).

There he recorded 2007’s Smokey Rolls Down

Thunder Canyon, “I’ve never recorded in a super controlled environment like a professional recording studio,” Banhart explained to Pitchfork, “I don’t think it’s respectful to exclude the rest of the world.”

music career 37

A more goofin-off LP than Banhartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s earlier

work, it featured collaborations with members of The Strokes and The Black Crowes, and even bothered the nether-regions of the Billboard chart.

He is a collector of music

artifacts. Banhart wrote the foreword for and appears in his friend Lauren Dukoffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book Family: Photographs by Lauren Dukoff.

He has also written the

introduction to a selection of poems by Kenneth Patchen.

music career 39

In April 2008, Banhart started dating Natalie

Portman. They had first met in 2007, when Portman was assembling a charty compilation for FINCA (that also included Beirut, The Shins, and Antony and the Johnsons). Portman repaid Banhart’s favor of appearing on the record by appearing in the music video for his song “Carmensita.”

Later, in an interview with Pitchfork, Banhart

would recall of the video: “I was too busy falling in love with Natalie while making it.” For a brief period, Banhart and Portman were a gossip-rag couple —strange territory for an artist as strange as Devendra— before parting ways.

Late in 2008, Banhart unveiled a new band,

Megapuss, a collaboration with Greg Rogove of Priestbird and Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes and Little Joy. The band released their debut album, Surfing on Neil Young’s Vapor Records.

music career 41

“ I see so many little boys I wanna marry, I see plenty little kids I’ve yet to have. “

Banhart and Jon Beasley, who were credited as

art directors for the albumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artwork and packaging, were nominated for a Grammy in 2011 for Best Recording Package.

On October 27, 2009,

Banhart released What Will We Be, his first record on Warner/ Reprise.

The film Life During Wartime, directed by Todd

Solondz, features a musical collaboration between Banhart and Beck. The song plays over the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s end credits.

Banhart sings lead vocals

while Beck adds backing vocals and also recorded the track. The lyrics were written by Solondz and the music by composer Marc Shaiman.

music career 45

In 2011, he collaborated with Marisa Monte and

Rodrigo Amarante on a version of the song “Nú Com a Minha Música” for the Red Hot Organization’s most recent charitable album “Red Hot+Rio 2.”

The album is a follow-up to the 1996 “Red

Hot + Rio.” Proceeds from the sales will be donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues.

music career 47

Banhart’s music is often associated with

the New Weird America genre, along with Vetiver and Joanna Newsom. The New York Times has called his songs “free associative work” and SPIN magazine has written that “Banhart’s albums offer ashramappropriate guitar strums, trippy-hippie tone poetry.”

Various publications have described his style

as psych folk, avant-folk, freak folk, Lo-Fi, hipster folk revival, and alternative folk.

Many notable reviewers, including AllMusic,

The Times, and Mojo, have pointed out similarities between Banhart’s songs and production with that of the early 1970s band Tyrannosaurus Rex (an early version of Mark Bolan’s T. Rex).

In a May 2004 interview with Arthur magazine,

Banhart claimed that he was unaware of the music of Tyrannosaurus Rex until after he began writing and recording songs.

Devendra Banhart has downplayed Bolan’s

influence on his music, and instead prefers to credit Vashti Bunyan, Karen Dalton, Caetano Veloso, Simon Diaz, Fred Neil, Nico, Donovan, Six Organs of Admittance and certain albums such as David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name among his main influences.

music career 49

Drawings by Banhart were featured in the San

Francisco Museum of Modern Art and in the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels. Banhart’s drawings have also been featured in the Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair in Miami, FL, the Mazzoli Gallery in Modena, Italy, Spain’s ARCOmadrid. and the Andrew Roth Gallery gallery in New York.

Banhart’s drawings are currently featured in

MOCA’s exhibit: “The Artist’s Museum” which showcases the works of influential Los Angeles based artists from the last 30 years. As part of the exhibit Banhart collaborated with artist Doug Aitken and musicians Beck and Caetano Veloso for a musical and visual performance piece.

art career

Pencil on paper 2011

art career

Pencil on paper 2011

art career

Colored Pen on paper 2010

art career

Pen on paper 2010

art career

“ Cook me in your breakfast, and put me on your plate, ‘ cause you know i taste great. “

Pen on artboard 2009

art career

Watercolors on artboard 2009

art career

Mix Media on paper 2007

art career

Pencil on paper 2005

Mixed media on artboard 2005

Pencil on artboard 2005

art career

fashion

discography

WE L L WI AT 09 20 WH

NINO

ROJO

2004

Y SAY

MEBOD HEARD SO 2005

SMO

KEY

ROL

LS D OWN

2007

THU

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CAN

YON

discography

)

NGLE BABY (SI 2009

AT THE HOP 2004

DS THE HAN N I G N I REJOIC 2004

LITTLE YELLO W SPIDER 2004

discography

OH MY OH ME 2002

THE BLACK BABIES 2003

ILD LIKE A CH L E E F T S I JU 2005

discography

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Earlier this year you shaved your trademark beard. Do you miss it at all ? I just got tired of it being a “thing,” and I also forgot what I looked like without it. Now that I know, I’m throwing my razor away. Also, it’s fun sporting the creepy biological-father-at-afondue-party-in-1972 look I’m currently flopping.

You’ve been working with Beck on his ambitious Record Club project, where a group of musicians get together and re-record a classic album in one day. How hard is it to record a whole album in a day? Very easy, when it’s with musicians as adroit as Beck and his bandmates, MGMT, Binki Shapiro from Little Joy, and Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother. I was the only exception to an otherwise truly talented phalanx of musicians. Oh, and they are all first takes, which helped with getting it all done.

You guys did some pretty wild things with Songs of Leonard Cohen. Your “Master Song” rap is one of the more radical cover versions in recent memory. Did you ever worry about taking liberties with the classics? The goal was to have fun, to play for playing’s sake and to do it through an album and songwriter that we, and I think everybody, loves. And, yes, I would rather hear a radical reworking of a tune than hear someone trying to recreate a song I love. Do you want to hear a cover of George Harrison’s “Long, Long, Long” with the exact same instrumentation at the exact same tempo but with a different singer trying to sound like George? Would you rather hear a ska version of it? Maybe not, but one is fundamentally -- although it may not seem to be -- more respectful in that it acknowledges the sacrosanct nature of the song.

Was Record Club’s anything-goes ethos in keeping with your own recording process at all? I felt right at home...

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What Will We Be, your new album. What Will We Be is noticeably shorter than Smokey Rolls and Cripple Crow. Was that a conscious decision, or did it turn out that way on its own? It’s funny: Earlier I’m ineloquently sockin’ my selling-out harangue at you, and as hypocritical as it is, I gotta admit that it was partly because after every record, a buddy of mine (I’m looking at you, Zach Cowie) would say, “Dude, too long.” [Laughs.] But mostly it was that out of 48 tunes, these felt done, these felt ready. Sort of.

The new-album tracks currently making rounds on the Net have a relaxed, rustic feel to them. What kinds of sounds can we expect from the rest of the album? The same. And a little fifth-generation ska bingbangblop, pangolin poofter polka bop, crapulous crunk plop, third-generation electroclash Akashic pop, a little bit of nothing for everyone and a whole lot of something for no one.

You’ve contributed a remix of “Rome” to Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix remix project. Is that something you’d like to get into more in the future? Who else would you like to rework? Oh, it’s not that I think I can do it, but it’s just so fun to do and a crazy honor -- a crazy, crazy, crazyass honor. It’s stultifying, dizzying. Anywho, who else would I like to rework? Well, I am a big R. Kelly fan…

Of course, you recently announced that you’ve been working with the Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA. When can we expect to hear the fruits of that collaboration? Who knows? It’s the most exciting thing in my life, just getting to meet a true hero, avatar, paragon, iconoclast, the man. Liquid Swords had a huge impact on me. There are a couple of lines in that album that literally changed the way I saw the world. For example, from the song of the same title, he says, “lowkey like seashells.” That seriously fucked me up. Just the title, those two words: Liquid Swords. That’s alchemy! But all his albums -- Pro Tools, Words from the Genius, Legend of the Liquid Sword, Beneath the Surface -- and all his appearances on various projects -- have you heard his track with Mando Diao? Holy shit! -- have been huge, inspiring and humbling. So we shall see, but I certainly won’t be rapping. (You’re welcome, everyone.)

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SOURCE http://devendrabanhart.com http://devendrabanhart-art.com http://pitchfork.com/artists/288-devendra-banhart/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devendra_Banhart http://altmusic.about.com/lr/devendra_banhart/667169/1/ http://fuckyeahdevendrabanhart.tumblr.com

INDEX Psychedelic Folk Hippies Starwars Warbonett Tote bag Trippy Hippy Freak-folk

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I WANT THAT KID TO BE A LONG HAIRED KID by Fran Hakim © 2012 Fran Hakim Photo © internet Design and layout: Fran Hakim Page Layout: Fran Hakim Production: Fran Hakim 1st edition, 2012 124 page; 29,7 x 42 cm ISBN-13: 978-82-9019-68-1

All correspondence concerning this book may be sent to: Swadaya 7 no.70 Pancoran Mas Depok 16436 www.lilfrankhakim.blogspot.com

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