Porque no los Dos: Devendra Banhart

Andrea Diaz
November 2, 2014


I can‰’t stop scrolling through Google images of Devendra Banhart. I can‰’t stop listening to his music or wishing I could stroke his beautiful beard and locks. The Venezuelan-born musician not only makes beautiful songs, but creates captivating art that is featured on all of his albums, a total of 8 not including EPs. If you‰’re looking to maximize your enjoyment of anything, just play some Devendra in the background and watch your pleasure reach a level of “three hunnit‰” like Kanye.

 

Courtesy of OnStage.

The first time I listened to “Your Fine Petting Duck‰” by Devendra Banhart my body went through about fifty dance moves and I felt about 35 emotions, minimum. Setting aside lyrics, the tune starts off like a sweet ballad with a gentle woman‰’s voice, and then Devendra comes in to complement the dialogue.

“Your Fine Petting Duck‰” needs to be explained in terms of a possible scenario, so here it goes: You‰’re sitting around a campfire with some of your friends while that one couple in the friend group is arguing on the side. But, plot twist, each of you is holding an instrument and you‰’re all incredibly good at playing them. Timmy to your right has a banjo, Tom‰’s got the maracas, Tina has the guitar, Julia is on the keyboard, and the couple doesn‰’t get a mic, just the pleasure of having their dialogue be the background of the sweet tunes being created.

The warmth of the fire creates the harmonies, and the wind adds the hums to the melody. You each sway side to side to the beat of your own drum. And just when you think your jam session is coming to an end- BOOM, it‰’s not. Let the synth take you in, let the German lyrics confuse you, and let the funk fast-forward you to this futuristic environment. It‰’s like the couple stopped arguing and were possessed by some other-worldly German alien that made them dance around the campfire.


I know it sounds crazy, but this song is so heavily carried by the progression of its funky upbeat tempo that the unconventional lyrics (Devendra telling his now-fiance not to take him back) only add to the oddity of the song.

As a person, you grow mad at the fact that he keeps digging himself in a deeper hole by telling her “If he ever treats you bad/please remember how much worse I treated you‰Û, but as a listener you want them to continue this nonsense- it makes for an incredible song.