the of mirror eye

* Devendra Banhart: At The Hop (3.0 mb) | Noah (3.0 mb) | Water May Walk (3.0 mb) | An Island (2.0 mb)
From Nino Rojo : Young God Records : YG25

So, I just got back from my road trip to Okoboji, IA to see two of my friends get married. It was a trip unlike any other that I’ve ever taken. It started out great and me and my travelling partner traded iPod duties and put on different music that we thought would be great for road tripping. And I’ll have to say that when my travelling partner put on some Devendra Banhart, I knew that it was going to be my favorite of the bunch (but shhhh, don’t tell her this!!). I’d forgotten just how much I like him even though I’ve posted about him before (look here). I don’t really have anything new to add except that Devendra Banhart has a completely unique lyrical/musical vision that, while it has its roots in psychedelic folk, is worlds apart from that genre. Nino Rojo is the second of two albums that he released in 2004.

REJOICING IN THE HANDS OF THE GOLDEN EMPRESS/is the MOTHER,/ is the SUN,/ she is observing,/ having already experienced,/ commenting, This is this…this is that,/ NINO ROJO is the CHILD!/ RED SUN/SON ! not observing but PARTICIPATING, / Exuberant and Foolish he begins his journey ONWARD! Rejoicing is the MOTHER,/Nino is the SON! YES! THIS TRUE NO!? YES IT IS!

(from the website)

The trip quickly took a turn into the surreal when, at about 1 AM near Albert Lea, MN, a deer wandered out onto the highway for the last time. And all that I have is this incredibly vivid image of the car hitting the deer and the deer, all lit up by our head lights, flying in the air about ten feet and landing in a ditch. Luckily, the only thing that happened was a totaled car and a totaled deer. Both of us were completely fine, if a little shaken up. The rest of the trip was a blur of trying to get a rental car, busing it up to the Twin Cities, still driving to Okoboji and getting there at 10 PM for the last hours of the reception. Quickly consuming large amounts of alcohol, talking with folks that I haven’t talked to in years, and eating buckets of potato salad. We then had to get up at 8 AM the next day in order to get to the tow company (that was only open from 11 AM to 12 PM, that’s right, for 1 hour) and then get back into Chicago by 7 PM so that we wouldn’t be charged an arm and a leg for keeping the car for more than a day. Whew! To say that it was a total whirlwind of a trip would be a massive understatement. Amazinglyl, despite the totaling of the car and the deer, it was a pretty great trip.

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