Devendra Banhart's New Album Gives Him "Panic Attacks"

Next month, freak-folk icon Devendra Banhart will release the debut record from his new side-project with drummer Greg Rogove, which the two have dubbed Megapuss. But Banhart revealed to Rolling Stone that he's also hard at work at a follow-up to his breakthrough album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. So how's the recording process going? "It's fucking painful and torturous," Banhart jokes. "I had a panic attack [the other] night and was shaking." While Banhart's still in the early stages of writing and recording — "How can you talk about the island when you're lost at sea?" he cracks — Banhart does reveal that some songs have a "weird vibe of cowboy songs" while another has an '80s-style electro-pop beat reminiscent of Hall And Oates' "I Can't Go For That." "I think there's a new swelling of basically the collective unconscious deciding, 'Hey, Hall and Oates are pretty cool,'" says Banhart. "They're not guilty pleasures anymore."

Related Stories:
• Beck Duets With Devendra Banhart at Tour Opener
• Natalie Portman Stars in Devendra Banhart's "Carmensita" Video
• Devendra Banhart Describes His Bizarre Rock Memorabilia

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter