Little Yellow Spider

Devendra Banhart is a Venezuelan American, singer song writer born in Houston Texas. Banhart has an interesting style of music he is not considered to be only one genre people consider him to be, freak folk, psych folk, folk rock, new weird America, Latin, and lo-fi. In 2004 He released his fourth album “Niño Rojo”, though he has never received any huge recognition, his albums are often rated highly on sites such as Pitch Fork and Spun. “Niño Rojo” is one of his highest rated albums and has one of my favorite songs of his. “Little Yellow Spider” Is the fourth track on “Niño Rojo” and is by far one of my favorites.

The song starts off with a simple guitar rhythm that is played through out the whole song. As the song goes one more layers are added, another small guitar riff is added in later on as well as many other instruments, so even though we have the same guitar pattern through out we keep getting new layers making the song stay fresh and not feel repetitive.

The lyrics in the song are my favorite part. Though at first they seem childish and playful they slowly become more mature and hold more meaning. Even if you choose not to really listen to the lyrics, they are still incredibly fun. They take a look at many different animals in the animal kingdom, cracking puns, jokes, and other playful sayings towards all of the animals. As the song goes on the story or saying he says for each animal becomes progressively more sad. “And hey there little mockingbird, they sing about you in songs Oh, where ya been? Have ya broke a wing? I haven’t heard ya in so long” This is one of my favorite lines in the song, because I find it holds the most meaning. To me Banhart is saying we have lost the natural songs in the world. We have driven out so much of nature that we don’t even hear the songs of the birds anymore.

I remember first hearing the song in the my elementary schools computer lab when my brother showed it to me. Ever since then I’ve always had a deep connection with the song, I don’t know if it’s the lyrics, or the guitar playing, but I always find myslef smiling when I hear this song. Devendra Banhart is an amazing musician who deserves much more recognition than he is given. He has a unique sound, and is constantly changing how he sounds on each album. Not all of his albums are perfect but many of them are really unique sounding albums, and I would recommend him to anyone looking for something new to listen too.