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Since the late 1950s Davy Graham, who died on Monday, has influenced generations of guitar players, from Pentangle's Bert Jansch and John Renbourn to Paul Simon, Nick Drake and Jimmy Page. More recently, you can hear echoes of his work in the music of Devendra Banhart, Pete Doherty and Fleet Foxes. With only a limited amount of footage of him in existence, here are five of his finer moments ...

In 1959, Ken Russell made a documentary entitled Hound Dogs and Bach Addicts: The Guitar Craze about the rising popularity of guitar playing in the UK. Some of the best footage featured a then unknown 19-year-old called Davy Graham showcasing unique tunings and a new picking style. We see him playing Cry Me a River in the clip above.

Five years later Graham made a cameo appearance in the 1963 movie The Servant starring James Fox and Dirk Bogard. The song is Rock Me Mama.

Here's a clip of Graham playing Rock Me Mama in a 1969 documentary about notorious Scottish beat writer and junkie Alexander Trocchi, which also featured William Burroughs.

Often emulated but never bettered, Graham's most famous song was Anji. It can be heard here â€' along with the Irish song She Moves Through the Fair and a brief interview â€' on the BBC's Folk Britannia series, in which Graham was afforded a long overdue critical appraisal.

Fifty years on and Davy Graham was still performing and continually...

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Nick and Norah apparently are mostly into the unexceptional, favoring generally applicable sentiment and wide-open chords. Among the film soundtrack's highlights are songs from Vampire Weekend, Richard Hawley, and Devendra Banhart.

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It's been a big day for Devendra Banhart. First, rumors of his breakup with Natalie Portman hit the gossip world. (What a shonde!) Now, we've discovered the album art for Surfing, the debut album from Megapuss, the duo of Devendra and Priestbird percussionist/ multi-instrumentalist Greg Rogove. Surfing came out via Neil Young's record label Vapor Records digitally on September 16 and will be out on CD and LP October 7. Over at the Megapuss site, the booklet that comes with the album is available as a PDF download. It gives a little taste of what Ms. Portman is going to be missing.

Totally and completely NOT SAFE FOR WORK... (P.S. Devendra is the one on the right.)

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Devendra Banhart's new sideproject Megapuss have revealed details of their debut album and a West Coast tour, which will feature The Strokes' Fabrizzio Moretti on drums.

Devo photo by Kathryn Yu

Age 12-17 demographic, get ready: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (not to be confused with Pitchfork's own long-gone Infinite Mixtape), a new film based on the 2006 young adult novel, is coming to a theater near you October 3!

This tale of an unlikely, spontaneous romance between a hapless indie rockin' character played by Michael Cera (Juno, Superbad, "Arrested Development") and a straight-shooting indie rock lovin' character played by Kat Dennings (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Charlie Bartlett, Big Momma's House 2) is sure to strike a chord with, well, all the people toward whom it will be relentlessly marketed.

But hey, that's not why we're here today. We are here today because, like a lot of films, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist will have a soundtrack. And not just any soundtrack: a soundtrack that includes an exclusive new jam from indie rock heartthrobs Vampire Weekend! And not just any exclusive new Vampire Weekend jam: this is one they recorded in cahoots with Devo mad genius Mark Mothersbaugh, who oversaw the rest of the soundtrack too. Well hot dog!

"Ottoman" (some kind of joke about Vampire Weekend being über-rich Ivy League yacht pilots who get to kick their legs up on ottomans often goes here) arrives nestled amid popular previously-released favorites from Devendra Banhart, Band of Horses, Richard Hawley, Shout Out Louds, Bishop Allen, and Ben Gibbard/Elvis Costello buds Army...

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Photo by Alissa Anderson

We Meet is a collection of poetry, prose, and illustrations from the late, underappreciated West Coast artist and writer Kenneth Patchen. Devendra Banhart is a West Coast writer, songsmith, and occasional doodler who fancies himself a bit of a Patchen fanatic. Banhart recently took time out from confusing the hell out of the folks at TMZ and working up that Megapuss record to pen a brief preface to We Meet, a new collection of Patchen's work.

As these things go, Banhart's intro is sorta silly and roundabout, but it's a fine fit for the whimsical words that follow. "Within these pages," Banhart writes, "mystery becomes little cartoon legs with a cosmic giggle for a head, ramblin' out the difference between sincerity and honesty, reminding us that its one thing to have the gift but it's a whole other thing to GIVE it." We Meet is out now from New Directions.

Ever the giver, Banhart will play a couple of West Coast dates in the next couple months. As for Megapuss, their MySpace lists a show at Los Angeles' Spaceland on August 11, and they'll play Festival in the Forest in Big Sur on September 26. Bring the family!

Devendra:

08-11 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland !
08-21 Reno, NV - Grand Sierra Theatre *
08-23 San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival
09-26 Big Sur, CA - Festival in the Forest !

!...

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Devendra Banhart has recruited his real-life girlfriend Natalie Portman to star in the video for his new single 'Carmensita'.

Devendra Banhart has been writing and recording a full-length album with his side project band, Megapuss.

Devendra Banhart joined one of his idols - veteran Brazilian artist Gilberto Gil - onstage at the Hollywood Bowl last night (June 29).