New Weird America

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New Weird America describes a musical movement in the 2000s of psychedelic folk music. The term was coined by David Keenan in the August 2003 issue of The Wire , following the Brattleboro Free Folk Festival organized by Matt Valentine and is a play on Greil Marcus's phrase Old Weird America as used in his book Invisible Republic which deals with the linneage connecting the pre-war folk performers on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music to Bob Dylan and his milieu. The style of this movement is mainly derived from folk and psychedelic groups from the 1960s and 1970s, including American performers Holy Modal Rounders and English group Pentangle, but also finds inspiration from such disparate sources as heavy-metal, free jazz, electronic music, noise music as well as early- and mid-20th century American folk music. Genres are often classified as psych folk, acid folk or most notably as freak-folk.

Outsider music, played by technically naive (and often socially estranged) musicians and exemplified by The Shaggs, Roky Erickson, and Jandek, also appears to be a big influence on the New Weird America movement. Some NWA artists have even garnered criticism for projecting an image of mental instability, exploiting the purity and naivette of outsider status.

Most works of the genre are issued in small editions and distributed independently. The music has been covered extensively by L.A. based Arthur Magazine, which has run in-depth pieces on Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective, and Six Organs of Admittance; released the definitive New Weird America compilation The Golden Apples of the Sun; and curated 2006's Arthur-Ball and 2005's Arthur-Fest events, which featured a variety of artists from the movement.

New Weird America is not a unified movement. It was a term derived by journalists such as post-rock and indie rock. Many of these bands do not identify with this term but have been lumped into it by the press. The underground American scene has been around for a long time.

Some bands and musicians classified with this movement include:

External links

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