New Weird America

After discovering the music of Devandra Banhart recently, I’ve been avidly exploring the contemporary folk genre. In particular, I’ve been enjoying some music (not all of it, mind you) from the New Weird America movement. Bizarre name, I agree, but my taste was sullied, so to speak, ever since I became interested by the Dada, Expressionist, and Surrealist movements in film school. It’s clear that these older movements are an inspiration to the NWA artists.

In “Little Yellow Spider” (track #2), Banhart has very personal conversations with a number of animals and even the sun and moon:

And hey there mister happy squid, you move so psychedelically
You hypnotize with your magic dance all the animals in the sea
For sure

And oh all of the animals, all the animals

And hey there Mr. Morning Sun, what kind of creature are you
I can’t stare, but I know you’re there
Goddamn, how I wish I knew

And hey there Mrs. Lovely Moon, you’re lonely and you’re blue
It’s kind of strange the way you change
But then again we all do, too.

Check out the compilation I created using mixwit (no downloads necessary); you don’t even need to own the songs. Most artists can be considered as part of the NWA.