New Weird America?

Yesterday while youtube-ing in search of some new ear candy for the upcoming week I came across the reference of Devendra Banhart being labeled under the music genre of "New Weird America".  What is "New Weird America"? And since when was there ever a "Weird America" genre to begin with? To answer my questions of curiosity I turned to the ever trusty wikipedia (HA!). "New Weird America - psychedelic folk musical movement of the mid/late 2000s; influenced by 1960 -70's, ethnic music, and free jazz", and apparently the term was coined in the August 2003 issue of The Wire. So I guess there was never an "Old Weird America", but rather the perspective of 60's and 70's folk music as weird. Sure the music was kinda trippy and its placement into modern cookie cutter pop and hip hop would label it as obscure, but weird? Weird has a kind of negative connotation, does it not? I wonder why such a small amount of people have an ear for folksy music. I'd like to think mainstream music has hidden messages and shit to lure people into being hooked - it's probably true. Sure, I get hooked all the time. Por ejemplo: Just a minute ago some kid on my floor started blasting a super popular song and some girl all the way on the other side of the hall shouted "Yo play that song like ten billion times! Play it on repeat man!". Let's step away from the radio for a minute shall we and sway out to some New Weird America:

KELCIE.