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You get the drift. For every Mazzy Star we’ve had twelve other bands like Medicine who simply escaped popular notice. And when “New Weird America” came to the forefront of independent music in 2004, most notably after Arthur magazine released the genre-defining compilation album The Golden Apples of the Sun, we knew in a short matter of time that this was a sound that people were going to hang onto. And the line-up is impressive: Jana Hunter, Devendra Banhart (who curated the record), Vetiver (with Hope Sandoval!), Little Wings, etc. It was, across the board, an exciting and talented roster of performers. Of course, not everyone agrees; music fans to this day are still sorely divided on whether or not Joanna Newsom is even listenable, and CocoRosie have their detractors as well. But what’s even more notable is how many of these performers have gone on to achieve an impressive degree of popular recognition. Newsom’s career has only blossomed, and Banhart, Antony, and Vetiver have all gone on to at least become hipster household names.

And then, there are those on the compilation who, good as they may be, have not. Kevin Barker’s charming, folksy work with Currituck Co. has not made the inroads that his sound songwriting and impressive musical capabilities had foretold. And on the weirder end of the New Weird America spectrum stands Viking Moses, another fascinating artist who has again managed to duck the acclaim of a Newsom, Hunter, or even a Scout Niblett. Brendon Massei, solo or with help from a few associates, has been recording as Viking Moses since 1994 when his first cassette release Live at Benway Bop first made its way into a few hands. He has kept an impressive discography of everything he has (and hasn’t) released, and his output has been wide-ranging. Massei flirts with the experimental and traditional, and his work has spanned releases on everything from the respectable Marriage Records out of Portland to the dubious-sounding Fuck It Tapes.

What Viking Moses offers is unpredictability. As fascinating or talented Devendra Banhart may be, there’s no way to disguise that his career has taken on a mainstream bend, what with sold-out shows at large concert halls and songs used in commercials. His latest Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon was an exercise in excessive genre-hopping that, despite its charms, failed to surprise in any sense of the word. Viking Moses is a surprise. It’s the expectation of soft songwriting and getting a napalm bomb, or imagining of rock and roll hysterics but being granted a strong voice but delicate guitar overtures. Massei’s project thrives on unpredictability, which itself might burden him with the label of “eccentric,” which often precludes actually listening to the artists to which the descriptor is attached.

More recently, Viking Moses has stepped out in a big way with a trio of releases. The first is Crosses, a soft, emotional album that Massei has helped make obscure by releasing only as an import-only on the Poptones label. The craziness that sometimes inhabits Massei during live performances is culled and distilled, then reborn as forward-thinking folk songs that would easily find Massei an appreciative fan base – were they able to purchase a physical copy of the record for less than twenty-five dollars. The next release worth mentioning is Swollen & Strange: The Songs of Neutral Milk Hotel out on the historic Fire Records in the U.K.. Since Fire has been granted the responsibility of re-releasing Neutral Milk Hotel’s then-overlooked debut On Avery Island, perhaps they assumed it made sense to put out this tribute E.P. by Viking Moses. But of course, the songs are redone to the point that most of their fuzzy weirdness is re-imagined, and Neutral Milk Hotel fans, notoriously obsessive, were not sure what to make of it. Jeff Mangum’s songs are, despite being widely appreciated, only starting to trickle into other musician’s albums or live sets. Mangum is sort of a holy relic of indie rock, and “serious” musicians are as apt to cover a Neutral Milk Hotel song they are to toss off a Beatles cover onto their debut album. But again – Massei didn’t get the memo. Last, and perhaps most interesting is a Golden Ghost/Viking Moses collaboration that the artists have been selling on their joint tour. Golden Ghost is an even more under-the-radar project than Viking Moses, and is the sole work of someone named Laura Sue hailing from New York. To date Golden Ghost has only one single to its name, The Orca and the Eskimo. But on this tour, the two artists put together a pretty vibrant and all-over collaborative mini-EP. Chasing down pretty acoustic numbers, shaky freak-folk, and even rap(!) these two have found in one another a sympathetic ear and a partner-in-crime to keep them on their toes.

It’s been four years since The Golden Apples of the Sun, and the paths of the players on this record have occasionally intersected but – as they must – the players have all taken different paths. Unlike The Paisley Underground in the 80s, New Weird America hasn’t simply sunken into memory, or, like Shoegaze, been propelled just one or two starlets upon the world and foisted obscurity onto the others. With such unusual artists in its roster, maybe this movement, if it wasn’t just a critical invention to begin with – is all but over. But with so much talent in its roster, we’ve already seen their individualized talents come to fruition through a number of projects and albums. And while Viking Moses is something special, we’ve still not seen everything of which Massei is capable. Hopefully the next few years will change all of that.

You may republish this article if you link back to this original. Photo by Rhonda Turnbough.