Joanna Newsom, wtf?

I have to admit that I've been avoiding the music of Joanna Newsom based entirely off things that really have nothing to do with the actual music. For example, let's take a look at Miss Newsom (and a Joanna Newsom associate, Devendra Banhart).





Ok... before I'd ever heard of Joanna Newsom, I read an article about Devendra Banhart on pitchfork and discovered that he looks like an evil wizard on crack. I try to stay away from music created by crack wizards, and also music by crack wizards' associates, and so...

The thing is, I don't really know how I found out they were associates anyway. There's a good chance they aren't, for all I know.

Besides the Banhart association, I'd read that Miss Newsom has a high pitched voice and plays a harp. Not really my thing, but I'll usually give anything a shot.




The thing is, I listen to music created by the two fellows above (Max Cavalera of Sepultura/Soulfly and David Lee Roth (if you don't know who David Lee Roth is you just don't deserve to live)) more often than I'd like to admit, and neither of them are exactly pretty.

So who am I to judge, really? I'm ugly myself.

With that in mind, I downloaded a Newsom track today, and while I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, my very first thought was "Why didn't anyone tell me she sounded like Shirley Temple?"

Oh man... awesome.