"United States of America wrote songs that were equal parts hypnotic and otherworldly, pushing listeners to reconsider what they could take away from music. Although the band only released one album during their brief two-year-long run from 1967 to 1968, United States of America earned not just a cult following, but credit for their traceable impact on the evolution of psych-rock and experimental pop, likely influencing the wave of Krautrock that would follow as well as bands like Stereolab, Broadcast, and Portishead."
"Born on December 19, 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, Byrd was raised in Tucson, Arizona, where he learned how to play accordion and vibraphone, joined a number of pop and country bands, and tried his hand at writing song arrangements. Byrd quickly scaled his way through academics, going from University of Arizona to study composition, to a graduate program at Stanford University, before leaping to University of California, Berkeley."
Joseph Byrd co-founded the psych-rock band United States of America and died at home in Medford, Oregon on November 2 at age 87. The band released one album during its 1967–1968 run, creating hypnotic, otherworldly songs that influenced psych-rock, experimental pop, Krautrock, and later bands such as Stereolab, Broadcast, and Portishead. Byrd trained as an experimental composer, studying composition at University of Arizona, graduate work at Stanford, and at UC Berkeley, and studied under Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and John Cage. Byrd debuted in New York's avant-garde scene, assisted Virgil Thomson, and performed minimal compositions at Carnegie Hall.
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