Inspired by groups such as Wild Asparagus and Nightingale, as well as the traditional Irish fiddlers Martin Hayes and Tommy Peoples, Popcorn Behavior released their first album in 1994 when Amidon and Bartlett were 14 and 13, respectively, and Stefan was 10.

As a teenager, Amidon discovered music by artists such as Tony Conrad, Albert Ayler, Yo La Tengo, Miles Davis and Don Cherry, as well as reissues of field recordings of the Old Weird America such as the Harry Smith Anthology, the Alan Lomax Southern Journey series, and the songs of Dock Boggs.

[8] Amidon's first album of songs, But This Chicken Proved False Hearted (2007), was made with longtime collaborator Thomas Bartlett and was initially released on the Los Angeles-based electronic label Plug Research.

His third album, I See the Sign (2010), was also produced by Sigurðsson and featured multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and orchestral arrangements by Muhly, with guest vocals by Beth Orton.

Writing about the recorded version of The Only Tune, which appeared on Muhly’s 2008 album Mothertongue, Greil Marcus said, "It’s incalculably spooky, the way the action comes out of nowhere, the way Amidon has prepared you to expect nothing."

Between 2002 and 2006, Amidon devised a multimedia program called "Home Alone Inside My Head," consisting of "self-inflicted field recordings," drawn comics, short videos, storytelling and improvisation.

He excerpted the project online and performed it in full at experimental music and art spaces around New York City and Brooklyn and beyond, including NYC’s The Kitchen and MAD Museum, Monkeytown in Brooklyn, the AVA gallery on NYC’s Lower East Side, Cincinnati’s CAC, the Kuhturm Gallery in Leipzig, and MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA.

In September 2016, Amidon hosted a multi-artist tribute to Pete Seeger at Ireland’s National Concert Hall in Dublin,[23] featuring Irish and American artists such as Tommy Sands, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, The Voice Squad, Bell X1 and others.