Gimme Weird Bands (The Return)

Cafe Society
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Well about two years ago, I requested a list of weird bands. I now want more. MORE I tell ya!

Here’s the bands I like, including the ones that were mentioned in that thread, that fill the spot:

The Eccentric Opera
The Tiger Lillies
Sentimental Bus
Geinou Yamashirogumi
downy
Cirque du Soleil – Alegria and Mystere
Crash Worship – Espontaneo
J.A. Seazer

Deerhoof
Rasputina
Arcturus
Merzbow – Weird, but didn’t like
Polysics – Weird but didn’t like

Tried and didn’t find particularly/sufficiently weird:

Gentle Giant – Mildly odd
Malice Mizer – Normal
The Unicorns – Normal
Mogwai – Good band, good music, but more mellow than weird and not a lot of variety
Kronos Quartet – World music
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Good music. Not weird
Captain Beefheart – More playing while high than weird
Frank Zappa – Generally more parody than weird. Though I do like Willie the Pimp quite a lot

I tried to find a few of the other bands listed in the previous thread, and will probably check through them again now that YouTube exists, but I encourage you all to post any new (or old) exotic groups out there.

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Super Furry Animals (first album only: Mwng)?
Cocorosie?
Ethyl Meatplow?
Aisha Kandisha’s Jarring Effects?

3

-Current 93
-I haven’t listened to very much of them, but what I’ve heard of Premature Ejaculation is pretty strange.
-Legendary Pink Dots

And I noticed in the last thread someone suggested The Residents, which is what first springs to mind when I think “weird band.”

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Gogol Bordello.

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Mclusky. see if you can find the songs “Without MSG I Am Nothing” and “To Hell with Good Intentions.”

Aaron Macdonald while you’re at his site, download “She’s a Witch”, “Defeated at Last” and “The Saddest Song.”

Ass Ponys. find “God Tells Me To” and “Swallow You Down”

Bob Tilton. songs such as “Be my Valentine” and “Run Horsey Run”

Devendra Banhart. Especially “Insect Eyes”

…but have you ever heard Incubus’ S.C.I.E.N.C.E. album? That’s really weird. So much so that I’m still surprised they gained mainstream popularity on the scale they did.

6

Todd Rundgren’s album A Wizard, A True Star

Animal Collective

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Frog Eyes
Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd (and Syd Barrett’s solo work)
The Pixies
Tom Waits, depending on the album
Devo
David Bowie
The Stranglers
The Soft Boys
Robyn Hitchcock
Oingo Boingo
Lene Lovich
Neutral Milk Hotel

8

The Birthday Party

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Woven Hand
Of Montreal
Acid Mothers Temple
The B-52s :slight_smile:

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Les George Leningrad
Frog Eyes
Jay Reatard
The Besnard Lakes
Animal Collective
Lightning Bolt
Liars
Boris
The Death Set
The Fiery Furnaces
Joe Meek and the Blue Men
Muscles
Oneida
Sunset Rubdown
Thomas Tantrum
Times New Viking
Xiu Xiu
Wolf Eyes
YACHT
All albums = WIN

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Thin White Rope

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Ulver, the main project of Garm, who did vocals on the Arcturus albums I mentioned in the last thread. No single album really stands out as weird, but what really makes them is that, even though I have and have listened intently to everything they’ve ever recorded, I literally have no idea what their next album will sound like.

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[QUOTE=SuntanTigerTamer]
Oneida
[/QUOTE]
Does anyone else have a strange almost viseral reaction to their song “Happy New Years”? I wouldn’t be surprised if it induces seizures in some people. Yet it’s not a bad song…

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[QUOTE=PaulParkhead]
Thin White Rope
[/QUOTE]

Nice one.

This thread may have some good suggestions. I posted some off-the-wall stuff in there with links.

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Wow, people talking about Oneida? On the Straight Dope? I never thought that would happen.

They’re signed to a record label that’s located less than a mile away from my house. I like The Wedding a lot. I used to play it at work all the time at my old job, which annoyed the hell out of everyone. People would walk in and you could just tell they were thinking, “what the fuck is this…noise?”

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Here’s an A to Z list of some great stuff:
AIT!
Beyond Sensory Experience
Cyclotimia
Death in June
Elijah’s Mantle
First Law
Galas, Diamanda
Hafler Trio
Inade
Job Karma
Kirchin, Basil
Lucisferrato
Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud
Nurse With Wound
Organization Toth
People Like Us
Quatro Bravo Eballieros
Renaldo & The Loaf (Creator of perhaps the weirdest album of all time, Songs for Swinging Larvae)
Stahlwerk 9
Today I’m Dead
Ultra Milkmaids
Volcano the Bear
Whitehouse
Xanopticon
Yello
Zoviet France
[plug] I do a radio show each week at WTJU.net. Hear it Thursday mornings from 1am to 3am EST. “The Hep Imp Show”-- Two hours that focus almost exclusively on weird music. Give it a listen! [/plug]

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Actually, let me just bring my post from the other thread and add to it here

[QUOTE=pulykamell]
If we’re going for kind of out-there music, there’s

The Locust. Try The Half-Eaten Sausage Would Like to See You In His Office or Psst…Is That a Halfie in Your Pants. I don’t really know much about the band, but I do kind of find them fascinating. Not something I could listen to everyday, but I think the way they cram about twenty different musical ideas into a one-minute space is quite nothing like I’ve ever heard before.

Xiu Xiu. Try Apistat Commander. I’m only really familiar with their album “The Promise,” but never has a band made me feel so, I dunno, uneasy with their music. It’s like listening to the musical equivalent of a mental breakdown. Very effective, in my opinion.

Messer Chups. Crazy experimental electronic horror surf circus cartoon music from St. Petersburg. Here’s “Go Satan Go.” Wacky stuff.

NOM. Perhaps the original Russian indie band. I could ease you in with this familiar tune. Or try this one. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re available on iTunes. Eastern European absurdism at its finest.

I’m also sure something by Slovenian rockers Laibach would fit the spirit of this thread.

The Moog Cookbook. This duo does instrumental covers of pop songs, with stylistic twists, on vintage analog synthesizers. Blackhole Sun. Are You Gonna Go My Way. As goofy as the music may sound, listen carefully. It’s obviously tongue-in-cheek and fun, but there’s a deep musicality underneath it with the wonderful subtleties to the synthesized textures and orchestration.
[/QUOTE]

I suspect you may also enjoy Stereo Total, here’s "I Love You, Ono.

Fiery Furnaces have been mentioned, here’s a link to “Tropical Iceland.”

Perhaps Cibo Matto, here’s Know Your Chicken.

Dresden Dolls, "Girl Anachronism.

Some more serious stuff that might be considered “weird,” depending on what perspective you’re coming from:

M83 (“America”)

Wire (“Practice Makes Perfect”)

My Bloody Valentine (“Only Shallow”)

Cocteau Twins (“Heaven or Las Vegas”)

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I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned Hawkwind or Gong so far.

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The GO! Team (I don’t like most of their stuff, but the band has two drummers, SOMETHING has to be off there).

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Oooh,the Tiger Lillies. They rule.

But you don’t care for the Kronos Quartet? Have you ever heard their version of Purple Haze? It also rules.

I note Renoldo and the Loaf, but no love for the Residents?