For now, all I can think of is Placebo’s first CD which featured a Djeridoo(or however you spell that word). It is pretty cool when you hear the mellowness mixed with the bass and drums. Oh, and Brian’s voice. 
Check out “I Know” or “Swallow”. Unfortunately, the guy (who was also the drummer) who played the instrument left the band shortly after the first album was recorded.
Hi, Insert Name Here!
On “Jeannie Needs a Shooter”, Warren Zevon uses a .44 magnum as a percussive instrument, firing it into a barrel of sand.
“The Lumberjack Song” by Jackal features a chainsaw.
In Roundabout by Yes listen to the middle section. The story goes that the percussion equipment hadn’t arrived while the band was laying down the tracks. They fumbled around the studio for something else they could use and found some old milk bottles in a closet. The drummer placed two side by side, tapped them with the sticks and you can very distinctly hear this effect in the song.
I’m not going to flat-out call you wrong on that, but I think you are. I remember distinctly hearing an interview with the band (or some members thereof) back when that song came out about all the electronic magic they had to work to make their guitars sound like bagpipes.
And curse you, David Cronan. I came in to mention the cash register.
There I was, trying to think of another example while watching TV… and ‘Been Caught Stealing’ by Jane’s Addiction came on - complete with it’s ‘barking dogs’ intro.
Sweet.
Oh, and thanks for the welcomes
I believe the Kinks used a harpsichord on some of the songs on the album Something Else by the Kinks, such as “Two Sisters”.
As has already been mentioned, some early Who songs feature French horn courtesy of bassist John Entwistle. The Who wanted to have a cello on “A Quick One While He’s Away”, but this was early in their career and they didn’t have money to pay a cello player. So the band just sings “Cello cello cello cello, cello cello cello cello” at the part where they wanted to have a cello. “Dr. Jimmy”, off of Quadrophenia has a violin part. That album also uses a number of sound effects, such as a train whistle, to good effect. The Who actually had to bribe a train conductor to blow his whistle for them to record – Quadrophenia was recorded in quadrophonic sound and released in both quadrophonic and stereo, and since the stock sound effects available at the time were mostly in mono they were unsuitable for the project.
Pearl Jam’s “Parting Ways” has a viola part, and “Soon Forget” is played on the ukelele. “Bugs” of course is on the accordian, but that’s more of a novelty song so I don’t know if it counts. There’s a cellist credited on their album Ten, but I can’t remember what song he plays on. I do know that the hidden instrumental track on that same album features a fire extinguisher and a pepper shaker.
Didn’t the Rolling Stones use a marimba on Paint it Black?
Barenaked Ladies used a baritone sax, a toy xylophone, and several other instruments. Depeche Mode used string sections in some songs on their Songs of Faith and Devotion album. They also sampled the king of weird-instrument-using bands:
Einstuerzende Neubauten. But they’re not mainstream, and they’re not even rock (unless you count industrial as rock), so I won’t count them. They used burning oil, recorded howls of hungry dogs, power drills, circle saws, pencil-on-paper, and even the lead singer pounding percussively on his chest as instruments.
KMFDM, in a few songs, uses sounds that simply couldn’t have come from normal instruments.
The 1870 Overture uses a cannon, IIRC.
Chas.E - Were it not in the early 70s, I’d have thought you were talking about Depeche Mode. One of their albums was called Speak and Spell, if I’m not mistaken. However, since they were founded circa 1980, they couldn’t be the ones you speak of.
Those are my twenty-thousands of a dollar.
IIRC Zoggie, the marimba was on “Under My Thumb.”
The ocarina solo on the Troggs’ “Wild Thing”
Mellotrons and Chamberlins aren’t technically synthesizers, since they use magnetic tapes (actual recordings) of the vocals, strings, flutes or whatever.
Lots of bands have used Mellotrons, but most casual listeners don’t realize it.
http://www.mellotron.com/mellolis.htm
Very cool instruments.
Medicine Head used a jew’s-harp on ‘One And One Is One’ (UK No. 3 1973).
Right at the end of the Buddy Holly and the Crickets song “I’m Gonna Love You Too” there is the sound of an actual cricket that was living in the echo chamber. It even chirps in time to the song. You have to crank up the volume to here it,or listen on earphones.
I believe The Who also used one on “Join Together”.
Thunderclap Newman used a kazoo quite often, most notable in Wilhelmina and Accidents.
Uh, Redukter, that’s the 1812 Overture, not 1870. Doesn’t actually have a cannon in it originally but it’s fashionable these days, if played outdoors, to use one if you can get one.
Which band was it that used all kids’ toy instruments to record an album? I believe it was somewhere in the early 1990’s but it may have been a little earlier than that.
Also, in the intro to “Red Light, Green Light” the Wildhearts used band members’ and friends in various cars and motorcycles revving the engines and honking the horns.
The Wildhearts have used other strange things to accent songs as well, such as percussion on a stainless steel step ladder, a ping pong table, a coatrack, and an actual, honest to goodness sonic boom!
I don’t know if you’d call them a rock band, but Tortoise has a vibraphone player. The song eros has a really cool melody played on electric guitar, vibraphone, and turntable.
The intro to Metallica’s One has machine-gun fire in it, but I’m not sure that counts.