Does anyone know of some really strange music that you can actually buy(amazon)?
Preferably not something everyone knows about. Weird and just plain silly stuff is great.(not like devo or anything)
All replies are greatly appreciated
Splu Urtaf
oingo boingo is pretty weird, although they’re actually somewhat well known.
Frank Zappa, especially his later orchestral pieces like “Toads of the Short Forest” “Uncle Meat” and “Weasles Ripped my Flesh”.
When wrangled into babysitting I find a great way to entertain little kids is to put a sock puppet on both hands and act out little stories and dances based on the dingy, groopy, froopy music (made an eight year old pee himself with laughter doing that once, just about the highest compliment you can get from a kid).
On a related Frank Zappa note. Try Captain Beefheart. I can’t stand them myself, but a buddy of mine likes them. It sounds like 5 guys in 5 parts of the world recorded different songs(very poorly, I might add) and then dubbed them all together. Deffinitely classified as wierd. They were friends with Zappa which is how they got a record deal.
“Explode Together” by XTC is a collection of deconstructed XTC songs, created by XTC’s lead singer/songwriter/founder Andy Partridge. One of the strangest albums I’ve ever heard. For XTC fans, it’s always fun to try and guess the original song.
In the same vein is the Dukes of Stratosphear’s “Chips from the Chocolate Fireball.” The Dukes are actually XTC pretending to be a forgotten 60’s psychedelic band. “Chips” is actually two previous albums, “25 O’Clock” and “Psionic Psunspot” on one CD.
I also recommend both volumes of “The Carl Stalling Project.” Stalling wrote all the music for the Warner Brothers cartoons, from 1933 to 1958. The CDs are a sample of his best works from the classic toons.
Finally, if you liked the Stalling CD, get Raymond Scott’s “Restless Nights and Turkish Twilights.” Scott was an oddball composer during the 30s and 40s. Stalling used many of his tunes when composing cartoon soundtracks. You’ve never heard the names, but I’m sure you’ll recoginize “Powerhouse”, “Dinner Music For a Pack of Hungry Cannibals”, and “The Toy Trumpet”.
I don’t know if it’s still available, but Gong Angel’s Egg is fairly “weird”. They’re an early-70s band, but I heard they’re on tour.
“Hari hari supermarket! Hari Hari London bus! Hari Hari ladies lavatory! Hari hari hari hari…”
Ed’s Redeeming Qualities is weird and funny. I love them as they are my favourite band. Do a search and you can find the lyrics to Waiter and Lawn Darts. Those two songs are among their best.
HUGS!
Sqrl
I’ll second the Cap’n Beefheart suggestion. Try “Trout Mask Replica.”
Also probably worth checking out:
Negativland – “Escape From Noise”
Ween – “godWEENsatan”
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 – pick any one. they’re all good
Well, for all-around general weirdness, it’s hard to beat They Might Be Giants.
Or you could always try their less-talented Canadian equivalents Moxy Früvous.
I have just one word for you.
JesusFish
Check it out at http://www.angelfire.com/me3/yesterdayman/jesusfish.html
What the … ? I swear I did those links right. Dammit! I guess not.
http://www.tmbg.com - They Might be Giants
http://www.fruvous.com - Moxy Früvous
They are not! 
I’m a huge boingo fan!
try these bands:
Current 93 - pseudo gothic ambience stuff
Einsturzende Neubauten - a german band who make odd music. Strategies Against Architecture is made by banging on things found in construction sites.
Bran Van 3000 - This is an odd band that is sometimes techno sometimes acoustic with odd and clever lyrics.
They Might Be Giants can be odd
Infectious Grooves - thrash/hip hop/funky fun
Fishbone - too black for white radio too white for black radio… funky/peppy/ska-ish
King Missile - weird and fun
The Toy Dolls - Happy Peppy Funny Punk
Los Straightjackets - Mexican Surf Guitar band
Frank Zappa is always good
The Billy Nayer Show- especially the album “The Ketchup and Mustard Man”
That’s all I can think of for now.
Try the Was Not Was album What Up Dog featuring the classic: Hi Dad. I’m in Jail.
Check this out! Plus, It’s Cheap!
Geez, I think most of the stuff listed is pretty mainstream. Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart (who is a person) have been around and popular for so long, I can’t believe they’d be considered weird. They Might be Giants, Ween and Oingo Boing is just pop music with a few effects pedals.
Anyway, here are some genuinely “weird” (which I’m interpreting as original) bands
Boredoms - Tight, interesting and energetic band from Japan. Lots of stopping and starting, kick ass vocals and guitar. Amazing in concert.
Mr. Bungle - Each album of theirs is differnet, my favorite is Disco Volante. Read the description on Amazon to see what appeals to you
Yma Sumac - This lady recorded her albums back in the 1950’s and 60’s, but my mother loves her and would want me to mention her. She has a four octave range which is weird to me because her voice sounds like some freaky instrument. She sings in Spanish and does a lot of mambos. The musicians on her albums are really good.
Nina Hagen - Has been my favorite singer since I was 12. Was a trained opera singer from Germany, she speaks Russian, German and English and is absolutely incredible. Get “Nunsexmonkrock”, unless you’re religious.
These are just the ones off the top of my head. There was some band that was all static, but I can’t remember what they were called. That’s pretty weird. Perhaps I’ll think of more later
A couple of oddball instrumental groups:
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet do songs that they swear aren’t surf-rock. Best known for the theme song from “the Kids in the Hall” TV show.
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic are just about indescribable: semi-classical, semi-jazz pieces played on standard rock instrumentation. They do a great version of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”
And the wierdest, most fun music I own is the soundtrack from the Japanese animated movie Akira, by Geinoh Yamashirogumi. The music is percussion and human voice (all in Japanese, but it’s mostly chanting and vocalizing anyway), and it’s absolutely magnificent. Dunno if it’s still available anywhere; best place to find it used to be comic book stores.
Some good stuff so far
obviously you people aren’t weird. I mean I like Mr.Bungle to but weird? They might be giants? cmon
The only two that really qualify here are Einstander Neubauten and Yma Sumac. I mean surf music is never weird.
So what is some weird stuff you can get?
Renaldo and the loaf - if you don’t like them you haven’t done enough drugs
The Residents- you really shouldn’t have to ask their earlier stuff is better.
Idiot Flesh- one of the greatest performance art bands ever
Sounds of North American Frogs you really can’t go wrong with this one.
Uz Jsme Doma- they play check music with a kind of ska/thrash/nursery rhyme/zappa sensibillity
Zoviet France- they do a lot of nice stuff with tape loops.
There is a whole lot of other stuff, stuff that really is weird, but, I’ll post it when I think of it. Stuff like history of electronic music 1910-1970
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