Mr. Bungle is pretty damn strange whilst remaining mostly listenable, and sometimes downright catchy.
One of my favorite bands. I have a friend who has been their lighting director for about 20 years now but sadly he has never been able to get me on tour. I was hooked back in the early '80s when I saw and heard their cover of James Brown’s It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World.
If we’re gonna mine that period, let’s not overlook Throbbing Gristle’s Hamburger Lady, a truly disturbing song.
And because I think he’s great, lemme mention Johnny Dowd - Bad Memories.
I’m a *huge *fan of The Residents. Yes, a lot of the their pieces are odd. But upon closer inspection you’ll find much of their music is actually quite conventional as far as melody and timing goes.
There’s a lot of odd (and awesome) music out there. Check out Renaldo and the Loaf, Captain Beefheart, the Velvet Underground, and early Sonic Youth. Just to name a few.
Infinity by Aphrodite’s Child.
I’m rather amazed that Bohemian Rhapsody ever became a big hit, though certainly the rest of Queen’s music was perfectly approachable.
I’ll throw out eX-Girl’s Hettakorii No Ottokotou.
I have one merzbow song which is actual music, with some British girl singing, but I don’t know the title nor which album it came from, or I’d find a YouTube link for it. Does anyone know?
I was an Uncle Willie’s Eyeball Buddy back in the day. My old vynal Residents album are worn. I only have seem The Residents perform live twice (Cube-E and Demons Dance Alone), but both shows were astonishing.
You can just say “Throbbing Gristle”. All their music was weird/good.
Aye, but that song is creepy, even for them.
I did a radio show for many years on UVA’s volunteer station, WTJU. It was (and still is) free-form radio where the DJ can play whatever he/she wants. My show was at 1am so I could get away with almost anything. One of my best discoveries was the Russian distributor Zhelezobeton. I’d read from their amazing catalog, order stuff, and a month or so later it would show up in a colorful box. Sometimes the CD-Rs would play, other times they would not and I would be left with just cool packaging and wonder about what the music would have sounded like. It was always fun playing music on my show that I was pretty sure no other radio station in the country was playing.
Many of these Russian artists have free stuff available for streaming. Here’s some *Lunar Abyss Quartet *: Hyperborean.
I see that Snowboarder Bo’s posted in here so I’m sure that the oddest stuff I’ve ever heard will be in this thread. 
As I’m listening through the posts, I’ll mention Billie Holiday’s version of “Strange Fruit”. It’s a horribly haunting tune that I rarely finish listening to.
That Ligeti (?) piece in “2001” when Dave is going through the space warp. I first heard that on one of our local creature feature Saturday afternoon movie shows.
That Dead Can Dance piece from “The Mist” when they’re escaping from the supermarket.
Freestyle jazz is often indistinguishable, to someone not familiar with it, with children playing instruments before having had any lessons.
In terms of the oddest thing I’ve ever heard that is identifiably a song, though - that is, something that is not just nonsense, or experimental, or MEANT to challenge one’s assumptions of what a song could be, something that actually got played a lot on the radio - you’re going to have to go pretty far to top the B-52s’ “Rock Lobster.” Of all the songs that most people at least 30-40 years old will recognize, that is surely the weirdest. The song is meant to follow the pattern of a conventional pop song, and it does, but it’s just weird. It has a weird arrangement, weird vocals, and weird lyrics. Everyone involved in it is weird, and they play and sing weird.
One problem I’m having is, much of the strangest stuff I’ve heard is so obscure I can’t find it online.
I actually have this on vinyl. One of the few records I have.
Agreed. I get excited when I see threads like this and find others who are interested in this type of music. So much to share, but a lot of it is just not out there to link.
Here’s a fun one:
Complacent American by The German Shepherds from back in 1985. It might become more relevant in the coming months.
Me too. I have a few hundred old vinyl (I can spell it right after coffee)records. Some were damaged by mildew when I was forced to live in a damp basement for a while a couple of decades ago. I replaced most of them on CD, but there’s a bunch of old Residents, Renaldo, TG, etc upstairs gathering dust. My turntable died years ago.
Obligatory Die Tödeliche Doris link.
At Biotop - I’m also in a position where I feel I shouldn’t shamelessly self-promote, even though I’m tempted. I’ve been involved in the Norwegian noise-music scene for a while now, alone or in various collaborations, and the output could definitely be classified as odd.
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
What about “Dad, I’m in Jail” from the same album?