A lot of people around me think I listen to noise – which is partly true. I found a bunch of interesting music through Dublin Gabber Records. Some of it is okay hardcore but I think they even have their own genre of “noisecore”, which is an accurate description of some of the tracks they have. I’ve also developed a liking to speedcore, which some people don’t mind.
Aqua- including such classics as Barbie Girl and An Apple a Day
I just bought Wakeman’s “The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table” and I think it’s really good.
But as far as wierd music: I have an animaniacs album which I love.
Did anyone say Zappa? Though he’s more satirical, vulgar, and whiney than wierd.
The lounge lizards, the Klezmatics, Nigel Westlake’s Onamatopeia (sp?), most things played on John Schaeffer’s radio show “New Sounds”.
How about Philip Glass with Knee Play Five, Einstien on the Beach. Tangerine Dream, most Echo and the Bunnymen, early Alan Parsons Project, Enya, Pink Floyd’s Several Species of Small Furry Animals in a Cave Grooving With a Pic (I think thats the title). Wow, I look at my collection and see just how wierd I am.
I’ll second Ween. I like banjo-ey fiddle-y music (bluegrass, I guess), and a fair amount of electronic stuff (FSOL, aphex twin, orbital especially.)
The Nairobi Trio theme?
I like Sheila Chandra – she’s light-years off of most people’s radar. A sensual voice used experimentally. She doesn’t use any instruments – just her voice and sometimes an electronic drone accompaniment. The Zen Kiss is my favorite.
Sheila Chandra is the only singer who plays her voice as a rhythm instrument (on “Speaking in Tongues”).
I am one who thinks that ‘artists’ such as Christina Aguilera and 'NSync should be regarded as menaces to society.
So-called “weird music” is a lot harder to write. Not only the lyrics, if exist, has to be witty and funny, if that’s the goal, the music must be appealing as well. I remember going to a recital in college in which the trumpet soloist has to play the instrument in very odd ways; the instructions were written on the music sheet. He starts off by playing one quarter-note, then stop for a two-whole note break. The stopping and starting alternated for a while, then the main part of the piece was played. Later on, he played the trumpet by blowing and speaking into the bell part. We cracked up while he played the piece, as was intended. The piece was called “Abbie Hoffman”, I think.
I am a Spike Jones fan, but he did not write a lot of his music. They were more or less infamous remakes of ballads. His version of “Der Fuhrer’s Face” was played in a Disney Oscar award-winning cartoon of the same name. Except in special museums, though, the public will not see this one of Walt Disney’s masterpieces.
No one can make music out of noise better than, of course, Art of Noise. Look for their rendition of “Peter Gunn”.
Oh, ish, Bobby McFerrin also uses his voice as a rhythm instrument. Listen to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.
Anybody want to sing “Fish Heads” with me?
Hey, I’m even a William Shatner fan. Now isn’t that weird?
Hear me out. He has this unique approach to music, a cross between a beat poet and a dramatic reader, while done sober. Of course it comes out positively hilarious. You cannot possibly listen to a piece of music the same way again after our Captain Kirk, the Really Big Head, is done with it. In this way, he is our modern-day Spike Jones. That’s why his Priceline commercials work.
I love Steeleye Span (English electric folk) practically to the exclusion of all else, but I think there are a few other Span fans on the board, so I don’t know how weird that is.
Catrandom
Wow - giving me flashbacks with some of these, Coldfire! I joined the Savatage fan club about ten years ago (only for a short time) - Gutter Ballet is unbelievably weird in so many ways. And even stranger along those lines - have you heard the first Psychotic Waltz record? And lastly, are you one of the 200 people in the world who know about the Awaken the Guardian record? That was my favourite record when I was 15. Memories …
Nowadays, all the music I listen to is weird to someone - if you’ve seen my other threads I’ve talked enough about music, but thanks for the chance to mention some old Progressive bands. Oh - a band I was briefly in (but didn’t record with) put out an amazing but weird record - they’re called Where Echoes End. If you want to check out how badly I fared in my shot at greatness, you can check out
http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~echoes/info.html
HenrySpencer.
Savatage, Aqua and ABBA are weird? I love all three actually I only just discovered Savatage’s music thanks to a friend online.
You want truly weird? Anyone here ever watch Elmopalooza? (I mean willingly not because their child or kid they babysit watches it…) I plan on buying the CD and video soon… sometime when I have money. If I manage to have a choice when babysitting I’ll pop Elmopalooza in rather then Barney and Telletubbies shudders
Try listening to Karlheinz Stockhausen, Harry Partch or Conlon Nancarrow.
Or Scott Johnson.
“Remember that guy … J-John somebody. He was a … he was sort of a …”
I used to like
George Zamfir and his pan pipes
Nobody mentioned
The Squirrel nut ziffers.
Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads.
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum.
I took a fish head out to see a movie
didn’t have to pay to get it in.
Anyhoo. It’s not ha ha weird, more strange weird, but I love Apocalyptica. They’re a Swedish cello quartet that play Metallica songs. They rock.
“Me too” on Weird Al (try “The Night Santa Went Crazy” - his original stuff is by far the best), They Might Be Giants, and the mighty Space Ghost.
Steeleye Span. They’re not around anymore, but their stuff is great. Not that it’s weird, but it’s unique. They took Old English folk songs and play them like they were rock songs. Fuzz bass, drums, wah-wah guitars.
You can’t describe it. It’s something you have to hear. They make it work and I’ve never heard anything else like it.
Haven’t heard Psychotic Waltz, nor Awaken the Guardian. I have all regular Sava albums from Gutter Ballet onward. Streets, naturally, being the best of all. Dead Winter Dead is a close second. They are the absolute kings of Power Ballads.
“Believe” will be played at my funeral. At full volume.
Smeghead, I think Apocalyptica are actually from Finland. A great concept though.
Well, I listen to a lot of really noisy, somewhat unintelligible shit, and I really like some of it. John Zorn’s Naked City disc is an all-time fav, for example.
Lately I am oon a kick getting old CDs from bands which pioneered heavy metal with little fanfare aside from relic collectors. I just got two DUST CDs, and I am trying to track down some SIR LORD BALTIMORE, for example.
Yer pal,
Satan
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“Woolly Bully” by Sam the Sham and the Egyptians. The most fun song ever written.
Another Squirrel Nut Zipper fan here (To the dismay of my GF :))
Kodo. Japenese drums and flute. pretty neat stuff.
I sometimes pop in my Mechwarrior or Mechwarrior 2 game CDs and listen to the soundtracks. For that matter, Redneck Rampage has some killer rockabilly songs like My Baby’s All Liquored Up.
I agree with Coldfire: Rush is considered wierd by most people (Make that “most people with no musical taste”).
Living Color’s second album, Time’s Up, is fairly strange for heavy metal music. I really enjoy it, but I think I was one of five people to buy the CD.