What is music that you like that others would find (or you, yourself) find weird or strange? For me, it is a couple of things: 1) "Interstellar Space" by John Coltrane - one of the last Coltrane CDs ever; it is only JC and Rashied (sp?) Ali playing the drums. No bass or piano or anything else. The first time I heard it bewilderment is how I would describe my reaction. 2) Most Aphex Twin (Richard James) stuff - this guy is a genius and has been praised by artists like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, but his stuff is not for everyone. I got into him because of my love for techno/electronica music. One of the most, maybe THE most, experimental artists out there in that genre, his Selected Ambient Works, Volume II has tracks on there that are some of the most beautiful and most disturbing stuff I have ever heard (and sometimes this is accomplished simultaneously). 3) Gyorgy Ligeti - modern avant-garde classical composer who is still alive (he is like 80); made famous by Stanley Kubrick, mainly in "2001". His "Requiem" (the black monolith music) is some of the most beautiful and bizarre music that I have ever heard. 4) Krzysztof Penderecki - another modern avant-garde classical composer who is also still alive and also used by Kubrick (6 of his works are featured in "The Shining"). His music to me almost has a "cartoonish" type quality to it but one that sounds so evil. If you loathe dissonance, then you won't like Penderecki. I know that this is a weird music thread, but hey, I am a weird individual.
Big In Japan Yeah, most Coltrane post-1965 is, at best, unlistenable. My brother's been on my case because I'm listening to too much Ian Dury, but I love that guy.
Electronic - Luening, Ussachevsky Native Amercian flute/tribal Space - Steve Roach, Brain Eno, Bill Laswell etc. Reggae/dub - Lee "Scratch" Perry, King Tubby, etc. Chinese Bamboo Flute/Koto - Nawang Khechog, Stan Richardson etc. Jazz - Run Ra, and the post-1965 Coltrane Psychedelic - Silver Apples, Ultimate Spinach Phillp Glass does great work too of course. You're right Manny, the Gyorgy Ligeti 2001 stuff in insane.
Manny I am with you on Aphex Twin. Some of the most original stuff that has hit the music scene in years. The videos he comes up with are just amazing. One more that I can add to the list: Marilyn Manson
I listen to this a few nights a week by candlelight and damn if I don't almost shed a tear upon hearing 'oh johnny boy' played on the flute. Celtic Twilight - Hearts of Space
Are you in Houston? I used to listen to HOS all the time when I lived in East Texas. I can't find it here in Houston though.
I know it use to come on saturday evenings here in Houston. during a certain period of my life I was listening to it on saturday evenings for awhile there. I'm going to check it out this saturday evening and see if they're still at it. I hope they are because that is really beautiful music. Matter of fact, they use to and may still have a website where you can purchase some of the music they play. and if i'm not mistaken, i think they use to broadcast from U of H or have some sort of affiliation with U of H. I'm not sure though. yeah, those are some sweet sounds man.
Tejano Ranchero music is strange for some people that aren't older to like. Traditional Scottish music might be strange to some people. There's one of my favorite bands called The Shags, which a lot of people might thing is strange.
Wes Borland's (formerly of Limp Bizkit) band - it used to be called Big Dumb Face - I forget what it's called now.... that's some off the wall stuff.
Ween - remember Beavis and Butthead skewering their "Push the Little Daisies" song? That was about as normal as it comes. Roland Kirk - blind jazz musicians who plays as many as 3 horns at one time. Somewhat a mix of Sun Ra and James Brown. Mr. Bungle - Musical collage that veers all over the place Gong - Part jazz fusion, part ambient synthesists and part Monty Python. John Zorn - Check out his Godard/Spillane album, which consists of numerous, short, wildly varying musical bits (no longer than a few seconds) spliced together. It almost sounds like someone changing the radio station every few seconds. Bill Laswell - Bassist who mixes heavy metal, dub and jazz.
Speaking of music (not really weird music, but anyway), I have a lame little story I'd like to share. I'm not at all into popular music, but a few days ago I heard snippets of a song by Linkin Park on TV that I sort of liked, so I decided to download a bunch of Linkin Park MP3s to check out the rest of their stuff. First I tracked down the song that got my attention originally; Numb I think, and after listening to the whole song for the first time I decided, "Yeah.. this is pretty cool." Then, I found another mp3 (I don't remember what it was called) and was again pleasantly surprised, thinking to myself, "Hey.. this one is good too. It sure does sound a lot like the other one, though." The third song yielded the same result; it was good, but sounded almost identical to the others. It was the same case with the fourth, fifth and sixth song. After hearing the seventh, I was shaking my head in disbelief. After the eighth, ninth and tenth, I was laughing hysterically. Every single Linkin Park song sounds exactly the same! There is no variety at all. It's like they came up with one good song and then decided to stop trying, instead just opting to clone it over and over again. Maybe it's just my warped sense of humor, but I find this to be absolutely hilarious. I'll be the first one to admit that I know nearly nothing about modern popular music. Are all of these new "hard" bands like this? Limp Bizkit, Korn, Kid Rock, etc..? Just the same song over and over again?
All those bands sound the same to me. The thing to do right now, THAT I CAN NOT STAND, is for the singer hold some pretty sounding note for a long time "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" The long note is all haronized sounding, with with "rockin" riffs playing behind it. God I hate that crap so much! Thats why we need more bands like Turbonegro and such.
Hands down, the strangest (and genuinely creepiest) music I have ever heard is from Jandek (from Houston, TX !) No one knows who this guy is. He is a recluse who has self-released 35 albums in the last 25 years. He has never played live, doesn't give interviews, and has never been photographed. His only contact information is a P.O. Box located on the north side of town. His music is usually just him and a guitar, just incredibly eerie folk blues, sung in a strangled, terror filled voice. People like Kurt Cobain have name checked him. His music is the creepiest, yet most fascinating music I have ever heard. Most of his records are long out of print and fetch large sums on E-bay. a concise bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jandek There's even a documentary film about Jandek: http://www.jandekoncorwood.com a quote taken from a review of one of his records: "Jandek’s music was like the sound of my life: absolute nothingness, a core numbness, entropy carved out by apathy. Put simply, the record was the most terrifying thing I had ever heard... This wasn’t the usual cultivated eccentricity of Half Japanese or their ilk. No, something about it was organic and genuine. My uneasiness told me Jandek was for real.” <img src="http://ccl.northwestern.edu/tisue/jandek-scans/covers/thumb-0740.jpg">
If he's never been photographed, who is the picture of? Oh, and as for strange music that I enjoy, I listen to Kaizers Orchestra, Polyphonic Spree (has the lead singer from Tripping Daisies) and Kodo, a Japanese percussion group.
Basically. 9 out of 10 bands these days either sound like Nickelback, Limp Bizkit or Blink 182. My submission for the thread is Phoenix Orion. Jedi Mind Tricks baby.
