What odd older/newer bands have you guys listened to? My most recent have been Devo and Wilco. Devo is by far my most favorite because of the their such strange tones. And Wilco? Well to me he sounds like some left over hippy.

Wilco really is kind of alternate country. They began as "Uncle Tupelo" until the line up changed slightly.

I really don't think you can get much stranger than Nurse With Wound. Or much more brilliant

Odd bands?

Try:

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Behold the Arctopus
Arcturus
Mr. Bungle
The Jelly Jam
Frogg Cafe

I would also recommend sleepytime gorilla museum. Stolen babies is also a good choice. The music sounds similar to sleepytime gorilla museum only much more conventional sounding.(which when compared to most music is still rather odd.)

I would have to say The Mars Volta is a good one. Not only are the tunes rather catchy, the genre hard for me to place, and the music itself is more "3-D", with different sounds from each speaker, vocals going from one side of the headphones to the other.
Although Mudmen are quite different for modern-day Rock, seeing as they have the consistant use of bagpipes. A rock band with bagpipes is all too nifty.

In answer to this question, what haven't I listened to?

You might enjoy Tubeway Army, Captain Beefheart, Glass Eye, Broadcast, CAN, Enon, Orbital, The Orb, Joanna Newsome, Popul Vuh, Yo La Tengo...

I'll leave it to you to look them up to know what they sound like.

EDIT: Oh, and you should listen to Devo and study them. They are very, very important in the grand scheme of modern music.

How are catchy tunes odd?

I'm not denying that The Mars Volta is odd, mind you, but there are better reasons!

I feel their chord structures feature the perfect blend of consonance and dissonance.
Their genre, while difficult, can be placed. One could argue that they are of the "Art Rock" variety, drawing influences from modern hardcore punk and jazz fusion (i.e. Mahavishnu Orchestra - another great group to look up).

Most defiantly, Mark Mothersburgh has created a lot of music for a lot of today's TV shows and video games.

You should check out Five Iron Frenzy if you like bagpipes in a rock band.

Metallica
Best Metal Band Of All Time
ROCK ON!!

And yet, they're not in the least bit odd. In fact, they're quite commercial. Ergo, not really suited for what the OP was talking about.

Haha, they're not. I just can't pin-point the element that makes The Mars Volta different from anything else I've ever listened to.


Thanks for the suggestion, I just might do that. Eventually. Yea, I'm a procrastinator.

Forgot to add Flogging Molly. They have an accordion, fiddle, and a mandolin in a addition to the normal rock band line up.

all this talk of folk rock, and no one bothered to mention Corvus Corax.