Category Archives: Polls
June Weird Band Poll: Vote for The Electric Grandmother, Pan, Residude X, Travelled Meat or The Wiggins
Poll time again, kids. Ready to exercise those voting buttons? I know mine is quivering in anticipation so hard I can barely type.
Let’s meet this month’s bands, shall we? A more motley bunch was never before assembled, here or on that other weird band blog you read. But they’re all awesome in their own special way. Like really jacked-up snowflakes.
[Sorry, folks, the poll has now closed. Check back here Wednesday, when the winner will be revealed.]
Read on to learn more about this month’s bands:
The Electric Grandmother
Started in Hawaii and now based in Washington, DC, The Electric Grandmother is a husband/wife duo named Pete and Mary Alice. They call their music, which is based entirely on TV shows and movies from the ’80s, “Sitcom-Core.” (Turns out you really can stick “core” on the end of anything and invent a new genre of music.) Here’s their website, and here’s a link to one of their videos, “Virtual Reality Helmet.”
Pan
Pan is either from Detroit or Los Angeles or possibly both. One of their members, John, wrote to us and described Pan as a “musique-concrete folk duo” and gave us a link to their Bandcamp page, saying, “This is our ‘music.’” Anytime someone feels the need to put “music” in quotation marks when referring their own stuff, that’s usually a good sign.
Residude X
This mysterious figure posted a few YouTube links on our Submit a Band page, with the comment, “Here are a couple of tunes you folks might find interesting.” We did. Here’s his Blogspot, too. And that’s literally all we know about him. Well, that and that he has at least one rabid fan who wrote in several times this past week, asking when the new poll would be live. Sorry to keep you waiting, Charlotte!
Travelled Meat
The trio of Super Anchovy, Chop Suey and The Shits, collectively known as Travelled Meat, hail from Tamworth, Australia and make music that might best be described as “electro-darkwave-noise-pop about animal proteins and poor sanitation.” Here’s their latest EP, Too Much Good Slop, on Bandcamp, and here they are on ReverbNation, where you can listen to other toe-tappers like “The grey meat is all gone.”
The Wiggins
The Wiggins is Jon Read, a one-man noise-rock wrecking crew from Houston, Texas. Here’s how he describes his stuff: “Fucked-up white noise surf-rock and rusty nail salt-in-the-wound folk ballads. All delivered with the pill-drunk unsteadiness of Gene Vincent after the crash.” Here’s his Bandcamp, and here’s a video for his song “Golden Age.”
Voting will end at midnight on Sunday, June 16th, with the winner announced the following Wednesday. So vote early and often, and may the weirdest band win!
May Weird Band Poll: Vote for Carl, Godswounds, Leprachaun Catering, Project BASF and SpazmO!
Poll time again, kids. Ready to get all democratic up in this bitch? I know your voting button fingers are quivering in anticipation.
We’ve got five very different bands this month, so be sure to read more about them below before making your selection. Or fuck it, just vote for the name you like best. It’s not like we can stop you. (P.S. Not trying to bias our readers or anything, but if you don’t think Leprechaun Catering is the best name, there might be something wrong with you.)
[Sorry, folks, the poll has now closed. Check back here Wednesday, when the winner will be revealed.]
Read on to learn more about this month’s bands:
Carl
Carl are a self-described avant-garde, improvisational trio from Austin, Texas. We particularly like this line from their Facebook “About” page: “We like to practice illusion and intimidation through our sound, and promote the exploration of all emotions embedded within the music, by obscuring reality and confusing the senses as well as bathing them in dense stimulation.” Consider us densely stimulated, fellas! You can check out their EP It’s Mom Upside Down via Bandcamp.
Godswounds
This Australian band’s lineup includes Mr. Bungle drummer Danny Heifetz, and they’ve also worked with members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and The Melvins, which might make them the ringers of this month’s poll. Some Taiwanese magazine described their sound as “a soundtrack to a Kaiju video game nightmare,” which sounds pretty awesome. You can check out their latest album, Death to the Babyboomers, on Bandcamp.
Leprechaun Catering
Photo by Nate Door for Impose Magazine
A reader named Freeman turned us on to this experimental Baltimore duo, so they’re being added to this poll without their knowledge and potentially against their will. So be nice to them, OK? Their label, Ehse Records, says they sound like this: “Imagine if H.R. Pufnstuf and Witchiepoo were at a rave and both fully disembodied in a bottomless k-hole, and were then told that they had to arrange a dance version of Jesus Christ Superstar to be performed by an orchestra consisting of Duane Eddy, Ikue Mori, John Entwistle, Tina Weymouth, Lux Interior, Henry Kissinger, Victor Hugo, Gene Krupa, Eraserhead, Gary Coleman, Stewart Copeland, Clarence Clemons, Jimmy Nolan, Tony Blair, John Belushi, Jimmy Guiffre, Keith Emerson, and Animal from The Muppet Show.” Now you really wanna be nice to them, don’t you? Go to the Ehse Records website and listen to the track called “poulet, poulet-poulet, poulet! 1″ for a taste.
Projet BASF
A reader named Patrick is a huge fan of this moody, psychedelic French band, so we’re also adding them to this month’s poll against their will. We’re running amok, people! Pretty much everything about them is in French, but apparently they were just formed in 2012 and they’re influenced by acid rock and Krautrock and “le drone et le psychédélique.” Here’s their Soundcloud page and here’s a video that’s like Schoolhouse Rock on acid.
SpazmO!
SpazmO! (yes, with an exclamation point and a capital “O”…just to annoy you) is the electro-noise-punk solo project of a dude from Milwaukee named Evan DeBauche, who also runs his own record label and has something like seven others bands. As you might expect from such a relentless multitasker, the music of SpazmO! sounds like it was recorded by someone who was simultaneously shotgunning Five Hour Energy, cleaning out the garage, doing step aerobics and playing Mortal Kombat with his dick. Here’s his Soundcloud.
So there you have it. We’ll close voting at 11:59 p.m. (give or take a minute) on Friday, May 24th. So cast your vote ASAFP and may the weirdest band win!
April Weird Band Poll: Vote for The Chewers, Clockwork Orchestra, Clowns and Fetuses, Scab Queen or Tupper Ware Remix Party
It’s that time of the month again, Weirdlings: the time when we stop doing our jobs and saddle you with the onerous task of choosing our next Weird Band of the Week. Don’t take this responsibility lightly, OK? Many a band has gained a whole new fan or three after winning one of these here poll puppies. So it’s kind of a big deal.
[Sorry, folks, the poll has now closed. Check back here Wednesday, when the winner will be revealed.]
Wanna know more about this month’s bands? Read on:
The Chewers
The Chewers are self-described “freaks from the woods of West Virginia making deliberately off-kilter music.” Here’s a link to their Soundcloud page; we recommend starting with “Funnel Head” or “Techno-Slaves.”
Clockwork Orchestra
Clockwork Orchestra is the solo project of Dublin-based songwriter/producer/”control freak extraordinaire” Paul Mangan. “Some people seem to think it’s quite weird,” he says of his music, which he describes as a “bewildering menagerie of sound.” Here’s his Soundcloud. Recommended starting point: “Talking to the Flowers.”
Clowns and Fetuses
Drummer/singer/artist/Theremin-player Rich Polysorbate 60 posted this clip from his band Clowns and Fetuses on our Submit a Band page awhile back, and we’ve been disturbed by it ever since. They’re from right here in Southern California, from a crappy industrial town on the outskirts of downtown L.A. called Vernon, but further details regarding their history or current activities remains a bit sketchy. Rich describes their live shows like this: “One show will be contact mics on power tools; the next show, Casios and lap steel guitar.” Here’s a video from one of their recent shows/installations.
Scab Queen
Scab Queen is Michael Lauden, a producer/noise artist from Athens, Georgia. His debut EP, Tiny Coffins, was recorded in “a server room, laundromat, punk-house combo” and is available on Bandcamp. Here’s a clip of his solo live show, which seems to consist mainly of live drums and improvised, laptop-generated noise.
Tupper Ware Remix Party
Tupper Ware Remix Party hail from Toronto, the same city that gave us last month’s Weird Band Poll winners, Barbara. Here’s how they describe themselves: “Daft Punk, Iron Maiden, Justice and Parliament all smashed into five spandex-clad, keytar wielding, pylon wearing, pelvic thrusting, wildly out of control individuals claiming to be from outerspace, except with way more lazers, confetti, projection screens, and sci-fi references.” Here’s their official website and here’s a link to their EP, The Device, available via Bandcamp.
So there you have it. We’ll close voting at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, April 21st, so help us get the word out…and may the weirdest band win!
March Weird Band Poll: Vote for 8090, Barbara, The Goggenheim, H-Beam, or Tingle in the Netherlands
Since our little blog is growin’ up so fast, we decided it was finally time to move our monthly poll from its former home on Facebook to right here on TWBITW. Don’t worry, Facebook—we still love you! Whenever you invade our privacy, we find it totally adorable.
So cast your vote for a future Weird Band of the Week right here. No cheating! Only one vote per human. (Cats, aliens and our future robot overlords can vote as much as they like.)
[Sorry, folks; this poll has now closed. Check back here next Wednesday, when the winner will be revealed!]
Wanna know more about this month’s bands? Read on:
8090
8090 (pronounced “eight-oh-nine-oh”) is Andy Metz and Seth Williams, a hip-hop duo from Chicago who bust rhymes about the 9-to-5 grind. Here’s a link to their website/Bandcamp page, and here’s a video for the song “Work Music,” which was shot in the most depressing-looking office I’ve seen since that telemarketing job I had in college.
Barbara
Barbara is a pair of brothers from Toronto who end their shows with a dance-off set to a song full of Eyes Wide Shut quotes. You can watch the dance-off here, or you can listen to their EP, Stuck to the Ground, on Bandcamp. We recommend the song about coffee. But then we love pretty much anything that has to do with coffee.
The Goggenheim
The Goggenheim are a band from Oxford, England who have been described as a mix of “performance art, punk pop and psychedelia.” Their drummer Stewart recently shared with us their video for the song “Moth,” which is a good introduction to their style. You can hear more on their website.
H-Beam
H-Beam hail from Nashville, home to one of our favorite weird bands, Here Come the Mummies. (Yes, turns out there’s more in Nashville than just country music.) Much like HCTM, they do wacky costumed stage shows and play rockin’ party-friendly tunes. You can hear their album Useful Box of Hair on their website. We also recommend the video for “Love Panda.”
Tingle in the Netherlands
This duo describe themselves as an “absurdist electro-pop collaboration between poet Helên T and electronic musician Owen J. They’re from Manchester, England. You can read more about them on their blog, and check out some of their music via Soundcloud. We recommend starting with “A Forest of Cocks.”
So there you have it! We’ll close voting on Friday, March 22nd, so help us get the word out, won’t you? And may the weirdest band win!
February Facebook poll: Vote for Archbishop Jason Polland, Moira Scar, Punk Bunny, Traveler, or VirginTurtleWhore
[Update: This poll has closed, but check back soon for our next weird band poll.]
It’s that magical time again, weirdlings: That time when we let you guys drive the crazy bus for awhile. Help us decide which one of these bands and artists—each weird in their own way, like beautiful snowflakes—is worthiest of being a future Weird Band of the Week.
Read the handy-dandy Weird Band Voter Guide below for a little background, then head over to our Facebook page and cast your vote. The (at least) fifth-or-sixth most exciting thing ever to happen to one of these bands hangs in the balance.
Let’s meet the candidates:
Archbishop Jason Polland
A reader named Jason told us about this prolific solo weirdo, about whom we know little beyond the fact that he’s vegan (explains the pallid complexion), appears to be based in Phoenix or thereabouts, and has been making music both solo and in various collaborative projects (including Plague Party, Mental Rental, and The Nourishment) since 1988. Here’s his website, and here’s a video of him performing his song “God Polka” which—surprise!—is not a song about the Almighty’s dance moves.
Moira Scar
Moira Scar introduced themselves to us recently as “3 alien/ape hybrids frenetically switching off 7 instruments with interchanging personas and possessions.” They call their sound “Monsterwave.” They’re from Oakland, a city whose weirdness we can personally vouch for. I once went on a bar crawl there where my designated (totally sober) driver was an environmental attorney wearing a kilt and fishnets. But I digress. Here’s Moira Scar’s Blogspot, and here’s the video for their song “Organ Grinder.” Dig that sax!
Punk Bunny
Punk Bunny is the electroclash project of L.A. queer-punk provocateur Gil Sandoval, aka Luigi. From his official bio: “His music is notable for its extreme sexual content, gay cultural references and incorporating unusual elements in his live performances such as drag-queens and outrageous costumes.” Here’s his website, which includes a shit-ton of videos—or XXXideos, as he likes to call them. We started with “I Wanna Fuck” and then stopped, because we’re delicate flowers.
Traveler
If you think ouds and bouzoukis are weird—or if you have no idea what the fuck those things are—Traveler might just blow your mind. Here’s how they described their music to us: “We fuse traditional ethnic Arabic, East Indian, Turkish, Celtic and Greek music with hard rock/heavy metal.” They also have a “mad mad violinist,” who does indeed shred. Here’s their website, and here’s a video with lots of dramatic slow-motion footage of their live show.
VirginTurtleWhore
Freak experimental death metal from Mexico! What’s not to love about that sentence? Here’s VirginTurtleWhore’s Facebook page, and here’s a video they sent us with lots of animals fighting and fucking. Again I say, what’s not to love?
So there you have it! Head over to Facebook and start voting, won’t you? We’ll close voting on Feb. 21st and announce a winner shortly thereafter. Good luck, you weirdos!
January Facebook poll is up: Vote now for BlackBambi, Destroy Nate Allen, Ghostigital, or Sweet Bread
[Update: This poll has closed, but check back soon for our next weird band poll. It's gonna be even crazier. Would we lie?]
As regular readers of this blog know, we occasionally lose our decision-making abilities and ask you good people to choose a future Weird Band of the Week for us via a Facebook poll (technically a Facebook “Question,” but poll sounds so much more official, don’t you think?). Well, it’s time for you to limber up your voting fingers again, because our latest Facebook poll is up!
In response to our previous polls, many of you have observed, quite reasonably: “Um, guys? I don’t know who the fuck any of these bands are.” Fair enough. So for the first time, here’s a little Weird Band Voter Guide. Bands are presented in alphabetical order and we swear we’re not trying to play favorites—just give a little background to help you make that all-important decision about who to vote for. So let’s meet this month’s Weird Band Candidates:
BlackBambi
The electronic solo project of one Miguel Bonneville, from Portugal. He’s got a 3-track EP available via Bandcamp and obviously does a lot of yoga. He describes his stuff as “lo-fi, hypnotic and dissonant songs, intrinsically connected to singular visuals.”
Destroy Nate Allen
A two-person folk-punk duo made of Nate Allen (obvs) and his wife Tessa, Destroy Nate Allen write catchy songs about everyday modern life (sample: “We Talk Occasionally on the Internet”) and do live shows that might best be described as “extreme unplugged”: no mics, no stage, just two people with a guitar and tambourine running around and singing in the audience’s faces like lunatics. They seem to be based currently in Portland, although we get the impression they move around a lot. Here’s their website. Here’s the Bandcamp page for their latest album, With Our Powers Combined.
Ghostigital
A reader named Gerda suggested these guys to us, with the note, “Icelanders are generally weird.” We honestly don’t know much about this band, except that there seem to be two of them and their latest album is apparently called Division of Culture & Tourism. You can read more on their website, or just skip to the good stuff and watch this video for their song “Hovering Hoover Skates.”
Sweet Bread
Sweet Bread is the nom de troubadour of an English chap named Geoffrey Glees. When Geoff wrote in to us, he described his music as “in the alt/psych/folk/indie vein, largely acoustic with trad English songs as an influence. It is reminiscent of Bonnie Prince Billy, Shirley Collins, Roxy Music, Current 93, etc.” You can listen to his latest album, Kaerlud’s Raedan, on his Bandcamp page and read more about him on his Tumblr.
So there you have it! Head over to Facebook and start voting, won’t you? We’ll close voting on Jan. 25th and announce winner shortly thereafter. Good luck, you weirdos!
