Chris Newman’s strange parlour music makes me happy
Chris Newman’s weird parlour songs first came to via a friend at York University during postgraduate study. At first they didn’t...
rock
Powerdove: humpbacks, tap shoes, and ancient Greece w/ Lewandowski and Bonvalet
Josh Thorpe speaks with Annie Lewandowski and Thomas Bonvalet. We listen to their unusual duet Powerdove, which combines austere melodic singing...
“Hello, How and Hey” by Eric Chenaux
This track, this whole album, is a psychedelic space of warmth. Sink into it like a mud bath that doesn’t smell...
What is the world? Nobody knows.
This month editor Josh Thorpe’s How Things Happen launched with Canadian / French imprint Rat-drifting. Eric Chenaux writes: “Thorpe’s How Things...
Interview w/ viola player Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh
Ailbhe joins me to listen to the viola, the violin, some guitars, a horse-hair harp, some outside jazz and a sewing...
OneTwoThree’s strange bass songs
This trio of women from Zurich make an unusual chorus of bass guitars. Madlaina Peer, Sara Schär, Klaudia Schifferle on Kill...
Ecstatic noise w/ Marshall Trammell and Tashi Dorji
Joy with ferocity. Rattling drums and dirty electric guitar feels like punk opera unwound and bent. Recorded live in Portland, Duo...
Banjo Music for Carole Finer
Allison Cameron brought this release by Stephen Chase’s mon se taire truc editions to our attention. A tribute to Scratch Orchestra...
Punkish w/ Martin Arnold and Jaye Kovach
In this episode Josh and Martin listen to Lemon Kittens, Shaggs, Junko, and the Kyoto Imperial Court Orchestra. After the break...
We love trippy: Listening with Renée Lear
This episode is with video artist Renée Lear, who has taken an unusual interest in unusual music. We listen to and...
Number Seven by Dos
Mike Watt and Kira Roessler’s project Dos scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. Two bass guitars with weird riffs...
Thorpe’s art rock Love & Weather
Our editor Josh Thorpe has a band and it’s unusual songs with dissonance, consonance, and some pretty neat sounds. Love &...
Goat Girl
“Dance of Dirty Leftovers” by Goat Girl lays easygoing dissonant chords over a psychedelic swirl. Goat Girl by Goat Girl
An hour of Unusual on Clyde Built Radio
An eclectic radio show on Glasgow’s Clyde Built Radio. We listen to a song of mine, Sonic Youth, composer Allison Cameron,...
Deerhoof’s Future Teenage Cave Artists
Deerhoof’s new album on Joyful Noise Recordings is strange and ecstatic pop music. Unusual production, guitar sounds, lyrics, song structure… Deerhoof...
Big Joanie
Unusual punk band from London, Big Joanie coming out soon on Kill Rock Stars. Nice cover of Solange’s “Cranes in the...
Thurston Moore’s By the Fire
The new album by Thurston Moore: long songs with unusual sounds, deep beats, and a bright, loving vibe. Band is Deb...
49 Americans “Involved in Local Chaos”
A bunch of experimental musicians do songs. Unusual songs.
Holy Beefheart
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band “The Host, the Ghost, the Most Holy-O” on Ice Cream for Crow. 1982.