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Outsider Music and Other Oddio

For a while I’ve been getting into outsider and other types of bizarre music.  I’ve been trying to explain to people exactly what outsider music is, and I usually end up describing it as music created with the utmost sincerity yet, when listened to, seems humourous, kitschy, or just downright weird.  Basically really awful music created by people who, at the time of creation, didn’t realize they were making bad music.

This is everything from music recorded by high school bands, flea market finds, the infamous Mrs. Miller, Wesley Willis, old exercise records, corporate propaganda, etc. etc…

I first heard of outsider music via the compilations Songs in the Key of Z, which seems to offer a good sampling, but if you look hard enough you’ll see that because of flexible or non-existant copyrights, you can find a lot of this stuff online.

Check out the 365 Days Project, which for the entire year of 2003 has been offering one piece of bizarre music a day.  The collection is going offline in January, so be sure to go sample some of these great oddities.  Each track has accompanying ‘liner notes’ which make the songs even more interesting.  One of my favourites is a jingle for Kentucky Fried Chicken written and sung by Murry Wilson, the infamous Beach Boys Father.  But for an example of outsider music that is actually great music download Let Us Make a Record by Sister Gertrude Morgan.

Other great places to source out outsider MP3s are Basic Hip, which has been offering some weirdo Christmas tunes this past month, and Incorrect Music Siftings.

For more links and a perfect starter block for discovering more outsider music, go to weirdomusic.com.

Of course, we all know who the king of outsider music is.