Artist: The Outsiders

British comic Mike Belgrave has an entertaining series of short videos about outsider and strange musics. Even if you know all about this stuff, they're worth watching for the presentation - he's quite enthusiastic, and throws in funny visuals. Stop what you're doing and feast your eyeballs on these, you'll love 'em. Episode one is the basic background, and mentions Wesley Willis, Irwin Chusid, and misguided sitar covers: Episode [...]

Take a sample from Cults' smash "Go Outside", toss in some verses from Asher Roth about how kids these days are addicted to the internet and have no idea what a breeze feels like, and that's what we're working with here. It's a quick hit at merely 2:31, but it deserves the addition to the library. Asher Roth's sophomore album Is This Too Orange? is due out in stores later this year. Download: Asher Roth - Outside Tweet

• Asher Roth - Outside

A couple of weeks ago we announced that we would be releasing our first ever compilation to celebrate both our 2nd birthday and the relaunch of our site. Crossing everything possible, the new site should be launching this Wednesday (16th) and we can also now bring you full details of of the compilation. The record features a mix of exclsuive brand new songs, unheard older songs and a handful of previously released tracks from some of our favourite new bands on the planet. The record will be available digitally and there will be some limited edition handmade copies available also [...]

Lyyar - 'Afterall' - mp3 Lyyar, pronounced 'lee-ar' have released their debut ep Outside, Elsewhere. This is the first track off what is a post prog rocky, dark winding, wave of dirty guitars with heavy bass and solid drumming. It gets darker and heavier, then takes a slight pych detour and back again. They really step it up in the last minute of the ep but overall I prefer the loose mish-mash of the first track. These guys would def be worth seeing play live. You can check it out on their bandcamp [...]

Here's a true slice of Americana. Imagine: you visit a cafeteria-style restaurant in some place like Lawtone, Oklahoma or Plainview, Texas. You get in line with your tray, get some meatloaf and some jello, and sit down amongst the old folks who are here to take advantage of the $6.30 all-you-can-eat deal. (They're on a fixed income, you know.) Amazingly, a live music show starts, right there in the dining room. A couple about as old as the average patron of the restaurant cheerfully start singing old country/western hits with [...]

There are the essential albums that need to be in everyone's collection. There are the personal favorites, the ones that aren't highly acclaimed but still get played every once in a while. And then there are the albums that you stick in the back of your collection because you want to forget that you spent money on them. "Own It or Disown It" gives the writer the opportunity to look at such discarded albums and determine if they are diamonds in the rough or if they deserve to be used as mini-frisbees. [...]

From Kevin Abstract & EaSy's new album Instead Of Dreaming . Directed by FYNEST Films . What up, ASF? Watch: Outsiders - STOP (Video) |

I was a big fan of O'Death 's last album, 2011's Outside , and it pleases me that the band is still releasing videos for it, building its buzz. Whereas some indie bands would rush back in the studio immediately, O'Death realize there's enough juice behind Outside to last while they replenish their creativity for their next release. Watch O'Death's newest video for the creepy "Black Dress" below. Read more »

Watch the new video for O'Death 's song "Black Dress" below, taken from the album "Outside". Connect with O'Death - Facebook | Twitter | Last.fm

Following up on last week's post (or whenever it was - I'm in buying-a-house/packing/moving hell right now) on outsider music from Poland, our man in Poland Piotrek tells us about Pan Witek z Atlantydy aka "Mr Witek from Atlantis": "... he is most famous outsider in Poland, he was invited many times to polish TV, he was a "star" of underground and punk festival in 80's Jarocin, and he wanted to be president of Poland, seriously:) His songs are f.ex. about Speedy Gonzales, masturbation, cosmos and many more." [...]

It's here! The sequel to Kevin Abstract & EaSy's Beyond Our Dreams . Tell Ian if he doesn't start getting better grades I'm not posting his shit anymore! InsteadOfDreaming by Outsiders Download: OutSiders - Instead Of Dreaming Download: OutSiders - Instead Of Dreaming |

No, you didn't just turn the dial to a Malian pop station. This is Outside , a collective heavily in debt to many of the once regional, now internationally-borrowed styles hailing from Africa's fertile Ivory Coast. Now among Tanlines and Restless People, you can count Outside among the adherents. With a persistent bounce directing the way forward in summery jams like 'Solarize' and 'Portals,' Outside's newly minted EP marks an easy vibe to dance to, with songs large enough to match the energy. This band submitted their music digitally here . Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets) [...]

Polish outsider music? Heck, yeah, bring it on! Piotrek , a fine musican himself, sent us some incredible artifacts from the land of sausage and Solidarity. Today it's The Syntetic: a delightful nut who takes exisiting songs, like "Axel F," and sings his own lyrics over them: " Człowiek Widmo aka The Syntetic (in english - "Hollow Man"). This is the guy from Śląsk, who some years ago recorded funny tapes on his [...]

Ku Klux Glam ~ Ariel Pink R. Stevie Moore by R. STEVIE MOORE I just got turned onto this through our Facebook page , and I can't believe I missed this. So, basically, this is a collaboration between two generations of self-recording enthusiasts. R. Stevie Moore has been releasing eccentric, homemade tracks and albums since the '60s, and was a huge influence on the lo-fi pop, rock, and experimental music Ariel Pink would record decades later. So, to see them both of them collaborating so publicly is a treat. They're doing it in [...]

So there's this guy Phil from Chelmsford, Essex, UK who likes making rinky-dink Casio-esque beats and throwing in seemingly random samples, and he invites this guy he knows from around town named Rich to rap over 'em, but Rich can't rap, certainly can't sing, and just tells kinda pathetic stories of his life over the music. Together, they are The Manor Boys . The first few tracks on their one and only album from 2006 have a guys-goofing-off feel reminiscent of Flight of the Conchords. Kinda funny, but then Phil hands the mic to Rich. And that's when [...]

Terence Caron is a French student living in Dublin for the next few months and contributing to State. We thought it'd be an interesting exercise to get his thoughts on the Choice Music Prize nominee albums, many of which he knew nothing about before arriving in Ireland. We're two weeks away from finding out who will be the winner of the Meteor Choice Music Prize for best Irish album of the year at the live event taking place on 8th March at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin. The judges consisting of music media [...]

As much as I like covering the whole spectrum of strange music, from experimental composers to thrift-store records, I am pleased that this year has begun with a bumper crop of outsider musicians: Bernie Sizzey , the return of John North Wright , all thanks to good Maniacs working to bring these musicians to the public eye and providing us wiht their fascinating back-stories. And now, thanks to Rich from the great Kill Ugly Radio show up in Portland, the master of the Electric Jews Harp, Bruce Hodges. Rich sez: [...]

I received an interesting comment on the John North Wright post, and, as it is not the first such comment we've received here, I thought I'd not just let it hide as a post comment, but turn it into a post of it's own, as I believe the commenter probably speaks for many, and I'm sure some of you would like to chime in as well. radioman said: "I can see the appeal of this kind of stuff, yet, at the same time, it feels almost as if one is back in the 1700s, laughing [...]

Amy Beth is an Elvis impersonator who sounds NOTHING like Elvis. She does, however, make a great cat-being-run-over-by-a-steamr oller impersonator. And if she does indeed have her own band, they do a great impression themselves - of cheezy drum-machine karaoke backing tracks. "Heartbreak Hotel" like you've never heard it before. You've been warned: My ears, my ears! Hey you masochists, you can buy a whole album of this stuff, y'know. What, you want more?!? Here's a dog of a "Hound Dog," complete with canine [...]

As I wrote back in '06 : In 1995, The Phoeniz (AZ) New Times received a demo tape from one John North Wright . The tape began with the growly voice of a middle-to-senior aged man announcing, ""Hi, I'm John Wright. Uh . . . all these songs are copyrighted 1985, words and music by myself. Uh, conceptually, they form the songs for a, uh, rock video opera I have written in my mind. It's set mostly in Hawaii and the Orient. It's called Teenage Volleyballers." [...]