I first experienced the band Estradasphere back in the year 2000. I went to see Trey Spruance’s (Mr. Bungle, Faith No More) weirdo music ensemble Secret Chiefs 3. Estradasphere was the opening act.
They were a large group (including 2 horn players, a violin player, guitar, bass, drums). Not only that, they had a bunch of additional performers with them (fire eaters, jugglers, the “death metal cheerleaders” etc). They played a wild mix of just about every kind of music you could think of…jazz, rock, metal, folk, dance, country etc.
They only had one album out at the time (the excellent It’s Understood) and I promptly bought it and became a rabid fan that day.
If you want to see some great footage of the band during this era, their old home video (literally a video…I bought it on VHS at one point) called These Are The Days is available on YouTube.
The following year they put out what I think was their definitive musical statement: Buck Fever.
Buck Fever upped the anti in every possible way. The entire album follows a loose concept about a group of deer hunters. The music is extremely diverse, but all excellently played. There’s not a single dull moment on the entire 70+ minute running time. At the time they marketed themselves with strange new self-invented genres such as “Bulgarian Surf”, “Romanian Gypsy-Metal”, and “Spaghetti Eastern”. I can’t argue with those descriptions.
They even put out a super-cool music video about a full-on black metal song on the album about an uprising of Elk!
Estradasphere put out a few more albums and eventually disbanded. Some of the members went on to become Amanda Palmer’s backing band for a little while. Others continued with other bands following similar directions. Most recently High Castle TeleOrkestra and Red Fiction are two examples.
Buck Fever remains my favorite to this day.