I had so many bands that I wanted to name, but while reading through this thread I found myself saying "There's one.. there's another.." until I had next to nothing left. A lot of these will probably be repeats of what's already been said, but here they are at any rate:

Crotchduster (they incorporate EVERY genre of music, and play it well)
Primus (really, anything Claypool has done)
Mod Flanders Conspiracy (even though they've broke up now)
The Dillinger Escape Plan
HORSE The Band
Cephalic Carnage (sure it's grind-core, but it sounds nothing like other grind-core bands I've heard)
Sunn O))) (though I've heard they're an Earth tribute band of sorts, I've never heard Earth)
GYBE (already mentioned a million times, but they deserve at least one more)
Tool (of course)
Queen (not mentioned nearly enough in this thread)

I know I'm forgetting some, but oh well...

Primus. I love Les Claypool. Its like country on acid. :D

Tool, Queen, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. In that order :). How could noone have mentioned Led Zeppelin? I second Dredg too. :)

Dredg, Explosions in the Sky

did anyone mention GWAR and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult? painfully silly, but unique. Bjork, of course, Afro Celt Sound System...

will i get smacked if i say Jack Johnson and Louis Armstrong? They're both so easy to pick out in a crowd. old Jack, though, not the pop-ish stuff... f-stop blues and brushfire fairytales Jack. and c'mon, it's Louis. you CAN'T copy that voice. Dr. John, the Beasties stand out--it's hard to mimic some of their sound--old Seven Nations, Flogging Molly... my brain is spinning!

I second this, fantomas is one weird band, good stuff to listen to.

My second vote goes to Aarni, finnish doom metal(i guess you could call it that.) It's very ambient and atmospheric and its mostly consists of chanting and a little bit of screetching, they took Slayers "Dead skin mask" and translated it into latin and chanted it very slowly, really bizarre stuff.

and I also agree with Crotchduster, Mammal sauce is one of the best songs i've ever heard.

The Books. Accoustic organic sampling and mixing and playing. I love them. Lovelovelove.

Oh!

And TubRing. they're great too.

Sounds good :)
I have to check them out.
If you like that mixture you have to listen to "Haggard" a german band.
Haggard combines folk, classical, renaissance and medieval music with modern doom metal music. Brilliant stuff.


A unusual band ist also "Eläkeläiset " they are covering normal pop songs and play them in finnish "humppa style". wierd. Try "Paratiisihumppa (gansta's paradise)" :thumbsup:

Yes. Nick Drake was doing the same thing (but darker) 30 years ago.

The Frogs.

primus
mars volta
dillinger escape plan
afi
tool
Christian death

hahahaha....those guys are hilarious. and they're pretty damn unique in that they're one of the few bands that can write a song titled "Grandma In the Corner With a Penis In Her Hand"

My vote goes to Ween. "Waving my Dick in the Wind" is pure genius.

Cursive, IMO; and Tool of course

Sigur Ros as mentioned earlier
Aphex Twin (even if it's only one guy)
and
The Books (I cannot describe how these guys sound)

Nitzer Ebb

Yay!! Another Books fan! You are the first I've met besides the people I've introduced them to! *dance*

I think I'd have to disagree with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I think of Slint, Mogwai, and Do Make Say Think among others when I listen to them. Great band, though.

Out of those named so far, I'd go with They Might Be Giants. The vocals are incredibly distinctive.

I didn't see Bjork named yet. Is there another album out there that sounds like Homogenic?

Feck yes! Although I don't know about them being the most unique, they're damn good.

Bjork is definitely uh, unique though. I swear, sometimes I can't tell that she's actually doing music.

Shit! I just remembered, I forgot to mention Rage Against the Machine. Noone has even come close to sounding like them. The Deftones too! Are they both considered "ne-metal" because I think it would be insulting to compare them to the likes of Slipknot and other nu-metal bands.

Comus is one of the strangest bands ever.

A Simple Plan. They're soooooo amazingly good. OMG.

Who? What? Sarcasm?

OK,
First, let me be pedantic. Unique means one of a kind, so it is not possible of there to be degrees of unique. A band is either unique, or they are not. If you want to modify it, then you have to go with "truly unique", "Almost unique", or "most nearly unique". //pedantic (It's a pet peeve)

That said, it is my unpleasant duty to disagree with Sion. Yes was never Unique. Awesome, but not unique. They were in many was similar to ELP, and have other things in common with, say, Alan Parson's Project. Also, recently, Spock's Beard, Gordian Knot, and Porcupine tree are quite like them.

I also disagee that Ben Folds is unique. He's very well executed pop music with borderline novelty lyrics. Sort of like Bruce Hornsby meets the original Spike Jones.

I would have to agree that the combination of operatic scale, pyschedelia, and pyschological darkness in Pink Floyd (particularly from Animals on) is truly unique.

Cake is nearly unique, but are, in some ways similar to Talking Heads, anher nearly unique band.

Now They Might Be Giants is absolutely unique. Nothing even close.

Early Primus shares certain characteristics with the latter part of the first incarnation of King Crimson (Compare Lark's Tongues in Aspic part III with Southbound Pachyderm). Since then, they have diverged into territory strictly there own.

Tool, I would say, is unique to music in the same sort of perversely icky way that Robert Mappelthorp is to photography, only Tool has talent.

There are also some bands that are unique in really difficult to define ways. Blue Öyster Cult, for insance, is musically pretty straightforward blues based rock & roll; Buck Dharma has a unique sound, and is a guitar genius, but the same could be said of lots of guitarists without necessarily making their band unique. What makes BÖC unique is the juxtaposition of very straightforward rock & roll with a nearly science-fiction lyric sensibility. Hawkwind has a similar sensibility, but a different - more psychadelic - approach to muic. (Obligatory for me to mention BÖC.)

In a similar vein, Phish combined jazz based rock with, not to put too fine a point on it, utter nonsense, and then salted their albums with bluegrass. I can't think of another band who's lyrics are so utterly nonsensical, yet strangely compelling.

Speaking of bluegrass, Bela Fleck and the Fleck Tones: Banjo Jazz. Unique in my experience.

Jethro Tull also is interesting. At the very least they are unique in winning the first every heavy metal grammy. Other bands, Traffic for one, have used the flute, but no on other than Ian Anderson has ever played the Power flute. There is an early classical feel to much of their music, and a sort of almost pastoral feel to some of their work (Heavy Horses in particular). All this from a band who's first album was straight unadulterated blues.

Beat me to saying Meshuggah, can't believe it took 4 pages. I don't really like them, but they are as unique as they come.

Also listen to pain of salvation, their music is truley unique. I recommened the perfect element or BE.

the swans, the frogs, guster, mars volta.

I can't believe I forgot Frank Zappa!

Lets here something like the album Belief. Nothing compares.

Glad you're a fan.

Devin Townsend. Oh yeah.

back in the day: the beatles/jimi hendrix/count basie

now-a-days: tv on the radio/beck/cLOUDDEAD

Mr. Bungle.

Mike pattons band.(Faith no more lead singer)

Really weird good stuff. Check it out, its worth it.

Coheed & Cambria are a unique band
So are The Mars Volta (which someone said)

C&C tell a sci-fi story throughout their albums....very complex/progressive the more and more you learn about it.

I have to put a vote down for Opeth. I was thinking about this the other day, that nobody could ever pull off "trying" to sound similar to them. They are truly unique.

Also, Mindless Self Indulgence is very unique. I think that is a band that most people either love or hate though.

I also thing Dog Fashion Disco is very unique. Even though they can be compared to Mr. Bungle in ways, I think they are incredibly unique.

Oh yea, and of course Mr. Bungle.

I like to think my stuff is pretty unique.
My music

Another vote for the Books - I haven't been able to stop listening to their new one since it came out. And another one for Sonic Youth. Also, I like that Tchkung! was mentioned (although they're maybe a wee bit derivative of Crash Worship).
As far as unmentioned unique sounds go, Current 93 was unique for a while. And while loungey torch music isn't exactly an untilled field, I haven't run across many people who sound like Antony of Antony & the Johnsons.

Hell YEAH! I'm weird though, in that I think ATDI actually kicked more ass than TMV. Also, just for no reason, I always like to mention that they're from my home town (represent!).

I listened to some Rokoth samples on http://www.cdnow.com/, and they put me in mind of some of Yngwie Malmsteen's stuff. I can't honestly say I was blown away though.

Agalloch, there sound is something I never heard of but you can still hear the influence of some things in there music.

Fever Ray.