Nobody, even those not in their right minds, would ever call the Melvins a "normal" band, per se. Thus when the Washington state group announced that they were the latest of non-dance bands to hop on the remix album train, nobody was expecting them to get the Diplo, Paul Oakenfold, or Justice treatment. But the band had a far more unusual idea entirely: each remixer was given a full Melvins' album and encouraged to use parts from the whole thing in creating their track. The remixers were even instructed to reflect this by giving the tracks new names entirely.

"I was against the idea of giving the remixers separate tracks, because almost all songs mixed like that end up sounding just like the original," Melvins' singer/guitarist Buzz Osborne tells Spinner. "If that's the case, then who cares? We wanted our remix record to be different, and it certainly is. Judging by the cast of characters asked to work on this, we knew the songs would be very strange. And we weren't wrong."

Remixers include Matmos, Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo and Eye Yamantaka and the resulting album, 'Chicken Switch,' will be released by Ipecac Recordings on September 29. "I think it's a great addition to our discography," Osborne says. "I don't really like remix records, but I like this one."

That said, don't expect the band to play any of the revamped versions when they tour in August and September. We guess that means the Melvins aren't taking the normal route by touring specifically in support of the album. But we already established -- the Melvins aren't a normal band.