Sleepytime Gorilla Museum must be seen live to be fully appreciated. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that SGM should only release DVDs from now on so people can be sure to see the instrumentally experimental act in action. No recorded document will ever do justice to this freakish Bay Area band's over-the-top, smack-in-your-face spooky art-rock cabaret, though, as their very essence depends upon feeling their electrifying presence.

For those who are still virgins to the SGM experience, Nils Frykdahl, their acerbic rock-messiah frontman, thrashes about with a surreal taste for both '90s-era metal and angular, Beefheart-style guitar. He works alongside an alluring, internationally prized violin virtuoso/multi-instrumentalist, Carla Kihlstedt, who has a wide-ranging palette of stringed tools at her disposal. The band's three-headed rhythm section (industrial-waste percussionist Moe! Staiano, bassist Dan Rathbun, and drummer Frank Grau) springs from a toxic junkyard of primitively constructed instruments, presenting found-object creations in all their glorious, mutant-is-better splendor. Collectively, SGM look like an alternate-universe Addams family, and always bring a punkish, zombie-like intensity to the stage, no matter how loud or quiet their noise becomes.

The name Sleepytime Gorilla Museum alone further implies that live is where it's at, via its extensive mythology where songs are defined as "exhibits" and concerts as "showings," thoroughly favoring direct experiences over archival re-creations.

The subversive, forward-facing organization is bolstered by SGM's inimitable multi-instrumentalists/singers (featuring members of Charming Hostess, Tin Hat Trio, and Idiot Flesh). And although their uniquely otherworldly approach has undoubtedly been influenced by past adventurers such as fellow Bay Area performance artists the Residents, prog-rock pioneers King Crimson, and Art Bears (founders of the Rock-in-Opposition movement), SGM's unforgettable overall effect is strictly their own, just like their vast arsenal of eerie homemade instruments.