Barry Wood’s fantastic NAMM Oddities list is the definitive guide to strange things at NAMM — as in rare delights, as well as just plain weird. And the 2008 guide is now available.

NAMM Oddities 08

Square drums are the oddity of the year, and will now be on display at the Museum of Making Music — very cool. Square drums aren’t as cool as electrically-powered oddities, at least in my biased book, so be sure to check out techno toys like the ∇w≈0 speaker array, oddly-shaped mic The Finger, and holo-glasses from McDSP. I wish there were more electronic items this year — the selection seemed thin to me. But for pure weirdness, the You Figure it Out category is stranger than it ever was.