At a loss for any better description, Josh McLane, the motor-mouth comedian behind the drum kit for local rock band Oracle & the Mountain, compares the group's sound to a fantasy cameo by Tom Waits in the bloody 1975 action B-movie "Death Race 2000."

What exactly that means, he does not explain. He prefers to let it hang out there unexplained, like the term the band cooked up once to label their own music, re-rock.

"It doesn't mean anything," says frontman Dale Naron. "We just made it up. It was just something we could say when they asked 'What kind of band do you have?' 'We're re-rock.' 'Oh, re-rock. What's re-rock?' And we'd be like, 'You don't know what re-rock is? What's wrong with you?' "

Still, they are as good descriptions as any for a band that has emerged in two short years as one of the most distinctive and original on the Memphis scene. This Saturday, OATM celebrates the release of their eponymous debut CD, a 15-track monster that careens from Weezer and Lucero to the Mars Volta and Radiohead, mowing down any innocent bystanders in-between.

If you haven't heard of them, it may because OATM does not fit easily into any pre-established music scene. They are too self-consciously arty for the classic-rock crowd. Too musically diverse for the metal heads. Too instrumentally ostentatious for the garage-rock kids. Too testosterone-driven for the shoe-gazing alternative bands.

The members of OATM actually thrive on their outsider status.

"Within a set, we go through three or four different genres," says Naron. "People don't know what to think. We can pretty much play with anybody."

When OATM started two years ago, however, Naron, 30 at the time, actually thought his music career was over. His previous group, acclaimed local Americana outfit The Great Depression (not to be confused with the current moody American duo of the same name), had broken up four years before, and the singer-songwriter had made only halting stabs at starting a new band.

"I was just living and paying bills, making sure everybody had food," he says. "After (The Great Depression broke up) I was real upset because I thought that band was it. But now it's like that band is an afterthought. It was just like a stepping stone to this."

OATM began as a collaboration between Naron and his Hard Rock Café co-worker McLane, a veteran of numerous area hard-rock bands, an unlikely musical partner for the reformed folkie. They soon brought in another restaurant veteran, versatile bassist Tim Blais, and things began to click. After a year playing as a trio, last year the group added guitarist Chris Moore.

"Everything we've all done has built up to this," says McLane. "I could pick moments from every one of our old bands that add to what it is.

"If I didn't play in all those metal bands, we wouldn't have that slam energy thing. If Tim wasn't like Jaco Pastorius reborn, we wouldn't have all those sick bass leads. And if Beavis (Moore) wasn't born playing the radio, we wouldn't have the sonic we have."

Following Saturday's release party, which also includes Organ Thief, The Defective Agency and Adversary, as well as between-set performances from a trio of local comedians, the band plans to tour heavily, with the hope of releasing a live CD by the end of the year.

Oracle & the Mountain

CD-release party with guests Organ Thief, The Defective Agency and Adversary; and stand-up comedy from Brandon Sams, Mary Jordon and Andy Fleming.

Saturday at The New Daisy Theater, 330 Beale.

Tickets: $8. Doors open at 7 p.m. Call 525-8979.