The Octopus Project is coming out with a new album in October.

It's not easy being a theremin.

Sure ham-fisted rock musicians in search of a new gimmick will at least literally keep their hands off you. But respect is hard to come by.

Maybe it's the fact you're the rather unconventional product of mysterious research conducted by a mad Russian scientist. Maybe it's the fact your most celebrated moments have tended to be of the decidedly atonal, non-musical variety -- that trippy Whole Lotta Love midsection, for example.

But maybe, dear theremin, thanks to the efforts of a supremely melodic combo from Austin, Tex., your luck might yet change. No more teasing. No more puzzled, cocked-head looks (dogs excepted). Respect. At long lost.

"Most people use the theremin just to make noise," The Octopus Project's Josh Lambert confirms as he explains his wife and bandmate Yvonne's determination to reclaim the misunderstood instrument for musical purposes. A music therapist by trade, Yvonne Lambert has been developing her theremin skills for most of the Project's eight or so years together.

"But since our last record came out," Josh Lambert notes, "she has really been working on getting the most out of it and making it more melodic. It has become an important part of our sound."

The quintet of multi-instrumentalists' haunting new sound will be unveiled in October on the band's striking new CD, Hello, Avalanche. But for those unwilling to wait that long for the theremin's redemption, Lambert reports we should hear "seven or eight" of the album's tunes Sunday at Zaphod Beeblebrox, during an evening of adventurous sounds that will also spotlight the super fun European electro-pop duo Stereo Total.

"We're always trying to 'up' ourselves," Lambert enthuses. "We're always in search of new sounds. We don't always know what we're looking for, but we know when we've found it."