Sure, plenty of bands claim they are different from their peers, and plenty of them claim to reinvent themselves with each release. CEX, however, might actually mean it.

“I don’t have a big enough attention span to stay in the same field of music for very long,” says CEX frontman Ryan Kidwell.

After five albums, CEX’s ever changing style of music has helped the band keep its music interesting.

“On my first album, I was trying to be a punk rock version of Aphex Twin. On my third album, I was trying to do old-school hip-hop with Peter Gabriel samples,” he says.

Although mixing punk with ambient noises and hip-hop with pop may seem like a heavy undertaking, breaking the conventional rules of music is CEX’s musical mission.

“I like to take things from one genre and put them where they don’t belong,” Kidwell says. “If a person has the belief that there are laws governing music, I hope to make it so they can’t even sleep at night.”

Kidwell makes sure the band’s musical diversity translates onto the stage, too. He says every live show is different, so fans will never see the same show twice.

Kidwell’s love of Iggy Pop’s wild stage antics is one of the driving forces behind his decision to deliver a memorable show. Another is his desire to make CEX stand out in people’s minds.

“My worst fear is that they think we sound like just another band,” Kidwell says.

In the beginning, Kidwell performed by himself, but he decided, in addition to the electronic music, he needed some live instruments. He says he added his wife, Roby Newton, to the band on bass and Cale Parks on drums.

All of the music is very symbolic to him, Kidwell says, and he tries to write songs about everyday things most people would not think to sing about: food, divorce and even his wife’s period.

“Every single record is like an immediate snapshot of what’s going on in my life at that time,” Kidwell says.

Especially important to Kidwell’s music is his childhood. He says he has an obsession with sex because of his Catholic upbringing.

In his younger days, Kidwell says he had the idea that everybody knew something about sex — except for him. The name, CEX, refers to exactly what it sounds like.

“All my music is based on my underlying belief that sex runs the world,” he says.

Who: Cex, Aloha, Weather

Where: Vaudeville Mews, 212 4th St., Des Moines

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday

Cost: TBA