While most of Ames was excitedly watching the Cyclones wear down Nebraska, D„lek was having an ordinary day, traveling from Kalamazoo, Mich., to Milwaukee. The hip hop trio’s tour car has seen about 120,000 miles in the past four years, and now it is on its last leg. The band is ready for an upgrade to something more spacious, and with its second CD “From Filthy Tongue of Gods and Griots” and a deal with Ipecac Records, it may have the means to pay for it.

D„lek, which is touring with metal labelmates Isis and indie rock band Oxes, will make its way to Ames for a Monday night show at the Maintenance Shop.

The three bands have three different styles, but D„lek, vocalist for the group of the same name, says that doesn’t slow anyone down.

“It’s funny, I really don’t see us as being that different,” he says. “All three [groups] are saying this is the best tour they’ve ever been on.”

Equally different from the rest of the hip hop genre as it is from the other bands on the tour, D„lek prefers not to dwell on the group’s unique take on rap, but rather to focus on music as a whole.

“The whole idea of ‘strange mix’ throws me,” D„lek says. “There’s two kinds of music: good and bad. People can try to separate into smaller and smaller niches to make themselves feel better, but in the end it’s all music.”

D„lek points to everything from My Bloody Valentine and Faust, to Afrika Bambaataa and De La Soul, to Led Zeppelin and The Beatles for inspiration.

That eclectic taste has led to a less-than-conventional sound that may not lead D„lek, musical arranger Oktopus and turntablist Still to pop success any time soon, but, having toured since late 1997 and seen the world, the group is starting to see where its support lies.

“We’re still a relatively young band, so we haven’t quite found our crowd yet,” D„lek says. “We still are better received in Europe. That’s the case with most music – most bands that can’t be put into one certain sound. The way they treat musicians is light years away from what America has and is.”

Though it might be more successful across the ocean, the wide-ranging music has broad appeal.

“It’s the reason a kid in the Czech Republic can pick up our album and at the same time a kid from the Bronx can,” D„lek says.

Greg Werckman, co-owner of Ipecac Records, says the unique sound is undeniable, and that it comes across to a different audience than one might expect.

“We’ve sent this album out to people who like hip hop and they think it’s strange. Then we’ve sent it out to people who don’t like hip hop and they like it,” Werckman says. “I don’t think they’ll ever be mainstream because in the mainstream you have to fit a style. We are used to having bands that don’t really have a genre.”

The situation is apparently a good one for all involved. D„lek and Isis have found a label run by two people who have seen the top of the music industry – Werckman is the former label manager for famed punk home Alternative Tentacles and a short-lived employee of Mercury Records (he knew it was over when Mercury asked him to do promotion work for Richie Sambora) and Mike Patton is a veteran of many bands including Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk and Faith No More. In return, the two at Ipecac have found a new direction for the label, signing both Isis and D„lek in the course of several days.

“Within the same week, we’ve set ourselves up for the future,” Werckman says. “They are a perfect fit for us. We try to do things that aren’t obvious. We’ve done a country album that’s not typical country, an industrial album that’s not particularly industrial. Everything we do is a bit twisted. D„lek is a hip hop band and they play live like a rock band. They use technology like a dance band. Not to mention, they are the hardest working band on earth – they are able to cross all genres.”

D„lek is happy with an independent label that is big enough to give the group’s album some support. The band is also surprised and thrilled that it has joined Isis, a group of friends from years past.

“We played a show in Philly about two years ago and it was like kids in a school yard: ‘I want to be friends with you,’ ‘Yeah I want to be friends with you too,’ ” D„lek says.

The list of Ipecac acts such as these two stretches across genres in a way reminiscent of another quirky music home – the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal – but Werkman says his game plan is a bit different from the now-defunct Beastie project.

“Mike [Patton] and I were both really big fans of Grand Royal, but at the same time, they were an example of how not to run a record label,” he says. “They started acting like a big label and now they aren’t around anymore. People have this outlook of ‘it’s never enough.’ “

Werckman says he and Patton have tasted success, and that they know not to try to stretch out to the masses with a list of bands that doesn’t fit into a niche.

“We would never expect the mass population to understand and enjoy what we do,” he says. “You are not going to hear [our bands] on the radio next to the Foo Fighters. After three years, where we are right now is great.”

Those years of work will be represented in full effect at the M-Shop on Monday night, and it appears to be only the beginning of something good.

“We are very proud to say, ‘Yeah, you go to this show and you will see what Ipecac is all about,’ ” Werckman says.

“The honesty and the way the guys ran things was right,” D„lek says. “This is pretty much our home. We’ll stay here as long as they’ll have us.”