Entertainment For Lively Minds
Bands Whose Name Puts You Off The Music
Posted by MrRadio on 18 February 2011 - 11:07am.
Am I alone I don't want to hear Yucks latest offering or anything by Pulled Apart By Horses
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A*a* C*n*?
*n*l *u*t?
I got an email
t'other day about a band called tUnE-yArDs. Their album title (which I now can't remember) was one word, with a space between each letter.
I deleted the email straight away. They may turn out to be the future of popular music. For the moment, however, I hate them.
In the review of the last Word In Your Ear gig
there was a reference to the support 'AlicebanD' (or similar). As soon as I saw that trailing 'D' I took against them.
There's no justification for that sort of thing - other than on the old London UndergrounD logo.
On a similar note
The Audience - ho hum, but okay I'll have a listen
Theaudience - oh just f**k off..
Nowhere near good enough to lick the boots of
Audience
Not only that
I think there's no capital "T", so it's just theaudience.
k.d. lang
indeed.
Yep
I got my usual e-mail from 4AD about this band and decided that I wouldn't click on the link because of the name. They will have to be brilliant to my ears to get past that name.
I don't usually bother with a band
when I have difficulty pronouncing their name. I subscribe to an excellent reference website on the Manchester music scene, Manchester District Music Archive www.mdmarchive.co.uk/ who introduced me this week to...
Willumwozzum Bullumbuzzum
http://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/archive/showartefact.php?aid=7173&bid=5625
I expect Dr. Volume to tell me they were fab.
Fuck Buttons
I've only just been introduced to them, they've done two albums, one produced by Andrew Weatherall. They are amazing, taking the repetitive elements of dance/electronics to fairly extreme trance inducing levels, and actually not being dance at all, more like an E consuming Tangerine Dream, where every track is almost about the build up to some massive peak.
But that name, I really didn't want to listen to them at all, despite being a massive fan of Weatherall.
If you can get past that name go look them up on Youtube, Olympians off the latest album is the perfect example of what they're about.
Just had a listen
being a big fan of Weatherall myself - really very good, thanks for that.
Totally agree
The sort of band I'd love to tell more people about. But with a name like that you have to pick your moments. I used to play them in the last 20mins of a shift at HMV, but it was always a worry that someone would say, "This is wonderful, who is it?"
Station To Station
I thought you had a train to catch?
The Beatles
stupid name
Does it Offend You?
Yeah, it fucking does.
Isn't the name "Does It Offend You, Yeah?"
which is annoying on so many counts.
how long was the 'brain storming' for these?
Two bands i won't be bothering with for slightly different reasons. Cancer Bats and !!! who i wouldnt know where to start asking for anyway.
Chk Chk Chk (!!!)
are OK actually. Quite funky:
God Speed You Black Emperor!
Just silly really. Not to be taken seriously.
Then there's:
Ben's Brother - worst band name of all time
Therapy? - tsk
Kenny Thomas - anyone called Kenny really, except The Bump hitmakers
Redbone
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
When I realised they'd moved the exclamation mark for their final album, well, that was the moment I got a whole lot less anal about id tags in iTunes.
I could thank them for that.
I deliberately avoided them
Just because of the name, the felt cheated when I discovered just jow great they were. Months after they split up.
Brian Peter George St. John
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno.
He won't get anywhere with that name......oh hang on!
I had a dislike of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs until I heard them, still a stupid name though!
The Kooks however is a different matter! Stupid effing name for a stupid effing band! 'look at us, we're kooky rockstars etc. etc.' bunch of top hats.
Scouting for
girls.
Wanking tosspots would be more appropriate
not that the music
in this case is made any worse by their name
Yuck
Saw them supporting Modest Mouse a few months ago.
Actually well worth a listen - despite what is, admittedly, a very poor name.
I wasn't much drawn to
I Am Kloot if I'm honest. Until I heard them that is
A bunch of arses tried to claim their band was called...
That's it. No name, just a symbol. Apparently it was pronunced as 'Freur', like anyone cared.
Of course, someone else later picked up on the symbol idea.
I never knew that but I did know that...
Freur later became Underworld.
Freur
I bought their single Doot-Doot; almost got put off Underworld when I found out that two of them had been freur. Somehow made them less cool...got over it though.
I remember that
Sounds used to refer to them as "Elephant With A Stick Of Rhubarb"
My first boss at Our Price
Was a founder member. The name is the sound of a dejected blowing and wobbling of the lips. A latter day 'meh' if you will.
I'll probably never
find out how good Cherry Ghost, Rumer and Joan As Policewoman is/are.
Dunno what kind of music you usually like Mr Pax
but this is definitley worth a listen:
Not only do they have a hair metal name
They also have a small boy in a one-piece swimming costume on the cover. What is this, National Pale Fountains Week or something?
Not today, thanks.
Not a very good salesman, am I
Tell you what - I'll post a tune and if you really aren't interested we'll leave it at that:
Oh, it's THEM!
S'alright......hmmm........
band name pinched from a lyric
in a Wilco song, so they can't be all bad.
And indeed they are not.
Joan As Policewoman
Her new album isn't much cop, but the first two are stunning. Here's a song from the second (To Survive), called Start Of My Heart. Any good?
On a different level
You would, wouldn't you...
Kitchens of Distinction
Are they any good? No idea.
Gosh
That takes me back. None more indie in many ways with a nice line in feedback covered dream pop. For a few days their song The First Time We Opened The Capsule was very important to me. It coincided with a girlfriend dumping me and my life going very pear-shaped for a while as a result.
KoD
were brilliant, one of the most underrated of bands from that era. Should have been huge. Great great songs, with really great lyrics.
Dunno, but you ought to get
a nice cup of tea there
Yes
there were f__ing brilliant, and amazing live. I miss them.
K of D
Stunningly good band. Shame about the name. There's an excellent double CD compilation everyone should buy.
Yes!
Another thumbs-up for the Kitchens - fantastic band, and one of the few from the era who managed to match noise with melody. They should've been huge - cracking tunes with massive emotional peaks and soaring/roaring guitars. I loved them then and still do.
Singer/bassist Patrick Fitzgerald is still active as the more singer-songwritery Stephen Hero (also well worthy of a listen).
I am not alone in this
Heppo said much the same thing about Kasabian I believe
Kasabian...
...grrr....
TV on the Radio
always just made me think of Tommy Vance and, by association, heavy metal.
I've never felt any desire to listen to Stackridge, whose name to me conjures up images of shelf stacking in Tesco's in platform shoes.
Yeah...
Should have stuck with their original name. Stackridge Lemon. Wha?
Stackridge...
...sounds like a make of thornproof tweed jacket. Or possibly slippers.
Warning:
Every character featured in the following clip has an older brother in Ilkley called "Stackridge":
Treefight for Sunlight
I asked on Twitter the other night whether, although they sound right up my street by the descriptions I've heard, I'd ever get past their name?
It was a resounding no from everyone (well, six people) and I still haven't looked them up on Spotify.
Now you can!
Here's a list of the acts named so far:
http://open.spotify.com/user/ahh_bisto/playlist/5cqD7GpICnOOUYn1Yf93LH
Please add if you feel inclined
tUnE-yArDs
Terrible habit of mixing her cases, which I ascribe to being young and slightly bonkers.
But she's great live and her first album (BiRd-BrAiNs... ouch that hurts) is wonderful. Revel in her imagination and think of her in lower case.
Mac the mouth
Actually don't agree with him paticularly but this
reminds me of a quote by the oft funny Bunnyman. "The Jam and The Style Council, two of the worst band names ever, 3 if you count Paul Weller"
3 from me
Glasvegas - Don't like their music
Buck Cherry - never knowingly heard them
Porcupine Tree - Quite like them
It's so many years since they wormed their way into
my affections that I had quite forgotten how put off I was initially by the name Half Man, Half Biscuit.
In fact, if I didn't already know their work the doubly irritating "Achtung Bono" by Half Man, Half Biscuit is possibly the last record I would ever listen to....
Strangely enough
I heard the name before the actual music - and loved it. I would have been hugely disappointed if they'd turned out to be pants. Imagine my delight to find that Half Man, Half Biscuit are consistently wonderful.
Odd
Normally one is attracted to HMHB by their name and irreverant song and album titles, only to be disappointed by the frankly awful music.
I avoided
Cud, Cocteau Twins and Icicle Works for this very reason and then, obviously learned that they are varying degrees of rather good.
I haven't learned my lesson though and still avoid bands with manes that I think are rubbish.
You mean bands like Sparklehorse?
Or perhaps Wyld Stallyns? Band of Horses?
I'm here all week, try the veal etc...
Emo bands*
I am 25 years too old for them anyway, but their names put me right off.
Bowling for Soup? My Chemical Romance? System of a Down? (one of my daughters has Down's syndrome - I sometimes call her System of a Down's for my own amusement - Look, I can, OK? She's my child! No-one else can obviously though.)
* some of these might not actually be emo bands, such is my poor knowledge of what those young people like these days.
If she´s one of your daughters
Maybe there´s even a Sister Of A Down´s?
But don´t worry about the age thing. Anyone older than 13 tends to be too old for emo, which is a good thing.
The Black Parade
By My Chemical Romance is in my opinion one of the best albums of the last 10 years. Worth getting past the name if you can, they don't take themselves too seriously and there are some great tunes in there.
MCR
Yep, great album.
Thirded
The Black Parade is a terrific record.
Nurse with wound
Scraping foetus off the wheel
You've got foetus on your breath
etc etc
No idea what they sounded like. Never will either.
Funeral For A Friend
The most depressing band name of all time, surely.
Leather Nun. Intriguing? Not really.
Funeral For A Friend
...Depressing and stolen from the Elton John title.
Band of Horses
I mean, WTF?
Oasis
I avoided the Gallagher brother's band for as long as I could when people started telling me how good they were because I just assumed I was being told about the dreadful MOR band of the same name that Mary Hopkin was in.
On a similar note, if some upstarts use the name of an old band it annoys me enough to dislike them before I've heard any of their stuff. Blue, Jet and Shoes (I know the classic powerpop band's name included the definite article) are just three examples.
In the Internet age there really isn't any excuse is there?
I was on
the Creation mailing list and they would send out promo postcards of forthcoming releases. When one dropped through the letterbox from 'Oasis' I just thought they'd signed an Acid Jazz band and didn't bother with it. Obviously the NME and the rest of Great Britain hadn't started to go bandy for them at that point.
My mum was into flower arranging
so it just reminded me of that green stuff she poked her twigs in. I'm sure I could develop that last sentence into something sordid, but she's my mum and I'm lazy.
Deep breath...
Lady Gaga, Florence and the Machine, Kasabian, Kula Shaker, Foghat, Uriah Heep, Two Door Cinema Club, The Cribs, The Coral, The Shins, The Strokes, The Twang, The National, The XX, Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Be'ave la, The Coral
is a boss name for a band.
Kasabian
"Hey, yeah, like, man, let's name the band after, like, the getaway driver for the Manson family."
Most bands grew out of that Helter Skelter bullshit in the 90a. I guess Rutland's behind the curve on this one.
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Have not heard a single note of his music, but every time I read the name (complete with 'quoted' middle monicker) it's like an overly smug type again drawing attention to a piss-weak 'clever' (oops) witticism of theirs (for the ten zillionth time) when it wasn't actually funny in the first place... and it makes me want to punch him. Its very repetition in print only spreads the contagion.
I demand a moratorium - he can have his middle name, but the quotes have to go... the fight-back starts here:
Deep breaths...
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bonnie Prince Billy
Bonnie Prince Billy
...and moving on to genres, so help me, don't get me started on 'alt country'...
He doesn't help his case
by looking like a bit of a kn*b either.
c.f. a recent other thread
His name, and appearance, suggest an 'ironic' dung wearer
That's fair
Fortunately knowing his Palace stuff meant I wasn't put off.
I refuse to listen to Beth Jeans Houghton though. That 's'...
Beth Jeans Houghton
It's not just the name. It's the wig and the onstage persona. She does have talent but you have to grit your teeth. WYOYOY?
Bright Eyes also quite annoying. I mean, it's just that one chap really, isn't it? so why the cutesey monicker?
Eh?
Not sure what you mean. Her name is Beth and her surname is Jeans Houghton. I know a few people with the surname Jeans up here.
Oi! Sweary Types! No!
Rubbish names/good music:
Arctic Monkeys - it is some kind of Stone Roses homage? Or what?
Allo Darlin' - sound like a bunch of Essex chancers
Of Montreal - What, exactly? Why?
Fountains of Wayne - glad I heard the music before the name...
My Morning Jacket - destined for obscurity, surely
Bands whose names are so rubbish I've never bothered finding out if their music is any good:
Enter Shikari, Joan as Policewoman, Death Cab for Cutie, Limp Bizkit, Bread, Porno for Pyros, Smashing Pumpkins, Mott the Hoople, The Pigeon Detectives & any band with a swear word in their name - don't care how good you might be, you don't even get an airing!
Arctic Monkeys
absolutely ridiculous name, makes them sound like a band doomed to be third on the bill supporting Reverend and the Makers at the Northampton Roadmenders forever.
What a shame they're not
Is all.....
Here we go...there are so many but
It Hugs Back
Mumford and Sons
Puddle of Mudd
Of Montreal
(hed)pe
Taking Back Sunday
Green Day
Linkin Park
A Sunny Day in Glasgow (who I must say are really good)
and wasn't there a band called '.co.uk' or something in the very early days of the internet?
But, but
What about Willumwozzum Bullumbuzzum up at the top of this thread. I was sure you would know of them.
Any band that feels the need to use brackets or punctuation
as part of their name is walking a fine line.
Forward bloody Russia
doomed themselves from the start with those blasted exclamation marks -- one of them upside down for God's sake.
The The
Teach-In
Live Report
Weather Report
Genesis
Del Amitri
Blur
kings of convenience
Average White Band
Radiohead
...all pretty awful names, though I can get past that for The The and the odd tune by Genesis, Kings Of Convenience or Blur.
Average White Band is a fine name.
Particularly given the style of music they played.
H.I.M.
The fun I used to have with young emo Christmas temps.
"What sort of music are you into?"
"HIM"
"Who?"
"HIM"
"Who?"
"Aitch...eye....emm!"
"Look, I can spell 'him', but who do you mean?"
"HIM! It stands for His Infernal Majesty!"
"Oh. Them. I can see why they abbreviate it. That name's shocking."
iliketrains
I do. And I like the band iliketrains - they are interesting post-rock with vocals, but even I'd concede that it isn't a good name.
Good band, shame about the name
Ladies (if any) and gentlemen, I give you Bat for Lashes.
Prefab Sprout
The name put me off - until I discovered how great the music was but I still wish they had another name. I am sure had they had a cooler or better name they would have achieved more success than they did.
Crispy Ambulance
No idea what the music sound like
The Ting Tings
Although the name still doesn't put me off half as much as the music
The Band..
..are my favourite band of all time, and even now I baulk when people ask me to name them.
The Who?
It's a bit like saying you're going to Ware isn't it?
I think The Band is one of the best band names
But then I used to be in a band called Friends Of The D Cup.
Chase and Favour
Sounds like the sort of geezery blokes who appear in ads for bog-standard lagers, who say 'quality' every five minutes, and who talk about the importance of the right kind of trainers.
Any band whose name is a bloody phrase....
Ladeez and gennulmen, I give you.."and you shall know us by the trail of the dead"
Actually, I suppose "Any band whose name is a bloody phrase" might well end up as a bloody band name.
Thing is, though, right...
...Trail of Dead and, for that matter, Godspeed! You Black Emperor have both produced some BRILLIANT records in their time.
I quite like 'phrase' band names.
Me too
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - that's a good one.
You've Chosen Darkness?
The Darkness...
...is a shit name for that band, actually. Well, no, it's a shit name for anyone. But especially for a band who were that great at the pure musical expression of fun, it seems unapposite.
Does anyone remember FUN?
The last minute of this clip appears to be someone making all their 14-year old rock and roll fantasies come true.
I never, ever get tired of that clip.
God bless 'em.
Another 3 from me
Glas-vegas
Gorky's Zycotic Mynki (??)
Super Furry Animals
Their music may be fantastic but it's unlikely to get a fair hearing in my house.
Unless the Massive can convince me that It'd be time well spent.
Glasvegas
I think Glasvegas is a brilliant name. I was rather surprised to end up thinking the same about the band, but I loved the name first
Another 3 from me
Glas-vegas
Gorky's Zycotic Mynki (??)
Super Furry Animals
Their music may be fantastic but it's unlikely to get a fair hearing in my house.
Unless the Massive can convince me that It'd be time well spent.
Not a Glas Vegas fan
but the twin towers of melodic Welsh pop... the question is where do you start?:
Arse full of chips
Spotted in gig listings at the weekend. It hasn't made me want to find out more about them.
Eliza Doolittle
Honestly, why? And she's a good singer too but I'd feel embarrassed to ask for anything by her.
See also Dido (though forget the good singer bit). And it's probably her real name, which tells you a lot about her parents. See also Pixie Lott (another real name, or at least one worn since childhood).
And I was put off Elbow for years. And Everything But The Girl.
the third ear band. Always
the third ear band. Always make me feel a little queasy.
Oh and Piblotko! (probably spelt wrong, but I'm never going to go near their music so it doesnt matter to me).
Menswear
I've always thought a terrible terrible teeth-grindingly arch band name.
Only leavened when you pull it apart to Men Swear. Which is much better.
Also, for glaringly obvious reasons, The Revolting Cocks. It's enough to have one without being forced to listen to several others.
Pedantry
It was actually Menswe@r, which is arguably worse.
Not arguably.
It's significantly worse. Typographically kerr-azy names are always punchable.
U2
I know they were just kids when the interminable ghastliness began all those years ago, but is that really the best they could come up with?
Truth is if the music's any good you can forgive a bad name. The Byrds was a pathetic attempt to emulate the name Beatles. Fortunately, they sounded brilliant and we soon forgot. Not so the Monkees.
Mumford and Sons
Boring. And they are.
Just picked up the new Word CD
To find a track by "The Unthanks". Is there an uglier made-up word in the English language? The fact that the band members all seem, in what I assume is a tribute to The Ramones, to have named themselves "Unthank" makes it even worse
To be fair
their music is as bad as their name.
Nothanks.
Rachel Unthank and Becky Unthank are sisters
from Northumberland, and those are their real names. It's not a 'made up' word. And no one else in the band has the surname Unthank.
Some people might not care for their music, but for me, "The Bairns" and "Here's the Tender Coming" have been two of the finest folk albums of the past ten years. And I know that many other Massivers like the records just as much as I do.
Absolutely cracking live band, too.
Hoobastank
I have no idea what these guys were thinking.
See also,...
..Hamfatter.
BTW Is your post above in jest, Humphrey?
No, ignorance
the name put me off so much that I had no idea to find out more. But a quick google reveals that they aren't apparently all called unthank and it may well be their real name (their site appears to be down so I can't check). It's still an extraordinarily awful name for a band though.
I disagree
Apart from the fact that the band is built around sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank (and yes, it is their real name, from a vilage somewhere in the North East), I really like the word "unthank". It's intriguing and strange, and actually this fits their music, which I absolutely love, rather well.
So they're not called after these..?
The Unthanks
Now the second North East act, after Beth Jeans Houghton, to find their real surnames criticised.
The Flaming Lips
My own personal blind spot.
Terrible name, even worse music.