Entertainment For Lively Minds
Holding back the music
Sometimes an artist will lengthen their odds of success by deciding on a terrible band / album name, or perhaps even dreadful artwork.
I honestly think that Dogs Die In Hot Cars' album of splendid XTC-ish power pop would have stood a better chance if they hadn't been saddled with that awful name.
The View's second album, a far more adventurous and varied work than you might imagine, was blighted by the twin crimes of stupid name ('Which Bitch?') and artwork that looked like it had been scrawled in the playtime of a delinquent 3-year-old.
And of course Hard-Fi's notorious 'No cover art' campaign for their last album made it look like one of those albums in Woolworths where they had lost the sleeve and replaced it with a generic one. The songs were really good actually, if anyone got that far!
Can you think of any other cases where artists have voluntarily shot themselves in the foot in such a way?
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Counting Crows
No matter how good their music may or may not be, a lead singer with a haircut like this is just taking the piss
I'm listening to John Peel on A.U. FM
He's playing a track from the new Elliott Smith album.
"Two more from that Billy MacKenzie session later..."
*edit* s**t wrong thread. In my alternative universe such f**k ups will be impossible
The Beach Boys
Quintessential example. That name wasn't designed to be good for more than a couple of years. Stopped making sense right around 1964.
The Gaylads
may have outstayed their welcome, name-wise, too
As did
Gay Dad
Another band that were badly held back by their name: their first album is actually really good
Another one
is Daft Punk
I Am Kloot
Just how successful would this (wonderful) band be if they were called something a little less off the wall - if they were called something like, erm, Elbow, perhaps?
Does It Offend You, Yeah?
I've never listened to them, partly because of that name.
Did we have a thread about this before? I think we might have done.
Yup
I, too, have never intentionally heard of the aforementioned beat combo. I imagine them to be a bunch of stick-trousered Hoxtonite popinjays that invite the caption 'God help us if there's a war' (copyright M.E. Smith).
Very many rap/hip hop artists
have shit names and with such a cornucopia of crassness to choose from it's difficult to know quite where to start. But for me Gnarls Barkley is such a rubbish moniker I can't imagine ever listening to them by choice.
Even saying the name out loud seems like a crime against humanity.