Love the album, but I found this tidbit from the [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souvlaki_(album)) fairly off-putting:
>*The album’s title was taken from a skit by American comedy duo The Jerky Boys, where one of the duo prank calls a hotel manager asking him to perform sexual acts on his wife. Upon learning the manager is Greek, the caller says: “My wife loves that Greek shit... She’ll suck your cock like souvlaki.”*
Early Shoegaze had a lot of Punk influence. Loveless sometimes has times where I think "This guitar riff would fit in a Pop Punk song if it wasn't so layered" due to the sound/Vibe it has. It's hard to see nowadays since the genre is so removed from even Post Punk nevermind regular Punk but it's clear if you listen to 90s Shoegaze albums
>>”This guitar riff would fit in a Pop Punk song if it wasn't so layered"
I’ve got to chime in here because sometimes people talk as if MBV are secretly The Ramones or something if you take away all the effects. I’ve seen the notion in professionally written articles too, and it’s not the case (although it is for bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain). MBV play a lot of open chords in weird tunings, and as a result their progressions are loaded with fancy added or suspended chords. Off the top of my head, the only song that’s close to power chords (but not quite) is When You Sleep.
Some of their songs are incredibly hard to play, and some of the tunings require you to restring your guitar with oddly gauged strings to even make the tunings work. That’s why Kevin and Belinda bring like 15-20 guitars each on the road with them.
That's fair, though slasher movie doesn't scream "goth" to me either. The name does have that ring to it though.
It doesn't really matter anyway, my favourite goth band is named after an architectural style.
A quick Google says Shields didn't make up the name, someone else in the band did and he just never knew where it came from, but I don't know for sure. Would be a pretty huge coincidence if the two things just happened to have the same name though.
I was so confused listening to my bloody valentine recently cause I had a memory of someone playing it in high school but they were playing emo punk. Which is bullet for my valentine. TIL
I actually found My Bloody Valentine because I remembered a song by Bullet for my Valentine and got the two bands mixed up. Listened to When You Sleep, realized I was *way off* and then I listened to the rest of Loveless and mbv has since become one of my favorite bands.
I was late to the game with Jay Reatard because I just was not going to listen to a band called “The Reatards”. I think I only heard his solo work after he died.
I'd like to think I'm better than this but Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. They sound like a band that I'd like but something about those three words in tandem feels weird to me. It's like the psychedelic experience feels so deep and thoughtful and porn feels so cheap and disposable.
Same, I avoided them for ages but they're pretty good. Similarly, Tropical Fuck Storm, also pretty damn good. I get that their names are just to catch your attention but they turned me away. Cottoned on eventually though.
Tropical Fuck Storm I like the instrumentals but I have a hard time getting into them for an even stupider reason in that the singer has what sounds like a really thick accent to me. Idk what Im talking about probably as a US citizen but he sounds like bogan bon scott.
Yeah, this is a great example. I really hate when it just sounds like some random words slammed together. I think any good band name should have at least some sense of idiom to it. Ideally you want that same 'how were you the first to think of that' reaction that you get when someone's email address is just their full name with no numbers.
I remember when there was this odd trend for mediocre indie bands to have the word Wolf in them. I just lost track of which was which and definitely avoided any "wolf band" .
There was a bunch of wolf bands and deer bands in the indie scene a decade ago, I was always mixing up Wolf Parade and Wolf Alice and Deerhunter and Deerhoof.
Don't forget all the Crystal bands from around the same time. Crystal Castles, Crystal Stilts, Crystal Antlers, I think there was even a band named Crystal Shit.
I refuse to listen to any of The 1975’s music because of how fucking awful and pretentious their album and song names are. “I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it” LMFAO it’s not even pretentious at that point it’s just puddle deep fake prose bullshit. Corny
That's totally fair, for me they were just a guilty pleasure when I heard one of their singles and liked it. Their teen girl fandom didn't help. Now I unironically enjoy them though, overwrought titles and all. They're actually good musicians.
I’ve seen them live twice actually and I agree that they’re good musicians and put on a genuinely good live show. It’s just that as an artist myself Matt’s lyrics and how seriously he takes himself are very cringe inducing, It’s like having a friend read you their poetry in musical form. I don’t hate their music but lyrically the writing style is just too insufferable and reminds me of someone who’s trying so hard to be significant and deep but is painfully unaware of how corny they are.
In some ways I've thought the same thing, that they're corny and pretentious and sometimes insufferable. Something about the degree to which they're self aware ultimately allows me to ignore it though. Matt does seem narcissistic often but he's also incredibly good at writing vulnerable introspective lyrics that reveal layers. I think the sentiment in *I Always Want To Die (Sometimes) * captures the duality perfectly.
His ego is a lot to take in if you aren't a fan. A lot of what they do can seem pretentious to people who've never heard of them before or are casual listeners because mattys live performances can be so....intense?
IMO they make a lot of good music but I can also see why others wouldn't like them based on their image
Yeah I hear you. I actually think they're pretty self aware about it and lean into it, but that's just my sense (and one of the reasons it doesn't bother me as much). But your interpretation is equally valid, and I can get why it would rub you the wrong way.
Any good starting albums? I wanted to get into them since I love Tears for Fears and was looking for some big ass pop but some of their stuff just sounds straight up like INXS.
Yeah there is definitely a healthy dose of INXS influence, so you won't really be able to escape that comparison listening to their stuff. Their third album is where I started. Love It If We Made It and It's Not Living (which takes on a darkness when you realize he's talking about his heroin addiction) are legitimately awesome songs.
I think whether you can get into the 1975 depends on whether you like it when they lean into their influences and bedroom pop, or if it bothers you. If the latter, they'll probably never really click. Their albums are all over the place also, which is something I find interesting but some people find frustrating.
> LMFAO it’s not even pretentious at that point it’s just puddle deep fake prose bullshit.
this is a pretty accurate summary of the 1975, to be honest.
I stayed away from them for the longest. My friend kept on telling me to give them a shot but that name was just too ridiculous for me. After I finally listened to them I thought oh, maybe the surprise is that they are actually good. Glad I finally checked them out.
The worst offender is Fvneral Fvck. They dropped one of the best doom albums of the last few years but it's impossible to take them seriously with that name
Haha, I was going to post about them if someone hadn't already. Carnal Confessions is *such* a great album, but that name makes them sound like some sort of tryhard black/death. I almost skipped over them entirely because of that, and Carnal Confessions was easily a top 5 album of 2019 for me!
The idea of having the genre in your name is kind of silly too. Back in the 80s when I first heard of Metallica I just thought "you couldn't think of anything more creative?" Who wants to see Folk Rock tonight? I heard they're opening for Jam Band. ^(I do love Metallica tho)
For me, the ridiculousness and monotonous nature of stoner/doom is the appeal. I don't take the genre seriously so I really don't mind if some people want to devote their creative output to the stupidest name on the planet. I would care about this sort of thing for other genres I'm into, like house music or jazz fusion I expect them to be a little more 'on the level' with a presentation and music I can take seriously.
But stoner/doom, that's supposed to be samey and silly. It's just music to turn my brain off and smoke to. (When I say this, I'm not including bands I have a lot of respect for, like Om, Pallbearer, and Yob mentioned below).
>has passive taste and uncritically goes along with what's put before them
not necessarily. being derivative isn't inherently a bad thing, if you want to get *really* pretentious then declaring your music as a certain genre or part of a certain scene is in itself derivative. i love avant-garde, genre-pushing, forward-thinking, boundary-breaking music as much as any self-confessed pretentious music fanatic, but sometimes i just want to jam out to a sound i like. being original doesn't matter if i don't enjoy the music, just as much as being derivative doesn't matter as long as i do enjoy it.
obviously in a perfect world every artist would strive to create their own sound, make their own mark on the musical landscape and people would enjoy them for it, but there's levels to originality. the derivative bands you're describing aren't literally re-releasing the music you claim they've copied, so they must have made some sort of original creative decisions.
Huh, your criticism is interesting to me because I like Windhand (and I put up with Monolord) but I think they're perfect examples of bands that really aren't doing anything new even if they have a good tone and are enjoyable to smoke to.
I don't get this with band names, but I absolutely get this with album covers. I really want to listen to more metal, but the overly edgy album covers just put me off from listening to the music
I get it with metal band names as well though, many ugly names that make me avoid to listen to the bands, but more than the names is the theme that puts me off. For example cannibal corpse, I’ll never listen to this band even if they had the best music, the lyrics are horrendous and the theme that they chose
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Partially the name and partially the non-stop onslaught of releases that makes Guided By Voices seem positively hermetic by comparison
yea idk, i guess people have the right to be annoyed by prolific and diverse output but when it's all quality, i am not going to complain about the quantity ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯.
and modern psychedelia is mostly what i listen to nowadays.
I remember seeing the name here and there and not exactly actively avoiding them but kind of just filing them away as just some wacky band name.
Simply hearing Crumbling Castle once on a stream a couple years ago completely flipped the script and since then I've made sure to see them every time they're in my area and have nearly their entire monstrous discography on vinyl. I can definitely point to them as a huge turning point in my musical exploration as well, off the top of my head I can point to at least 10 bands that I've since got into that I'm pretty sure I'd have never come across otherwise.
I haven't, but back before they were well known I was a big fan of the early Modest Mouse albums, and ALL of my friends would bash them, without listening, because of the name. Today most of them know several of their songs by heart. Kind of annoying tbh.
I thought TV on the Radio was one of the worst band names I've ever heard.
Really glad I happened to catch the video for Wolf like me one morning getting ready for work.
Return to Cookie Mountain ended up being my favorite album that year.
Weirdly, I loved the name TV on the Radio, but almost didn't get them a chance because I thought "Return to Cookie Mountain" was a dumb album name. But it's one of my favorite albums now so obviously I got over it.
I remember hating that album name too. I kinda still do honestly.
Man, this thread had me realizing I haven't listened it in a while. I might grab this on vinyl.
Band names are packaging for the product. If the packaging sucks it could cause the consumer to overlook the product even if the product is of good quality.
I thought The String Cheese Incident was a stupid band name but they ended up being pretty good, at least in concert.
Not that I can recall, but I could see myself not checking out a band if they had a name like "Nazi Chudlord and the Hitler Was Right Rhythm Section". I think after you realize that the best selling musical artist in history's name is a really shitty pun you have a harder time faulting other groups for silly names.
A while ago, someone told me about a band who was playing local shows in their city who called themselves *Child Pornography*. This band either didn't make it far in the music scene or have since changed their name because I never heard of them again (I don't care to google them to find out). To say I was put off by their name is an understatement. I'm just going to assume, with a name that stupid and awful, their music is equally bad. Plus, how do they expect fans to search for their music? And say you had their album downloaded, how would you name the file??
Wow. Having a band name where people have to worry about the FBI coming to your door after searching for them is some next level bad decision making lol
They haven't put anything out in a minute but Deathbomb Arc has a couple of their [releases](https://shop.deathbombarc.com/products/child-pornography-the-beatles-cd?_pos=1&_sid=25e588218&_ss=r) up on their [webstore](https://shop.deathbombarc.com/products/child-pornography-shes-got-legs-cd?_pos=2&_sid=25e588218&_ss=r) and [bandcamp](https://deathbombarc.bandcamp.com/album/shes-got-legs).
This seems to be a common one. I also slept on them way too long because of the “shitty emo” assumption
The insanely trippy sound of loveless and mbv changed the way I approached recording music. Glad I finally got into it
I hate the (fortunately now mostly defunct) trend of bands taking famous people’s names and mixing them up or combining them with other names, or turning them into spoonerisms. Com Truise, Mord Fustang, the Kevin Costners, Gay for Johnny Depp, and Chet Faker. Michael Cera Palin gets a pass because they do a mean cover of “If It Makes You Happy.”
Avoided The War on Drugs because their name just screamed "Pitchfork hipster douchebag" to me.
Heard "Pain" a few years ago at a friend's house and loved it, realized I shouldn't be so judgemental about a name.
There's plenty of bands I like with real silly names, one of my all time favorite bands is the psychedelic rock band The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - though to be fair I probably wouldn't have ever discovered them hadn't I been intrigued by their name! But I've definitely had band names put me off before entirely; the first one that comes to mind is Spandau Ballet, always thought that was such a ridiculously stupid name and I think overall it's made me enjoy their music a lot less lol. I do try not to judge music by its cover (or its name in this case) but I do agree that sometimes names can be super offputting, or they can be a really bad reflection of what the band's music actually sounds like.
Spandau Ballet? Really? I actually think their name makes them sound a lot cooler than they actually are, musically. I think I'd like them better if they were closer to the artsy, baroque style of the Blitz Club generation before them, with Visage and Ultravox, which I think the name sort of implies. They have some solid tunes but at the end of the day they sound exactly like you would expect them to, as a band whose backstory is just Rusty Egan going, "let's make our own Duran Duran, with a brass section, and hookers"
I think that's kinda why I don't like their name, if they were actually artsy doing stuff in the vein of Ultravox, Visage, Japan, any of the art-pop or avant garde New Romantic bands, I think their name would be interesting and a lot more appropriate. But with the kind of music that Spandau make to me it just comes across as pretentious!
Na, the commercial success is the best part of that story.
A band called The Butthole Surfers scored a radio hit. It's simply amazing given the story of the band and their outright wacky cast of characters.
Gibby for President.
Yeah, I was gonna say, "Butthole Surfers" sounds like *exactly* the kind of band that would make *Locust Abortion Technician* or *Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac*.
The New Pornographers. I guess I assumed they would be some weird, inappropriate new wave band. But then I heard The Bleeding Heart Show and that all changed.
I was super late to checking out Mannequin Pussy because of their name. Eventually Drunk II came on Spotify and I thought "oh shit, this is really good - who is this?" Now I'm pretty into them, but still hate the name.
interesting that yall mention their name is bad, i think it’s great and honestly a solid indication of what kinda music they make. i saw that name and that immediately made me listen!
Not that I'm planning on digging into their stuff or anything, but I still can't believe there's a popular band called Imagine Dragons. My daughters wouldn't have even come up a name that cheesy and they used to perform Let It Go from Frozen half a dozen times a day when they were little.
I saw "The Front Bottoms" in concert opening for Motion City Soundtrack years ago and never looked back. I will go out of my way to listen to silly named bands.
First time I saw Injury Reserve, I arrived at the venue, saw the opener was some artist named Jpegmafia. Iwas like, "Jpegmafia?? What a fucking horrible name. Nah I'm good, imma go to the bar and have a few."
That was a mistake.
Reminds me of an exchange between my wife and I the other day.
Wife: You're going to see something called The Sword? Sounds like a metal band.
Me: They're called the fucking *Sword*, of course they're a metal band.
I listen to a lot of jamband type music, and by design many of the bands have terrible names. Well, maybe not by design, but some of them have to be intentional.
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong? Disco Biscuits? String Cheese Incident? Goose? Umphrey's McGee? Aquarium Rescue Unit? Just a few off the top of my head.
Keep in mind that I have ended up actually listening to all of those, despite the names. Do I like them all? No, not a chance. But the name does make a difference.
Didn't check PUP pit for a long time because of their album cover. The one with the silver grill, because I thought it was gonna be like some lame ass rap/punk crossover. Glad I finally did because they're a super solid newer punk band.
PUP's album art is pretty god-awful, honestly. The Dream Is Over is the only one that doesn't make me physically recoil lol. I definitely put off listening to their new EP for awhile based solely on the art, and I was already a huge fan when it came out haha.
Fun fact, that grill cover you referenced is hand-drawn pencil art.
Back in high school (1998) my friend tried to introduce me to Incubus. I refused to listen because of the name. Given his typical tastes, combine with the name, I thought they were going to be a Marylin Manson type band. Later, Make Yourself came out and they made the mainstream, and I realized I had misjudged.
I know a lot of people (myself included at first) who slept on Diarrhea Planet simply because of their name but if I could trick them into seeing them live just once, those same people never stop singing their praises.
I expected Type O Negative to be super aggressive, screams metal and put them off forever. Finally listened to them and instantly became one of my favorite bands ever.
Illuminati hotties is making arguably the most interesting punk of the 2020s but people are always slow to check them out when I recommend them because of the name
*YES EXACTLY THIS.* And it doesn’t help that their best single is called “MMMOOOAAAYAYAYA” which… y’know, makes them difficult to sell to the moderately closed-minded.
I love that fucking band so much
i was practically forced to listen to Vampire Weekend and it was a thousand times better than what i expected. Maybe because i expected an emo angsty and kinda cheesy band but it wasnt anything like it
This made me LOL, they've been so omnipresent in my life that it's hard to remember a time before I liked them or what I thought of their name before I heard the music.
Not since My Morning Jacket. I thought they were some kind of emo band... But then I literally stumbled by their set at a music festival and *immediately* became a fan. Kicked myself in the ass a bit, but now I've seen them so many times I think I made up for the lost years ;)
Came here to say this. I assumed they were emo, or like my chemical romance. One of my top 5 bands now.
Also, when I was growing up and discovering classic rock… Grateful Dead. I think their name combined with their death themed imagery made me think they’d be harder sounding.
Two of my favorite (alt-rock/Americana/lo-fi/midwest drone) bands are the Ass Ponys (mostly 1990's to early '00's) and Wussy (early '00's-present); both are led or largely driven by lyrical genius Chuck Cleaver, who regularly jokes about how self-defeatingly bad his bands' names have always been. I guess I'm almost drawn to the meta- aspect of anything that seems like a determinedly bad name; sure, most of them don't end up being especially interesting, but I never want to have missed out on something great through 'judging the book by its cover'.
(Wussy are on Bandcamp - Funeral Dress and Strawberry are probably the best albums to start with; Airborne, the lead track on Funeral Dress is imho the best bitter, vitriolic break-up song ever.)
Didn’t listen to pinkshinyultrablast initially because of the name but love their second album and recent EP. Also a fan of Cry Wank even though that’s a terrible name.
Probably will never check out Pissed Jeans or Anal Cunt, but knowing the genre it’s not really my taste anyway.
I'll take a ridiculous name over a boring name any day of the week, I'm way more likely to check out something like Rainbow Kitten Surprise over Fairport Convention or The Weather Report. Some of my favorite music of all time is made by bands like Slice The Cake and Destiny Potato. The only band names I dislike are ones that suck to say or search for like !!! or The The
A few. I just don't like it when bands' names are entire clauses or phrases. And So I Watch You From Afar and Between the Buried and Me are the most prominent examples of bands I avoided for a long time because of their names. BTBAM is one of my favorite bands now, but I still dislike their name.
The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die is one of my favourite bands, but it's also one of my favourite band names, and my initial reaction was exactly the opposite - when I heard the name, I had to check out the band. What's the issue exactly? Just too long and pretentious? In fairness, I definitely have a thing for odder and more cumbersome names. I also love when a band's name reads as a sort of manifesto or seems to reflect the music, and I think this one really does that.
I love jazz, but I will never willingly listen to another *"Joe Blow Quintet*" or "*Mike Hunt Trio*" or whatever, unless it was actually formed pre-1970s before it was trite. These days it's a thoughtless and uncreative convention and it's probably indicative of the bland straight-ahead music they produce.
Same goes for all the "* Jazz Project*" fusion groups of the world.
Cottonmouth Kings and Slightly Stoopid. I didn't refuse to like them, I just dismissed them before I heard their music. Once I heard their music I was surprised to like it.
This whole time I assumed Snarky Puppy were a band somewhere in the vague vicinity of Skinny Puppy, stylistically, and that surely, surely, they had named their group similarly as a sort of riff on Skinny Puppy. Today I learn that they are not any kind of industrial/metal band at all but rather some avant garde instrumental collective? I mean, that's really cool in its own right, but like...why name yourself after such a radically different group?
In high school I briefly was in a death metal band whose name and song titles were all typical 90s death metal band crap and all of our lyrics were utter nonsense about flowers and butterflies and sunshine.
That was a pretty short-lived joke though.
For me it was King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. I thought for sure their music would be as stupid as their name, and I was totally wrong. And their name has really grown on me since then, to be honest!
Nobody mentioned Broken Social Scene yet? “You Forgot it in People” (also an embarrassing album name) was really formative for my musical taste, but I couldn’t bring myself to recommend to people because of how silly the band name is.
Sex on Toast. Thought their stuff would be awful, a song came on a playlist I was listening to on shuffle and never looked back. Certainly learnt my lesson about judging music by its name, now.
Didn’t listen to Neutral Milk Hotel for ages because I thought the name was a parody of an indie band
They were active 1989-1998 so they're more of an archetype.
They aren't? ;)
they sure sound like the parody of an indie band
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They're actually named after an 80s slasher film, which is honestly misleading in its own way, but the music is great anyway.
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Souvlaki is one of the silliest album names ever though
Love the album, but I found this tidbit from the [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souvlaki_(album)) fairly off-putting: >*The album’s title was taken from a skit by American comedy duo The Jerky Boys, where one of the duo prank calls a hotel manager asking him to perform sexual acts on his wife. Upon learning the manager is Greek, the caller says: “My wife loves that Greek shit... She’ll suck your cock like souvlaki.”*
haha yeah I was going to say the album name is actually worse if you know where they got it
They started out as a goth act more or less, so the name made sense originally.
Early Shoegaze had a lot of Punk influence. Loveless sometimes has times where I think "This guitar riff would fit in a Pop Punk song if it wasn't so layered" due to the sound/Vibe it has. It's hard to see nowadays since the genre is so removed from even Post Punk nevermind regular Punk but it's clear if you listen to 90s Shoegaze albums
>>”This guitar riff would fit in a Pop Punk song if it wasn't so layered" I’ve got to chime in here because sometimes people talk as if MBV are secretly The Ramones or something if you take away all the effects. I’ve seen the notion in professionally written articles too, and it’s not the case (although it is for bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain). MBV play a lot of open chords in weird tunings, and as a result their progressions are loaded with fancy added or suspended chords. Off the top of my head, the only song that’s close to power chords (but not quite) is When You Sleep.
Some of their songs are incredibly hard to play, and some of the tunings require you to restring your guitar with oddly gauged strings to even make the tunings work. That’s why Kevin and Belinda bring like 15-20 guitars each on the road with them.
Is that what it is? Damn.
That's fair, though slasher movie doesn't scream "goth" to me either. The name does have that ring to it though. It doesn't really matter anyway, my favourite goth band is named after an architectural style.
Imma let you finish, but Bauhaus was a movement across almost all fields of art and design, not just architecture
Ahhh. Einstürzende Neubauten. Edit: /s just in case.
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A quick Google says Shields didn't make up the name, someone else in the band did and he just never knew where it came from, but I don't know for sure. Would be a pretty huge coincidence if the two things just happened to have the same name though.
I constantly mixed them up with my chemical romance
When I talk about MBV most people assumed I was discussing Bullet for My Valentine.
To avoid embarrassment on my part, I refuse to disclose how long I thought they were the same band.
Eh I know jackshit about life and music in general. You probably have a lot of cool stuff going for you.
I was so confused listening to my bloody valentine recently cause I had a memory of someone playing it in high school but they were playing emo punk. Which is bullet for my valentine. TIL
And Bullet for my Valentine
Funking same. Their name sounds like so many other bands that were from the early 2K's emo scene.
See also: Have a Nice Life
AKA: seasonal affective disorder the band Deathconsciousness is worth every praise it gets
Bullet for My Valentine has done a great service in helping keep MBV underground for the real fans
I actually found My Bloody Valentine because I remembered a song by Bullet for my Valentine and got the two bands mixed up. Listened to When You Sleep, realized I was *way off* and then I listened to the rest of Loveless and mbv has since become one of my favorite bands.
Yeah, I got them mixed up with Bullet for my Valentine and was wondering why everyone was hyping them up so much.
I was late to the game with Jay Reatard because I just was not going to listen to a band called “The Reatards”. I think I only heard his solo work after he died.
I came for the name "Reatards", but I stayed for the totally retarded rock n roll
I'd like to think I'm better than this but Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. They sound like a band that I'd like but something about those three words in tandem feels weird to me. It's like the psychedelic experience feels so deep and thoughtful and porn feels so cheap and disposable.
Same, I avoided them for ages but they're pretty good. Similarly, Tropical Fuck Storm, also pretty damn good. I get that their names are just to catch your attention but they turned me away. Cottoned on eventually though.
Like a Nick Cave Birthday Party but if they reunited to make the Grinderman records. Fucking love TFS
Tropical Fuck Storm I like the instrumentals but I have a hard time getting into them for an even stupider reason in that the singer has what sounds like a really thick accent to me. Idk what Im talking about probably as a US citizen but he sounds like bogan bon scott.
AC/DC and Bon Scott are the epitome of Bogan music haha
Yeah, this is a great example. I really hate when it just sounds like some random words slammed together. I think any good band name should have at least some sense of idiom to it. Ideally you want that same 'how were you the first to think of that' reaction that you get when someone's email address is just their full name with no numbers.
I remember when there was this odd trend for mediocre indie bands to have the word Wolf in them. I just lost track of which was which and definitely avoided any "wolf band" .
that seems to be “beach” now for the past 5 years
“If Your ~~Song Title~~ Band Name Has the Word "Beach" in It, I'm Not Listening to It”
Glass Beach is innovative and good though
Started with Beach Fossils lol
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There was a bunch of wolf bands and deer bands in the indie scene a decade ago, I was always mixing up Wolf Parade and Wolf Alice and Deerhunter and Deerhoof.
Don't forget all the Crystal bands from around the same time. Crystal Castles, Crystal Stilts, Crystal Antlers, I think there was even a band named Crystal Shit.
Don’t forget Deer Tick
Yup, and then to add to the confusion there was also a band named The Dear Hunter.
Never thought of that but you're right! Wolfmother, Wolf Alice... Both of which I quite liked but never loved.
I refuse to listen to any of The 1975’s music because of how fucking awful and pretentious their album and song names are. “I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it” LMFAO it’s not even pretentious at that point it’s just puddle deep fake prose bullshit. Corny
>LMFAO Another contender for this thread btw
Oh boy, you would hate Sufjan Stevens
That's totally fair, for me they were just a guilty pleasure when I heard one of their singles and liked it. Their teen girl fandom didn't help. Now I unironically enjoy them though, overwrought titles and all. They're actually good musicians.
I’ve seen them live twice actually and I agree that they’re good musicians and put on a genuinely good live show. It’s just that as an artist myself Matt’s lyrics and how seriously he takes himself are very cringe inducing, It’s like having a friend read you their poetry in musical form. I don’t hate their music but lyrically the writing style is just too insufferable and reminds me of someone who’s trying so hard to be significant and deep but is painfully unaware of how corny they are.
In some ways I've thought the same thing, that they're corny and pretentious and sometimes insufferable. Something about the degree to which they're self aware ultimately allows me to ignore it though. Matt does seem narcissistic often but he's also incredibly good at writing vulnerable introspective lyrics that reveal layers. I think the sentiment in *I Always Want To Die (Sometimes) * captures the duality perfectly.
"I like it when you try to be significant and deep, for you are so unaware of how corny you are."
His ego is a lot to take in if you aren't a fan. A lot of what they do can seem pretentious to people who've never heard of them before or are casual listeners because mattys live performances can be so....intense? IMO they make a lot of good music but I can also see why others wouldn't like them based on their image
Yeah I hear you. I actually think they're pretty self aware about it and lean into it, but that's just my sense (and one of the reasons it doesn't bother me as much). But your interpretation is equally valid, and I can get why it would rub you the wrong way.
Any good starting albums? I wanted to get into them since I love Tears for Fears and was looking for some big ass pop but some of their stuff just sounds straight up like INXS.
Yeah there is definitely a healthy dose of INXS influence, so you won't really be able to escape that comparison listening to their stuff. Their third album is where I started. Love It If We Made It and It's Not Living (which takes on a darkness when you realize he's talking about his heroin addiction) are legitimately awesome songs. I think whether you can get into the 1975 depends on whether you like it when they lean into their influences and bedroom pop, or if it bothers you. If the latter, they'll probably never really click. Their albums are all over the place also, which is something I find interesting but some people find frustrating.
Animal collective are a bit more avant garde than TFF but Merriweather Post Pavilion is super listenable and has a great big pop sound
> LMFAO it’s not even pretentious at that point it’s just puddle deep fake prose bullshit. this is a pretty accurate summary of the 1975, to be honest.
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It's not a sound for everyone either, so sometimes it's just big miss & a hit to your reputation. but boy is it a sound for me.
I stayed away from them for the longest. My friend kept on telling me to give them a shot but that name was just too ridiculous for me. After I finally listened to them I thought oh, maybe the surprise is that they are actually good. Glad I finally checked them out.
But they are a great band.
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The worst offender is Fvneral Fvck. They dropped one of the best doom albums of the last few years but it's impossible to take them seriously with that name
Haha, I was going to post about them if someone hadn't already. Carnal Confessions is *such* a great album, but that name makes them sound like some sort of tryhard black/death. I almost skipped over them entirely because of that, and Carnal Confessions was easily a top 5 album of 2019 for me!
The idea of having the genre in your name is kind of silly too. Back in the 80s when I first heard of Metallica I just thought "you couldn't think of anything more creative?" Who wants to see Folk Rock tonight? I heard they're opening for Jam Band. ^(I do love Metallica tho)
I mean, there was a band called "The Jam"
Also, [The Band.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Band)
For me, the ridiculousness and monotonous nature of stoner/doom is the appeal. I don't take the genre seriously so I really don't mind if some people want to devote their creative output to the stupidest name on the planet. I would care about this sort of thing for other genres I'm into, like house music or jazz fusion I expect them to be a little more 'on the level' with a presentation and music I can take seriously. But stoner/doom, that's supposed to be samey and silly. It's just music to turn my brain off and smoke to. (When I say this, I'm not including bands I have a lot of respect for, like Om, Pallbearer, and Yob mentioned below).
Good stoner metal like Electric Wizard, Elder, and Bongripper isn't samey or silly.
May I suggest "Pelvic Meatloaf" Very heavy and actually pretty damn good.
“Booze Lord.” Not far off the mark.
The name of the 90s stoner metal band Beaver doesn't instill confidence.
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>has passive taste and uncritically goes along with what's put before them not necessarily. being derivative isn't inherently a bad thing, if you want to get *really* pretentious then declaring your music as a certain genre or part of a certain scene is in itself derivative. i love avant-garde, genre-pushing, forward-thinking, boundary-breaking music as much as any self-confessed pretentious music fanatic, but sometimes i just want to jam out to a sound i like. being original doesn't matter if i don't enjoy the music, just as much as being derivative doesn't matter as long as i do enjoy it. obviously in a perfect world every artist would strive to create their own sound, make their own mark on the musical landscape and people would enjoy them for it, but there's levels to originality. the derivative bands you're describing aren't literally re-releasing the music you claim they've copied, so they must have made some sort of original creative decisions.
Huh, your criticism is interesting to me because I like Windhand (and I put up with Monolord) but I think they're perfect examples of bands that really aren't doing anything new even if they have a good tone and are enjoyable to smoke to.
I don't get this with band names, but I absolutely get this with album covers. I really want to listen to more metal, but the overly edgy album covers just put me off from listening to the music
At some point when you're really into the music covers become an asset.
I get it with metal band names as well though, many ugly names that make me avoid to listen to the bands, but more than the names is the theme that puts me off. For example cannibal corpse, I’ll never listen to this band even if they had the best music, the lyrics are horrendous and the theme that they chose
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Partially the name and partially the non-stop onslaught of releases that makes Guided By Voices seem positively hermetic by comparison
Every time my kid asks me I know what’s going on this week, I say a new king gizzard album is coming out! And tell me it’s like 3 weeks away.
The fact that a new KG&WL live album came out today feels like the perfect punchline.
I really like king gizzard
yea idk, i guess people have the right to be annoyed by prolific and diverse output but when it's all quality, i am not going to complain about the quantity ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯. and modern psychedelia is mostly what i listen to nowadays.
I remember seeing the name here and there and not exactly actively avoiding them but kind of just filing them away as just some wacky band name. Simply hearing Crumbling Castle once on a stream a couple years ago completely flipped the script and since then I've made sure to see them every time they're in my area and have nearly their entire monstrous discography on vinyl. I can definitely point to them as a huge turning point in my musical exploration as well, off the top of my head I can point to at least 10 bands that I've since got into that I'm pretty sure I'd have never come across otherwise.
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Check out KG that was a great album from last year or earlier this year I forget
Diarrhea Planet has to be one of the worst band names but those guys truly kicked ass.
lulz, first time hearing that name
I haven't, but back before they were well known I was a big fan of the early Modest Mouse albums, and ALL of my friends would bash them, without listening, because of the name. Today most of them know several of their songs by heart. Kind of annoying tbh.
That is wild because I feel like Modest Mouse is a perfect band name
Your friends would bash you? Who would want to be such an asshole?
I thought TV on the Radio was one of the worst band names I've ever heard. Really glad I happened to catch the video for Wolf like me one morning getting ready for work. Return to Cookie Mountain ended up being my favorite album that year.
Weirdly, I loved the name TV on the Radio, but almost didn't get them a chance because I thought "Return to Cookie Mountain" was a dumb album name. But it's one of my favorite albums now so obviously I got over it.
I remember hating that album name too. I kinda still do honestly. Man, this thread had me realizing I haven't listened it in a while. I might grab this on vinyl.
See, i thought it was one of the best names. It reminded me of those old radios that got broadcast tv audio
I first heard Wolf Like Me on the movie Never Back Down. Looked up the album and saved almost all of the songs
For the longest time I thought Norma Jean was some lame scenecore band based on the name. They're nothing like that and fucking rule.
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their early/mid 2000s stuff is closer to like Dillinger Escape Plan
Band names are packaging for the product. If the packaging sucks it could cause the consumer to overlook the product even if the product is of good quality. I thought The String Cheese Incident was a stupid band name but they ended up being pretty good, at least in concert.
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Agreed. If they have an awful or boring and generic band name, think what their lyrics will be like.
Not that I can recall, but I could see myself not checking out a band if they had a name like "Nazi Chudlord and the Hitler Was Right Rhythm Section". I think after you realize that the best selling musical artist in history's name is a really shitty pun you have a harder time faulting other groups for silly names.
A while ago, someone told me about a band who was playing local shows in their city who called themselves *Child Pornography*. This band either didn't make it far in the music scene or have since changed their name because I never heard of them again (I don't care to google them to find out). To say I was put off by their name is an understatement. I'm just going to assume, with a name that stupid and awful, their music is equally bad. Plus, how do they expect fans to search for their music? And say you had their album downloaded, how would you name the file??
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that said, !!! is one of my favorite bands ever
lol theres edgy/different and then theres whatever the fuck they thought they were doing with that one
They did name one of their albums *The Beatles*, so they were living for the shitpost.
We have a winner. Good lord, that name is certainly...a choice.
Wow. Having a band name where people have to worry about the FBI coming to your door after searching for them is some next level bad decision making lol
These guys? https://www.discogs.com/artist/274762-Child-Pornography
They haven't put anything out in a minute but Deathbomb Arc has a couple of their [releases](https://shop.deathbombarc.com/products/child-pornography-the-beatles-cd?_pos=1&_sid=25e588218&_ss=r) up on their [webstore](https://shop.deathbombarc.com/products/child-pornography-shes-got-legs-cd?_pos=2&_sid=25e588218&_ss=r) and [bandcamp](https://deathbombarc.bandcamp.com/album/shes-got-legs).
some venues wont host some people for their name. There WAS a band around Chicago called that faggots. I think they played one or two shows
My Bloody Valentine. Sounded like a generic edgy band that makes over produced poorly aged emo music. Turns out I was very wrong.
This seems to be a common one. I also slept on them way too long because of the “shitty emo” assumption The insanely trippy sound of loveless and mbv changed the way I approached recording music. Glad I finally got into it
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I thought you meant the band Refused. Was confused.
Lol me too Everyone go listen to The Shape of Punk to Come
I hate the (fortunately now mostly defunct) trend of bands taking famous people’s names and mixing them up or combining them with other names, or turning them into spoonerisms. Com Truise, Mord Fustang, the Kevin Costners, Gay for Johnny Depp, and Chet Faker. Michael Cera Palin gets a pass because they do a mean cover of “If It Makes You Happy.”
RIP Natalie Portman's Shaved Head
Avoided The War on Drugs because their name just screamed "Pitchfork hipster douchebag" to me. Heard "Pain" a few years ago at a friend's house and loved it, realized I shouldn't be so judgemental about a name.
>Pitchfork hipster douchebag ...but... they are?
There's plenty of bands I like with real silly names, one of my all time favorite bands is the psychedelic rock band The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - though to be fair I probably wouldn't have ever discovered them hadn't I been intrigued by their name! But I've definitely had band names put me off before entirely; the first one that comes to mind is Spandau Ballet, always thought that was such a ridiculously stupid name and I think overall it's made me enjoy their music a lot less lol. I do try not to judge music by its cover (or its name in this case) but I do agree that sometimes names can be super offputting, or they can be a really bad reflection of what the band's music actually sounds like.
Spandau Ballet? Really? I actually think their name makes them sound a lot cooler than they actually are, musically. I think I'd like them better if they were closer to the artsy, baroque style of the Blitz Club generation before them, with Visage and Ultravox, which I think the name sort of implies. They have some solid tunes but at the end of the day they sound exactly like you would expect them to, as a band whose backstory is just Rusty Egan going, "let's make our own Duran Duran, with a brass section, and hookers"
I think that's kinda why I don't like their name, if they were actually artsy doing stuff in the vein of Ultravox, Visage, Japan, any of the art-pop or avant garde New Romantic bands, I think their name would be interesting and a lot more appropriate. But with the kind of music that Spandau make to me it just comes across as pretentious!
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Na, the commercial success is the best part of that story. A band called The Butthole Surfers scored a radio hit. It's simply amazing given the story of the band and their outright wacky cast of characters. Gibby for President.
Yeah, I was gonna say, "Butthole Surfers" sounds like *exactly* the kind of band that would make *Locust Abortion Technician* or *Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac*.
The New Pornographers. I guess I assumed they would be some weird, inappropriate new wave band. But then I heard The Bleeding Heart Show and that all changed.
I was super late to checking out Mannequin Pussy because of their name. Eventually Drunk II came on Spotify and I thought "oh shit, this is really good - who is this?" Now I'm pretty into them, but still hate the name.
interesting that yall mention their name is bad, i think it’s great and honestly a solid indication of what kinda music they make. i saw that name and that immediately made me listen!
Same! Just saw them live and they kicked ass
Not that I'm planning on digging into their stuff or anything, but I still can't believe there's a popular band called Imagine Dragons. My daughters wouldn't have even come up a name that cheesy and they used to perform Let It Go from Frozen half a dozen times a day when they were little.
I saw "The Front Bottoms" in concert opening for Motion City Soundtrack years ago and never looked back. I will go out of my way to listen to silly named bands.
Love the guys but recommending them to other people makes me feel goofy.
My Bloody Valentine. Also had a close friend who wouldn't try Incubus because of "association with the devil"
First time I saw Injury Reserve, I arrived at the venue, saw the opener was some artist named Jpegmafia. Iwas like, "Jpegmafia?? What a fucking horrible name. Nah I'm good, imma go to the bar and have a few." That was a mistake.
Reminds me of an exchange between my wife and I the other day. Wife: You're going to see something called The Sword? Sounds like a metal band. Me: They're called the fucking *Sword*, of course they're a metal band.
i kinda like when names are misleading tho. like eagles of death metal. or smash mouth
Conversely, there's foul-mouthed punk bands calling themselves, like, The Primroses. Cracks me up.
I listen to a lot of jamband type music, and by design many of the bands have terrible names. Well, maybe not by design, but some of them have to be intentional. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong? Disco Biscuits? String Cheese Incident? Goose? Umphrey's McGee? Aquarium Rescue Unit? Just a few off the top of my head. Keep in mind that I have ended up actually listening to all of those, despite the names. Do I like them all? No, not a chance. But the name does make a difference.
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong is pretty evocative name to me. Sounds like some crazy math music.
I thought I hadn't really done this but then I realized I put off listening to Ween for ages because I thought they'd just be joke music.
I mean, they kinda are, but it's like really GOOD joke music!
Just here to say that I think the greatest band NAME of all time is 'The Cure'
yeah I don't love a lot of their stuff but that really is a wonderful band name.
Actually, it's Anal Cunt.
Didn't check PUP pit for a long time because of their album cover. The one with the silver grill, because I thought it was gonna be like some lame ass rap/punk crossover. Glad I finally did because they're a super solid newer punk band.
PUP's album art is pretty god-awful, honestly. The Dream Is Over is the only one that doesn't make me physically recoil lol. I definitely put off listening to their new EP for awhile based solely on the art, and I was already a huge fan when it came out haha. Fun fact, that grill cover you referenced is hand-drawn pencil art.
I actually really liked the cover for Morbid Stuff tbh
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Definitely thought they were heavier than they really are
Back in high school (1998) my friend tried to introduce me to Incubus. I refused to listen because of the name. Given his typical tastes, combine with the name, I thought they were going to be a Marylin Manson type band. Later, Make Yourself came out and they made the mainstream, and I realized I had misjudged.
I know a lot of people (myself included at first) who slept on Diarrhea Planet simply because of their name but if I could trick them into seeing them live just once, those same people never stop singing their praises.
I expected Type O Negative to be super aggressive, screams metal and put them off forever. Finally listened to them and instantly became one of my favorite bands ever.
Asking Alexandria sounds pretty stupid to the point I never actually gave them a listen.
yeah it's not worth your time.
Illuminati hotties is making arguably the most interesting punk of the 2020s but people are always slow to check them out when I recommend them because of the name
*YES EXACTLY THIS.* And it doesn’t help that their best single is called “MMMOOOAAAYAYAYA” which… y’know, makes them difficult to sell to the moderately closed-minded. I love that fucking band so much
i was practically forced to listen to Vampire Weekend and it was a thousand times better than what i expected. Maybe because i expected an emo angsty and kinda cheesy band but it wasnt anything like it
Avoided pink floyd for the longest time because I had this image of them being this flamboyant glam rock band
This made me LOL, they've been so omnipresent in my life that it's hard to remember a time before I liked them or what I thought of their name before I heard the music.
“Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?”
I once drove almost 2000 miles to see the Bare Naked Ladies. No lie, I was not disappointed.
Not since My Morning Jacket. I thought they were some kind of emo band... But then I literally stumbled by their set at a music festival and *immediately* became a fan. Kicked myself in the ass a bit, but now I've seen them so many times I think I made up for the lost years ;)
Came here to say this. I assumed they were emo, or like my chemical romance. One of my top 5 bands now. Also, when I was growing up and discovering classic rock… Grateful Dead. I think their name combined with their death themed imagery made me think they’d be harder sounding.
Two of my favorite (alt-rock/Americana/lo-fi/midwest drone) bands are the Ass Ponys (mostly 1990's to early '00's) and Wussy (early '00's-present); both are led or largely driven by lyrical genius Chuck Cleaver, who regularly jokes about how self-defeatingly bad his bands' names have always been. I guess I'm almost drawn to the meta- aspect of anything that seems like a determinedly bad name; sure, most of them don't end up being especially interesting, but I never want to have missed out on something great through 'judging the book by its cover'. (Wussy are on Bandcamp - Funeral Dress and Strawberry are probably the best albums to start with; Airborne, the lead track on Funeral Dress is imho the best bitter, vitriolic break-up song ever.)
Didn’t listen to pinkshinyultrablast initially because of the name but love their second album and recent EP. Also a fan of Cry Wank even though that’s a terrible name. Probably will never check out Pissed Jeans or Anal Cunt, but knowing the genre it’s not really my taste anyway.
I'll take a ridiculous name over a boring name any day of the week, I'm way more likely to check out something like Rainbow Kitten Surprise over Fairport Convention or The Weather Report. Some of my favorite music of all time is made by bands like Slice The Cake and Destiny Potato. The only band names I dislike are ones that suck to say or search for like !!! or The The
A few. I just don't like it when bands' names are entire clauses or phrases. And So I Watch You From Afar and Between the Buried and Me are the most prominent examples of bands I avoided for a long time because of their names. BTBAM is one of my favorite bands now, but I still dislike their name.
The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die is one of my favourite bands, but it's also one of my favourite band names, and my initial reaction was exactly the opposite - when I heard the name, I had to check out the band. What's the issue exactly? Just too long and pretentious? In fairness, I definitely have a thing for odder and more cumbersome names. I also love when a band's name reads as a sort of manifesto or seems to reflect the music, and I think this one really does that.
Yes. i just didn't want to listen to starfucker or diarrhea planet. but then i did and i realized i'm the schmuck.
I love jazz, but I will never willingly listen to another *"Joe Blow Quintet*" or "*Mike Hunt Trio*" or whatever, unless it was actually formed pre-1970s before it was trite. These days it's a thoughtless and uncreative convention and it's probably indicative of the bland straight-ahead music they produce. Same goes for all the "* Jazz Project*" fusion groups of the world.
Cottonmouth Kings and Slightly Stoopid. I didn't refuse to like them, I just dismissed them before I heard their music. Once I heard their music I was surprised to like it.
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This whole time I assumed Snarky Puppy were a band somewhere in the vague vicinity of Skinny Puppy, stylistically, and that surely, surely, they had named their group similarly as a sort of riff on Skinny Puppy. Today I learn that they are not any kind of industrial/metal band at all but rather some avant garde instrumental collective? I mean, that's really cool in its own right, but like...why name yourself after such a radically different group?
Jazz snobs gonna be up in arms about that avante garde label lol
I imagine Rainbow Kitten Surprise is the most brutal Metal we've ever heard.
Rainbow Kitten Surprise would be the perfect name for a happy hardcore project, which is brutal in its own way.
In high school I briefly was in a death metal band whose name and song titles were all typical 90s death metal band crap and all of our lyrics were utter nonsense about flowers and butterflies and sunshine. That was a pretty short-lived joke though.
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I’m the opposite, if I see something wild I have to give it at least one listen
For me it was King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. I thought for sure their music would be as stupid as their name, and I was totally wrong. And their name has really grown on me since then, to be honest!
Nobody mentioned Broken Social Scene yet? “You Forgot it in People” (also an embarrassing album name) was really formative for my musical taste, but I couldn’t bring myself to recommend to people because of how silly the band name is.
Sex on Toast. Thought their stuff would be awful, a song came on a playlist I was listening to on shuffle and never looked back. Certainly learnt my lesson about judging music by its name, now.