Artists You've Written Off/Pointedly Ignored because of their name

Killing Joke

2 pac

harry pussy

I was a fan, but I very quickly stopped telling those "not in the know" that I admired the band Garbage because of the response the name alone generated.

I quite liked Nashville Pussy when they first made the rounds (when Corey Parks was still the bass player). I've since lost interest/sobered up. I even have a Nashville Pussy t-shirt (complete with since legally-contested bobcat design), but never feel like wearing it, as it'll mean explaining to offended parties that (a) it's a band and (b) they took their name from a ludicrous Ted Nugent quote on Double Live Gonzo and (c) who really gives a damn anyway?

hey guys if it's OK with you I'm going to totally hate this band sight unseen for their name having the phrase "pure AT heart" in it instead of "pure OF heart." even if they did it on purpose to be 'funny' or something.

― some dude, Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:45 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lots of people i respect seem to think my morning jacket is alright but there is no way i can get past that name

Agreed on My Morning Jacket. CANNOT get beyond it.

Used to really be bothered by At the Drive-In too. Even if it's a stab at Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" (is it?), it's just lame.

Gentle Giant
Scout Niblett
Blind Melon
Pearl Jam
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Wolfmother
Animal Collective

Toad the Wet Sprocket
New Found Glory
Boards of Canada

the whitest boy alive

I refused to listen to Death Cab For Cutie for years because of their name. Even after I inadvertently heard and liked them, I've refused to ever own any of their music, just because I hate their name.

Basically 95% of indie/emo bands

Took me a while to shell out for anything by The Butthole Surfers.

c-murder

clap your hands say yeah

Gentle Giant
I don't really like prog but I always liked the name

It took me a long time to listen to Of Montreal because I thought the name was so pretentious. My Mom despised the band Hole because of their name but I caught her singing along to Violet once!

xp iatee: I think I have an aversion to anything that has a name that smacks of "elves and fairies in the forest" or new age/hippie stuff - Animal Collective made me think of hippie jam bands where the musicians have power animals.

yeah agree on animal collective at least

my two were mentioned:

My Morning Jacket - got over it and think they're pretty ace
Deathcab for Cutie - i think i heard them once and found them unremarkable enough to go on ignoring

I know it's shallow of me but no matter how many times they sweep the Voice poll I still can't bring myself to listen to The Guys Who're Gonna Beat J0hn D's Ass

Big Dick McGee

I like the name but I couldn't forgive him for killing his wife marion

Black Moth Super Rainbow OTM.

clap your hands say yeah
the yeah yeah yeahs

basically

Fucked Up, for awhile, now i like them a lot

minus the bear

Dr. Dog, I guess. I've still never knowingly heard them.

It took me a while to get around to checking out Eyehategod because of the name. I'm glad I got past that.

Pissed Jeans, oddly enough, doesn't bother me as a name. It suits their sound. They're good! One of the better pigfuck revival acts out there.

yeah yeah yeahs is a great band name, except for when you have to say it aloud

funny, i do remember, way back when I was a teen, hearing about this band Pavement and thinking, come on, come up with a real band name, dudes. Just sounded boring, along the lines of grunge bands naming songs "Porch."

You couldn't pay me a million dollars to listen to one second of the work of a band with a name like "Death Cab for Cutie". No fucking way.

Final Fantasy
Dr. Dog

ryan adams

i figured anybody w/name that close to bryan adams who didn't change it couldn't possibly be any good.

maybe i'm in the minority here, but Death Cab For Cutie's name is my fave thing about them, becuz it makes me think of that funny Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song.

!!! is another one, actually

In case y'all didn't know:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Cab_for_Cutie_(song)

(oh xpost!)

and yet, they are totally humorless and sound nothing like the Bonzos AND are just terrible in general

agreed

Dogs Die in Hot Cars

They've been too ubiquitous here for me to write them off solely because of their name, but I think I might have given Arctic Monkeys more of a chance if they were called just about anything else instead.

I gave Dananananaykroyd a listen on emusic out of morbid curiosity (expected some horrible joke band) and was pleasantly surprised with my favorite album of the year to date...

^^^^I have been struggling with friends' recommendations owing to their name

Used to really be bothered by At the Drive-In too. Even if it's a stab at Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" (is it?), it's just lame.

Haha, I never made that leap from At-the Drive In to Poison, but I love it!

i had a friend who was really into the pAper chAse & kept insisting i check them out but i refused because i thought their name looked dumb. now, "When & If The Big One Hits" is one of my favorite songs but i still don't like looking at their name.

more recently, i had a similar experience with tUnE-YaRdS.

Gastunk has a name that just doesn't entice.

Ween.

And also Death Cab For Cutie.

Hoarhound? I thought it was horehound.

I spent every vacation of my childhood being dragged through ye olde townes (colonial or colonial-adjacent minor cities with a few cobblestone streets and maybe an oldish house).

The gift shop would always have the following things: a tricorn hat, a replica Declaration of Independence, a quill pen, a wax seal kit, and some terrible olde-timey candy (invariably including horehound).

Nut Zippers is the best option in that scenario

No Squirreling, Just Nut

Didn't know about the origin of SNZ's name, still makes them sound like a comedy ska band though. Are they a comedy ska band? Can't even be bothered to find out.

they are one of those like Cab Calloway / fedora bands but spooky. i think

The Hoars that Liked Sandwiches

Hoarhounds of Love

I love Sea And Cakes' The Fawn album, but when someone once asked me at work who I was listening to, I said "Tortoise".

Squirrel Nut Zippers were both better (in a musical sense) and less toxically masculine (in personnel and presentation) than the other neo-swing bands tho

They were much more 20s/30s hot jazz than 40s swing, and in terms of their approach I feel like they had more in common with weirdos like Tav Falco and Tom Waits than with the Cherry Poppin' Daddies or Brian Setzer. I mean, this is not the kind of thing you do in hopes of having a hit record or spawning a dance craze.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS2IBMQIjDo

English Teacher? seriously??? ffs i've strained my eye-rolling muscles

it helps me that a lot of phc and emo bands have off-putting terrible names because i'm likely to find the music similarly terrible

I’ve always thought the main reason Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich have never had a real reappraisal is their name. They are one of the great singles bands of 60s and the albums are all good, but they’ve actually become a bit obscure comparative to their success - younger 60s heads aren’t really aware of their music and I think it’s the name.

Possibly, I mean they didn't take themselves very seriously and recorded a lot of gimmicky/ near novelty material so it's not surprising they aren't up there with, I don't know, the Kinks. Also they didn't write most of their big hits.

Most of the ppl here give off terrible vibes from their name.

the landfill that time forgot: crap uk bands of 00s/10s

I guess I’ve never had any problem with novelty stuff, so I’m the outlier here. What others see as novelty features on DDDBM&T records, I see as brilliant pop touches. I still think they’re closer to the big UK bands than they are usually considered. Manfred Mann, for example, didn’t write their A-sides and did plenty of singles that were arguably a bit novel, but they still command this ambient respect DDDBM&T never get and some of their stuff is still well-known and well-liked.

You're preaching to the converted here, I'm a fan of DDDBMT.

People don't really pay much attention to Manfred Mann these days either.

I guess not. I hate how ancient this music is now :(

i'm going to listen to 5-4-3-2-1 now, hope this helps

The DDDBM&T thread on here has at least twice as many posts as the Manfred Mann thread! That's not saying much though tbf.

DDDBMT?

maybe if the name was shorter, catchier, and had any euphony in it, there would be more recognition of ilthem. at this point the name sounds like a graveyard of tech or pharma names.

DDDBMT are the best band bloody ever

KMFDDDBMT

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mike and Tich

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Dee,_Dozy,_Beaky,_Mick_%26_Tich

Terry, Blair & Anouchka
French Frith Kaiser Thompson
Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Are there any acts named after the members that can't be written off just for doing that? Even when Fred Frith is involved?

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe were pretty great. Better than whatever line-up of Yes was doing the rounds at the time.

By the time the Rabin/Squire/Kaye/White Yes actually put out another record and toured, they had reunited with ABWH!

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer does roll off the tongue somehow, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe does not

Uh, French Frith Kaiser Thompson are totally awesome…

d'oh, CSN(Y) of course.

Are there any acts named after the members that can't be written off just for doing that?

Um Simon & Garfunkel, Hall & Oates, Ashford & Simpson, Richard & Linda Thompson?

Loads of acts whose names include an ampersand are p cool. Heck, Loggins & Messina, Sonny & Cher, Ike & Tina, Tegan & Sara; Peter, Paul, & Mary

The real wall was the friends we mad etc.

Ergh, bad puffin, loose pasting/posting, sorry

OK maybe there's one or two or possibly more, but then again there's West, Bruce & Laing. Seems to be worse when the people involved are already known, i.e. a supergroup.

Case/Lang/Veirs were good

TS: Heck, Loggins & Messina vs. West, Bruce & Laing

Heck, Loggins & Messina otm for next band I see at a club in Portland

Will never not be delighted by the existence of Ezra Ray Hart

The Supergroup Ezra Ray Hart features Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra, and Emerson Hart of Tonic.

Crywank

ugh

i don't know anything about them. they may be the greatest band ever. but no.

Sissy Penis Factory

did they do "Finally"

OMG is that the pun they were going for? Dying.

I should have listened to it first. Of course.

I’d listen to Sissy Penis Factory based on name alone

Arists (sic) You've Pointedly listened to because of their name

That’s probably the best pun of this millennium so far