Here's where you can ask how to pronounce exotic band names

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beulah = bew la

authchere = ort cha

siguor ros?

― jel, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ein-SHTUR-tsen-deh NOI-bow-ten
Holy fucking yanni - what's the point?

authchere = ort cha = Horchata

― Dave225, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Donnacha Costello?

― Keiko, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Ort cha"? um... well, how about Gastr Del Sol? Is it "Gaster" or something else?

― Dan I., Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I know how to pronounce OOIOO (it's just "oh oh eye oh oh") but I hope I never have to. Same goes for !!!

Anybody want to take a stab at Schlammpeitziger? How about his albums Erdrauchharnschleck and Spacerockmountainrutschquatier (which are both great, by the way.)

― Mark, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sig your ross

― tyler, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

labradford?

on what syllable is the emphasis?

― cybele, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Raczynski is pronounced Rachinski.Schlammpeitziger = ShlamPIGHTsigger.

― Damian, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

How do you pronounce The Strokes?

― Oliver Kneale, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

R-e-l-i-e-f.

Oh wait, that would be how do you SPELL The Strokes.

Damn.

And no, I wasn't being serious.

― Mickey Black Eyes, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"ein-SHTUR-tsen-deh NOI-bow-ten"
Bugger it, my dad was right.

― DG, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

brecht .

― anthony, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

OOIOO isn't a word, it's O-O-I-O-O (so, phonetically oh--oh-eye-oh- oh).

― david, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the 'au' in autechre and auteurs is surely pronounced 'oh'.

― david, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh?

― Sean Carruthers, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Spdfgh (early 90s Sydney all-girl group)

I used to call them Spudfucker but I'm sure that's not how it was meant to be pronounced

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

!!! call themselves chick chick chick.

― Kris, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oops; i see you knew that.

― Kris, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They're hardly exotic, but I used to refer to Mojave 3 as Moh-Jayve for a loooong time. Rather embarrassing.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

anton. brecht = brekt.

me'shell ndegeocello

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Melbourne 80s post-punkers _?¨?ª^?¨ always intrigued me. Pronounced "Tsk-tsk-tsk" apparently.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

that soooo didn't work. that should have been three arrows going right - up - right

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

http://www.corduroy.com.au/chapter/tchtlogogrey.jpg

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fritz, Caetano Veloso is pronounced as follows: 'kaiTAHnu' with the 'ai' pronounced as in eye; Veloso is 'veLAWzu'. Autechre was the one I had most probs with before this brilliant thread.

― Daniel, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm not sure about these

Fennesz
Jan Jelinek
Luomo
Hakan Libdo

― Honda, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fennesz = fhen-ez?
Jan Jelinek = yan yhel-i-nehck?
Luomo = loo-o-mow?
Hakan Libdo = hah-kahn lib-doh?

― jess, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Umm, it's pretty bad, but I have a real problem with Plaid. I want them to release a box set called Plaid In Full, but I think maybe it should be Plaidyshack?

I had this problem with the word before the band was even around, but I never bothered to check. Actually, don't correct me, I like saying both, just like I like saying Georgy Borges just cos I'll never be able to pronounce it properly...

I can't say Baccaruda.

― emil.y, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

labradford...i ask again--on what syllable is the empasis placed on?

― cybele, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I remember a college basketball player called luh-BRAD-ferd Smith, only it was spelled LeBradford, IIRC. Maybe the band is named after him, like Lucius/Luscious Jackson. Anyway, how else would you say it? LUH-brad-ferd? luh-brad-FORD? Try them out at the record shop and see if they don't laugh hysterically.

― Curt, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I used to pronounce it LAB-rad-ford, but realised pretty quickly that was wrong. I think La-BRAD-ford is correct.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sigur Ros.

― bnw, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

NO-twist or NOT-wist?

And has anybody heard their new album yet?

― Curt, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fennesz = FENN-ezz
Jan Jelinek = yahn YELL-in-eck Does anyone know about Jetone? How about Cylob? Monolake?

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

cibo matto? syd barrett (is it barrett as in beret?) moog (does it rhyme with vogue?)

― A Nairn, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I always thought Einsturzende Neubauten was: ein-SHTUR- tsend NEW-baw-ten (neu like in Neu!) and with a long 'a' not long 'o' in bau. Am I wrong?

― A Nairn, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

see bo ma t to

― anthony, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Loren Mazzacane Connors? Lamonte Young?

― dave q, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Neu is pronounced Noy. Though its rare for anybody to pronounce Kraftwerk in german (...verk) so maybe you get to be free and easy with it.

(and nearly tying up two parts of this thread!)

I always pronounce Labradford 'La Bradford' like the band "La Dusseldorf" except moved to just north of Leeds.

― Alexander Blair, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Funny, I've always pronounced Autechre "AW-tek-rah'

― Dare, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ow do u prononce catatonia. dunno wot happen to them decent band has she topped herself yet?

― XStatic Peace, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think Notwist are pronounced No-Twist. What I have heard of their album on German radio is very very good. The album took them 15 months in the studio. They are already spoken of as one of the best rock albums in 2002!

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

anton. and tracer hand: Brecht <> Brekt. "ch" does not sound as a hard k at all. It is soft. I think it exists also in Greek. The German "Milch" does not sound like "milk" either. It sounds like a "sch" (which sounds like "sh") without the "s". ;-)

― alex in mainhattan, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

cibo matto? syd barrett (is it barrett as in beret?) moog (does it rhyme with vogue?)

I thought it was CHEEbo Matta
Barrett = barrett, like ferret or parrot
Moog => vogue, yeah.

I thought Labradford was like Labrador (but never really cared.)

― Dave225, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mego? And again, Ayler? John Tchicai?

ps ending Autechre with Rah and not Er is just plain silly.

― ennui, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Coming back to Kraftwerk, I have a German friend here in England who insists on pronouncing their name in the most British way imaginable: /Krahft-work/. That's ridiculous, I told him. That's like me going to Germany and saying /Ah-fex Tvin/ /Preemahl Scream/ (replete with gutteral german 'r' sound)' etc.

― Daniel, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmm, I say the NOT-wist. On the few occasions I say it at all, that is.

Doesn't everyone say Kraft-Verk? Although I tend to pronounce every W as V and every J as Y (ie Yan St Verner). Well, a lot of them, anyway, I wouldn't say Veen or Yoy Division. That would just be silly.

One thing I would like to know- Otomo Yoshihide. Is it YOSH-I- HEEDE? YO-SHI-HIDER? This is probably really easy, but I just want to check...

― emil.y, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Further evidence of collapse of NME: last time they did an all-time top 100 album list ('92/93?) there was an artists' faves section - under Mercury Rev was listed "Isle of Sun Ra (in brackets - '60s jazz)." I worked out they probably said Ayler and Sun Ra, but everyone I've spoken to goes for the Isla (as in "St Clair") pronunciation. Richard Cook would never have made that mistake.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've never known anyone to say anything but Krahft-work. Except northerners, who'll make the 'af' of Kraft rhyme with that of 'daffodil', obviously. Do you really say 'Kraftverk', emily? That's hilarious! Do you make the 's' in Paris silent too?

― N., Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jandek - 'yan' or 'jan'?

― Graham C, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick, what, just a silent 's', without pronouncing it Paree? Like, Parih? I might start. I take it that means not everyone says Verk, then? But it's more natural to do than force a W sound- Kraftverk kraftverk kraftverk. Kraft-work. Very stilted.

― emil.y, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Skipping 454 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

a guy once told me King's X is pronounced "King's Cross". Is this true?

if I'm American do I have to say "CLEE-en-tell"?

― CharlieS, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:44 (fifteen years ago)

always guessed it was pronounced "zhu zhu"

― gnarly sceptre, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:45 (fifteen years ago)

“That’s how we pronounce it,” says Xiu Xiu frontman and songwriter Jamie Stewart approvingly after I fluke out and correctly identify the band as “shoe shoe.” “But we’ve been told by, like, nine million people that we pronounce it wrong, and those nine million people have told us nine million different ways to say it.”

― jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:52 (fifteen years ago)

Stewart points out that he’s never found the inevitable mangling of his band’s name all that troubling, although he admits that one variation is a bit contentious. “I think the only pronunciation that we actually object to is ‘zoo zoo,’” he says, “just because it sounds like a bad hair-metal band.”

― jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:53 (fifteen years ago)

the X sound in mandarin is more of a "sy-" then "sh-" sound imo.

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 August 2010 18:08 (fifteen years ago)

shiu-shiu wd be closest I'd think?

― Chanté Ackerman (Stevie D), Friday, 13 August 2010 18:29 (fifteen years ago)

the X sound in mandarin is more of a "sy-" then "sh-" sound imo.

I feel like there's still a hint of a "sh" after the initial "sy."

― jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 18:35 (fifteen years ago)

But that's immaterial, since it's Jamie Stewart's band, and he sez "shu shu."

― jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 18:39 (fifteen years ago)

except he named them after the Joan Chen film in which they pronounce the lead girl's name correctly lol.

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 August 2010 19:38 (fifteen years ago)

sh sound in mandarin = "sh-"
x sound in mandarin = "sy-"

imo

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 August 2010 19:50 (fifteen years ago)

here are several ways of interpreting 秀秀 in roman letters approximating the mandarin pronunciation using all the most common romanization methods:

xiu xiu
hsiu hsiu
shiou shiou
shyou shyou
sheou sheou
shiow shiow

― _▂▅▇█▓▒░◕‿‿◕░▒▓█▇▅▂_ (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 August 2010 19:58 (fifteen years ago)

I was in china for a week before I learned how pronounce thank you correctly (xie xie). the xi sound is tough because it doesn't occur in english and the regional dialects will compound yr confusion. I kept mispronouncing it "water" so at restaurants I ended up getting another glass of water every time a dish was brought to the table.

― (e_3) (Edward III), Friday, 13 August 2010 20:15 (fifteen years ago)

also, ewa demarczyk

avuh de mar check?

my polish ancestors weep

― (e_3) (Edward III), Friday, 13 August 2010 20:18 (fifteen years ago)

nine years pass...

Neither exotic nor a band but is it Phill NIH-block or Phill NYE-block? ("is" sound or "eye" sound?)

― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:09 (six years ago)

https://youtu.be/jL4Jt4Tc_i4?t=9

― visiting, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:15 (six years ago)

Remember kids, Dokken rhymes with Rockin'!

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:16 (six years ago)

xp That settles that! Thanks. That's what I've always said but today for whatever reason it occurred to me that it might be 'nye-block'

― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:17 (six years ago)

four years pass...

grachan moncur .... GRA-chin (german style) MON-kurr ?

I have been saying "gra-SHON mon-CURR," but I assume this is incorrect, because when I pronounce it this way it sounds like I am referring to a French delicacy. I need to know though, because I've been listening to him a lot

― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 15 July 2024 12:41 (one year ago)

The latter sounds more likely than the latter tbh. Moncur is a Scottish name and is definitely pronounced mon-CURR.

― Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Monday, 15 July 2024 12:50 (one year ago)

... Latter more likely than the former, that is.

― Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Monday, 15 July 2024 12:52 (one year ago)

He pronounced his first name “Grayshin”

― Bad Bairns (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 15 July 2024 12:54 (one year ago)

thank you!

This guy does not get his due, possibly because of his choice of instrument. But he wrote some terrific music! Been listening a lot to Jackie McLean's Destination...Out, on which Moncur composed all but one of the tunes, and it's great

― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 15 July 2024 13:00 (one year ago)

apparently he had a personality that kind of got in the way of success/wider recognition

― Bad Bairns (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 15 July 2024 17:06 (one year ago)

It's KRONG-bin, right? I think you know who I am asking about.

― henry s, Monday, 15 July 2024 17:23 (one year ago)

just had two audiobooks back to back have Bert as "Yanch" - but apparently it really was a hard J?

― encino morricone (majorairbro), Sunday, 21 July 2024 09:04 (one year ago)

the only time i saw him play he was introduced at the start with a soft j & thanked after his performance with a hard j (think it is the latter, but i always forget when i actually say it!)

― no lime tangier, Sunday, 21 July 2024 11:01 (one year ago)

I think Bert's attitude was pronounce it how you like.

― Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Sunday, 21 July 2024 11:09 (one year ago)

There are two people with the surname Jansch on Wikipedia... Bert and his ex-wife Heather.

― Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Sunday, 21 July 2024 11:11 (one year ago)

four months pass...

Maybe I should've guessed this because of Alvvays, but I just learned today that Hovvdy is pronounced "howdy." I've been saying "huv-dee." But maybe I'm also influenced by the fact that I once knew someone with the surname Hovde, and that's how they pronounced their name.

― jaymc, Monday, 16 December 2024 23:49 (one year ago)

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