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

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Husker Du?

― ablaeser, Monday, 12 March 2007 05:26 (nineteen years ago)

Pronounced in the original language (Norwegian), Husker Du would be pronounced something like "Hooske'r Doo, with the first oo a bit shorter than one would pronunce it in the English language and with the r sounding more like the r's in the Spanish language.

Btw. Urusei Yatsura anyone?

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:56 (nineteen years ago)

No tricks to Japanese: so far as I know, it's OOR-OO-SAY-EE YAT-SOO-RAH. (But the end of the first word would have that Japanese thing where despite there being two vowel sounds -- SAY-EE -- it elides together into just "SAY.")

― nabisco, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

Röyksopp?

― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 20:54 (nineteen years ago)

I usually pronounce !!! as "Triple Exclamation Mark," because when I say chk-chk-chk none of the rubes know who I'm goin on about.

― MC, Monday, 12 March 2007 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

i always pronounced it Un-Woond too. the other proncunciation never even occurred to me.

― circa1916, Monday, 12 March 2007 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

Btw. Urusei Yatsura anyone?

Geir Hongro on Monday, March 12, 2007 6:56 AM (8 hours ago)

"oo loo say ya tsu la"

― Steve Shasta, Monday, 12 March 2007 22:16 (nineteen years ago)

This one always stymies me:

Ellen Allien

The first name is obviously not too difficult.

― o. nate, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

I generally say it, Ahl-Lee-Enn

I'm still curious about Todd Terje moreso because I haven't an idea what language Terje is is. I'd normally assume it to be one where you'd pronounce it Tare-Yay, but the not-so-european first name of Todd kind of throws me off.

― mehlt, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 07:10 (nineteen years ago)

Les Rallizes Denudes?

― gypsysphinx, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 07:27 (nineteen years ago)

Röyksopp?

Ruiksop
(And note again that the "r" in Norwegian and Swedish (other than the occasional local accent) is pronounced like the Spanish "r" rather than then English/American one.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

Not a mispronunciation per se, but non-Scandinavians' unfamiliarity with the letter å can lead to some unintentional hilarity. I often see the Einherjer demo "Leve Vikingånden!" ("long live the Viking spirit") referred to as "Leve Vikinganden!", which translates as "Long live the Viking Duck!".

― Siegbran, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 23:15 (nineteen years ago)

Similarly, the Mortiis album "Ånden Som Gjorde Opprør" ("the spirit which rebelled") also frequently is given an avian twist.

― Siegbran, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 23:19 (nineteen years ago)

Nitzer Ebb?
Liasons Dangereuses?

― henry s, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:09 (nineteen years ago)

Sigur Ros is roughly SEE-oor Rohs (like roast without the "t"). The g is hardly pronounced, the r of Ros is rolled, and the o sound is very round. It's best to find a video of the band saying it... if you want to be a douche and pronounce it with 100% Icelandic-native accuracy. I've tried it and generally gotten looks of bewilderment even from those who know the band, so I'd say "SIG-oor Rohs" is the best bet.

Here you go: http://download.sigur-ros.co.uk/sigur.mp3

― onimo, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 00:47 (nineteen years ago)

NEET-zer EBB, isn't it?

― Telephone thing, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 04:38 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, i'd say it's somefing like liason dawn-jer-errz

― Drooone, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 04:40 (nineteen years ago)

Luomo = LOO-o-moh, though the "u" sound is shorter than the "oo" in "loo", and the "o"'s are like the first "o" in "conventional". I'm not sure if you should pronounce it in a Finnish way though - it's not a proper Finnish word, but it is a Finnish pun.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 10:18 (nineteen years ago)

]Les Rallizes Denudes?

gypsysphinx on Tuesday, March 13, 2007 12:27 AM (Yesterday)

it's weird because in Japan they are known as Hakada No Rallizes = "ha ka da no la leee zoo", that's the only way I've heard their name pronounced.

I guess Les Rallizes Denudes = "ray la leee zoo de nu day" would work, or just go with the French.

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

sunno)))?

sun-oh?

just sun?

sunnoo?

― Emily Bjurnhjam, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 17:59 (nineteen years ago)

just "sun".

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

Gris Gris.

I actually don't know how the band pronounces it but some of the kids who work for me love them and pronounce it literally... which I hope is not correct.

― factcheckr, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

gree gree

― henry s, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

they pronounce it "gree gree". total bros too.

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:17 (nineteen years ago)

xpost

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

Luomo = LOO-o-moh, though the "u" sound is shorter than the "oo" in "loo", and the "o"'s are like the first "o" in "conventional". I'm not sure if you should pronounce it in a Finnish way though - it's not a proper Finnish word, but it is a Finnish pun.

Isn't it just Italian for "man" without the apostrophe? As in, as in "L'oumo" or more specifically "L'oumo Vogue" the magazine?

Out of curiosity, what's the Finnish pun?

― William Selman, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:18 (nineteen years ago)

I'm still really curious as to whether !!!'s band name has anything at all to do with Stump's "Buffalo," which has a bit that goes:

Exclamation point, click click click
Exclamation point, click click click
Exclamation point, click click click

― nabisco, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for restoring my faith, if not in humanity, then in something pleasing, even if ever so much smaller

― factcheckr, Thursday, 15 March 2007 03:13 (nineteen years ago)

Re: Nitzer Ebb. A friend of mine who worked at Mute at the time pronounced the 1st syllable "nite".

― factcheckr, Saturday, 17 March 2007 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I seem to remember Nitzer Ebb hosting MTV's 120 Minutes once, and pronouncing it nite-zer themselves. Pretty ruinous to their faux-teuton image that, I thought.

― anatol_merklich, Saturday, 17 March 2007 14:51 (nineteen years ago)

I also always thought Booka Shade were Boo-kah shade, yet i've heard it pronounced Book-ah Shade.

― mehlt, Sunday, 18 March 2007 01:29 (nineteen years ago)

Xpost - the letter "i" is almost always pronounced "ee" in German, unless preceeded by an e, so it's probably correctly pronounced Neetzer Ebb.

― everything, Sunday, 18 March 2007 02:08 (nineteen years ago)

Isn't it just Italian for "man" without the apostrophe? As in, as in "L'oumo" or more specifically "L'oumo Vogue" the magazine?

L'uomo does = The Man in italian and it's pronounced the same, but I don't know if that's what Luomo was going for when they made up the name.

― MaGoGo, Sunday, 18 March 2007 22:39 (nineteen years ago)

Blerwyttirhwng by the Super Furries is "ble rwyt ti rhwng" which means "where are you between".

Pronounce it Bleh-roo-it-tee-RHOONG

― Cymro, Monday, 19 March 2007 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

I think playing the "Welsh card" is... is... CHEATING.

LLWYBR LLAETHOG anyone?

― factcheckr, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 14:39 (nineteen years ago)

thloober thlythawg. where the 'thl' is that aspirated H/L sound unique to Welsh; the 'oo' is soft ('book'); and the 'th' in Llaethog is hard (like in 'thick').

― Mr. Hal Jam, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

ayy-ler or eye-ler? albert, that is.

I think it's "eye-ler," he says it enough on his own discs, "hi, my name is Albert Ayler" etc.

what about these:

kalaparusha .... kalapaRUSHah (rush like in push)?
andrew cyrille .... si-RIL or seer-rall?
grachan moncur .... GRA-chin (german style) MON-kurr ?
amon düül .... aye-mon or ahh-mon? doool or du-uhl?

― certain, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

aah'mon. 'ü' is pronounced like the 'u' in 'luc' (so 'düül' is halfway between 'dool' and 'deal')

― fies, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 17:45 (nineteen years ago)

Xpost - the letter "i" is almost always pronounced "ee" in German, unless preceeded by an e, so it's probably correctly pronounced Neetzer Ebb.

That was my point. Pronouncing themselves "Nightzer Ebb" was death to their projected idea of paneuropean synthfunk revolution.

(i cannot agree with "ee" though, that's a long vowel; should be short "i", like in "kitten")

― anatol_merklich, Thursday, 22 March 2007 01:36 (nineteen years ago)

I can't think of a single example in german of "i" sounding like "ee," many where it sounds like the i in "bit": nicht, vorsicht, bitte, wechselwirkungsquerschnitsbestimmung.

― certain, Sunday, 25 March 2007 18:44 (nineteen years ago)

Dungen? I've heard it pronounced "dungeon", and then with all sorts of variants using long and short u's, and hard and soft g's.

― Z S, Sunday, 25 March 2007 19:18 (nineteen years ago)

Hadouken!

― Ben Boyerrr, Sunday, 25 March 2007 22:53 (nineteen years ago)

fantomas please!

― t0dd swiss, Monday, 26 March 2007 00:00 (nineteen years ago)

does anyone know how to pronounce the band Noxagt?

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 16:47 (nineteen years ago)

hadouken = ha doe oo ken
fantomas = fawn toe moz
noxagt = nox act

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 17:54 (nineteen years ago)

have you seen noxagt? they are playing w/my friends' band in st. paul in april. i might go check it out.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 18:02 (nineteen years ago)

Por favor:

Merzbow
Hototogisu
Axolotl
The Anomoanon

― skr0nk, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:32 (nineteen years ago)

Merz-bow - rhymes with cow. (Play on German "Merzbau", you see.)

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

by the way: it is BUG-dahn RAH-chin-ski.

― the table is the table, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

Neko Case, please.

Nee-ko or Neh-ko?

and also Carla Bozulich.

boo-zuh-lich? boh-zuh-lich?

― Viz, Thursday, 29 March 2007 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

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