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

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6majik9 is just 'magic'

wilter, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 06:14 (fifteen years ago) link

I've heard Bjork pronounced by an Icelander, and I could get the vowel sound, which is kind of like Byerk. But the B isn't really an English B, and I couldn't even say it right.

B'wana Beast, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 06:44 (fifteen years ago) link

Paavoharju = P-aah-voh-hur-yu

I think it's some person's first and last name written together, as Paavo is a common Finnish male name, and Harju is a common surname. "Harju" also means "a ridge".

Tuomas, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 07:01 (fifteen years ago) link

How about 22 Pistepirrko?

Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 09:54 (fifteen years ago) link

Sunn o))

I read once it was pronounced "sun" just like that big ball of fire in the sky, and the last part was just a visual.
Anybody else hear anything?

steampig67, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 12:36 (fifteen years ago) link

http://991.com/newGallery/Prince-Love-Symbol---Dis-16035.jpg

Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 12:37 (fifteen years ago) link

ten months pass...

Terre Thaemlitz is pronounced like "Terry Temlits"

beavis, Saturday, 12 September 2009 16:31 (fourteen years ago) link

Sunn o))

I read once it was pronounced "sun" just like that big ball of fire in the sky, and the last part was just a visual.
Anybody else hear anything?

― steampig67, Thursday, October 23, 2008 1:36 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark

Yup, named after the amps they use:
http://www.orcoastmusic.com/amplifiers/sunn-sceptre.jpg

oing oing oing (╓abies), Saturday, 12 September 2009 16:36 (fourteen years ago) link

Prince is such a turd. I was so devastated when, after going through all the trouble of "coming out" by legally changing his name to the bisexual symbol, he then insisted it be "unspeakable" (starting that whole "artist formerly known as..." idiocity).... "Ok," I thought, "the unspeakability could be a critique on the invisibility/silence around pansexuality within dominant and queer cultures, or something profound..." *BUT* then he marches out on the Tonight Show with his new bride, who was one of those lingerie queens he keeps around, and she was totally silent like an accessory the whole interview while he was being a total macho prick - totally offensive to any critical notion of gender. I mean, that kind of macho super-hetero performance combined with silence about his name (totally refusing to answer questions about why or how to pronounce it, etc.) just showed how un-profound the whole thing was. It was that same month that Michael Jackson married Elvis' daughter... I was like, "The closet has gotten a lot more complicated."

beavis, Saturday, 12 September 2009 16:38 (fourteen years ago) link

It dawns on me that I say "Royal Trucks" slightly differently than I say "Royal Trux." The second Trux comes out white-trashier or something. Does the band make a distinction?

dlp9001, Saturday, 12 September 2009 16:46 (fourteen years ago) link

T'Pau?

Pullman/Paxton Revolving Bills (Pillbox), Saturday, 12 September 2009 17:10 (fourteen years ago) link

teh pow?

Pullman/Paxton Revolving Bills (Pillbox), Saturday, 12 September 2009 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link

teh POW!!!

Pullman/Paxton Revolving Bills (Pillbox), Saturday, 12 September 2009 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link

Whenever I see Sunn o)), my brain says "suNNNN-ohhh"

bendy, Saturday, 12 September 2009 19:14 (fourteen years ago) link

I'm aware that one is supposed to say "Sunn". But I often call them "Sunn - Oh" when speaking about them.

Duke, Saturday, 12 September 2009 19:29 (fourteen years ago) link

i call them 'sun' and then cackle inwardly at my own amazingness

alien vs the smiths (country matters), Saturday, 12 September 2009 19:34 (fourteen years ago) link

Prince is such a turd. I was so devastated when, after going through all the trouble of "coming out" by legally changing his name to the bisexual symbol, he then insisted it be "unspeakable" (starting that whole "artist formerly known as..." idiocity).... "Ok," I thought, "the unspeakability could be a critique on the invisibility/silence around pansexuality within dominant and queer cultures, or something profound..." *BUT* then he marches out on the Tonight Show with his new bride, who was one of those lingerie queens he keeps around, and she was totally silent like an accessory the whole interview while he was being a total macho prick - totally offensive to any critical notion of gender. I mean, that kind of macho super-hetero performance combined with silence about his name (totally refusing to answer questions about why or how to pronounce it, etc.) just showed how un-profound the whole thing was. It was that same month that Michael Jackson married Elvis' daughter... I was like, "The closet has gotten a lot more complicated."

― beavis, Sunday, September 13, 2009 4:38 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Prolly the first mistakes a guy can make when Prince is doing something crazy is to think about it. Or if you really wanna analyze it, your conclusions need to be relegated from approval/disapproval on over to o_O. Prince is like legit crazy. What's that story of him calling Kevin Smith because he required a camel at 3 in the morning? Dude's a crazypants.

oing oing oing (╓abies), Saturday, 12 September 2009 19:57 (fourteen years ago) link

re: prince
:) point taken! *phew* i feel better already.

now, what to do with those people blogging about michael jackson, saying twisted stuff like "i pray your children turn out to be just like you" ...scary

beavis, Monday, 14 September 2009 16:06 (fourteen years ago) link

two months pass...

An Horse?

Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Friday, 4 December 2009 18:20 (fourteen years ago) link

Prince is such a turd. /.../
― beavis

Ay, you puzzled me there, beavis. The pronunciation of Prince is "such a turd"? Where's the accent then?

t**t, Friday, 4 December 2009 18:44 (fourteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

SUNN O)))
― W i l l (common_person), Thursday, October 7, 2004 2:34 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I always think of it as "Sunnnn WHOAAAA!!!!"

Mark G, Friday, 13 August 2010 10:58 (thirteen years ago) link

Sun O Bracket Bracket Bracket

tom d: he did what he had to do now he is dead (Tom D.), Friday, 13 August 2010 11:01 (thirteen years ago) link

XIU XIU anyone? I used to pronounce it as 'kseeu kseeu' but I've heard some people pronounce it as 'shoe shoe'.

Moka, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link

xpost I think the band once explained it's only pronounced 'sun'.

Moka, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:31 (thirteen years ago) link

yeah i always thought it was "shu shu."

i don't get that band.

Daniel, Esq., Friday, 13 August 2010 17:40 (thirteen years ago) link

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 (thirteen years ago) link

always guessed it was pronounced "zhu zhu"

gnarly sceptre, Friday, 13 August 2010 17:45 (thirteen years ago) link

“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 (thirteen years ago) link

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 (thirteen years ago) link

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

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

shiu-shiu wd be closest I'd think?

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

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 (thirteen years ago) link

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

jaymc, Friday, 13 August 2010 18:39 (thirteen years ago) link

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 (thirteen years ago) link

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

imo

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

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 (thirteen years ago) link

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 (thirteen years ago) link

also, ewa demarczyk

avuh de mar check?

my polish ancestors weep

(e_3) (Edward III), Friday, 13 August 2010 20:18 (thirteen years ago) link

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 (four years ago) link

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

visiting, Thursday, 19 December 2019 22:15 (four years ago) link

Remember kids, Dokken rhymes with Rockin'!

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

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 (four years ago) link


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