creatively bankrupt newish chillwave/post-AnCo bands whose names are just '80s ephemera

actually if the Misfits lived in the chillwave era they would be called Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

xpost to myself
ok, that was mostly B.S. because obviously Golden Girls or Reading Rainbow don't fit...

did Eve's Plumb have a song called "Marcia Marcia Marcia!!!?

xpost hahaha... "i remember when i had the realization that those Ducktales were such bizarre and surreal Tales of Ducks."

i will bet hard money there will be a band called Are You Afraid Of The Dark? by 2011

I mean, what relation does the band name have to the music? Pretty sure there were plenty of bands in the early 90s that were like "lol-Brady Brunch" in a similar vein to what you're describing

And i question whether Bava films or Barbarella were popular in the same way that some of these contemporary and post-slacker era band names are,

So the gripe is more that their references aren't obscure enough? That's kind of interesting in itself though and part of the point I would think. It turns the gen-x, hipper-than-thou pop culture referencing around and says I'm not going to reference some obscure japanese instructional video to prove that my video collection is bigger than yours. I'm going to reference the dumbest, pop-est, most obvious signifiers of my childhood.

I forgot Mogwai was a lol pop culture name until I saw the Gremlins tape.

xp - wk - yeah, i think that's what was going on.

The Happy Days and Brady Bunch references seemed different in my era (I was 19 when the Buddy Holly video came out), in that everyone grew up watching the same syndicated reruns, but you didn't know that everyone all over the country was doing the exact the same thing. Referencing these things felt like a shared secret history of some sort, which seems impossible to have post-internet when even obscure stuff isn't really obscure anymore.

Is this the thread where I confess that I never got that Ducktails (the band) were named after Duck Tales (the TV programme)? Because, you know, ducktails are an actual thing. So much so that the TV programme name is a play on words based on them. Or is this all a massively recursive joke?

"i remember when i had the realization that those Ducktales were such bizarre and surreal Tales of Ducks."

Well they are referencing a bizarre piece of capitalist propaganda featuring pantsless ducks. Then subverting it by changing the spelling of the name to reference a hairstyle that was popular among '50s juvenile delinquents. As if to say "we're not going to fall for your Randian indoctrination. we're going to flip it back around into a symbol of youthful rebellion."

That, or they randomly flipped through an old TV Guide.

once again the name of the band is ducktails

wk - you and i are the same age

So what we are saying is that the process is thus:

ducktails (tails of ducks) -> ducktails (haircut) -> Duck Tales (programme) -> Ducktails (band)?

I mean, what relation does the band name have to the music? Pretty sure there were plenty of bands in the early 90s that were like "lol-Brady Brunch" in a similar vein to what you're describing

― sarahel, Friday, July 30, 2010 4:41 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

At least Eve's Plumb or REO Speeddealer made rudimentary attempts at a pun where as Golden Girls is just the word Golden Girls.

Golden Girls is two words.

emil.y, if you are under 30 if someone says the word "ducktails" to you there is exactly one thing you think of, and don't try to pretend otherwise

does the phrase "narcissism of small differences" mean anything to you Whiney?

emil.y is british.

even if dude named his band after the tails of ducks, he's like 24 and there's no way it wouldn't have crossed his mind that that everyone his age watched a show called Ducktales, come on

So the gripe is more that their references aren't obscure enough?
― wk, Friday, July 30, 2010 3:42 PM (9 minutes ago)

i think that's a good point, cuz noize stuff like 0PN which is firmly rooted in nostalgia and is not really considered creatively bankrupt gets a free pass. i guess late 70s, 80s new age mysticism and retro futurism is obscure enough

I'm under 30 and the first option is the one I assumed they were named after. Old before my time, obviously.

(And although I am British, I did get to see the TV programme. It wasn't very good.)

yeah, i'm sure all 24 year olds everywhere watched the tv show Ducktales - and now, even in Pakistan, they're riding in cabs that all play the Beatles

i mean, the name oneohtrix point never isn't the obscure reference but the aesthetics otherwise would be xxp

The Happy Days and Brady Bunch references seemed different in my era (I was 19 when the Buddy Holly video came out), in that everyone grew up watching the same syndicated reruns, but you didn't know that everyone all over the country was doing the exact the same thing. Referencing these things felt like a shared secret history of some sort, which seems impossible to have post-internet when even obscure stuff isn't really obscure anymore.

― joygoat, Friday, July 30, 2010 4:49 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This is also true. Sarahel, my basic point re: Reading Rainbow vs. Mogwai is that the 90s were a very different time.

wk - you and i are the same age

! how can you tell?

At least Eve's Plumb or REO Speeddealer made rudimentary attempts at a pun where as Golden Girls is just the word Golden Girls.

OK, B- for effort. Problem is Golden Girls is a 1000x times better band name than either of those other two.

you mentioned how old you were in 1994.

emil.y, Ducktails is music by and for internet-savvy, media-saturated twentysomethings, so when I say "everyone" I obviously mean "their intended audience."

oh whoops - that was joygoat's post - joygoat & i are the same age.

I think that might be more directed to sarahel - I realise that Duck Tales is well known. Hell, I wasn't even trying to say they WEREN'T named after it, just that I was surprised by how everyone else but me KNEW that they were.

xpost to Whiney

The Happy Days and Brady Bunch references seemed different in my era (I was 19 when the Buddy Holly video came out), in that everyone grew up watching the same syndicated reruns, but you didn't know that everyone all over the country was doing the exact the same thing. Referencing these things felt like a shared secret history of some sort, which seems impossible to have post-internet when even obscure stuff isn't really obscure anymore.

OK, I guess this is the problem for me because I don't feel that way at all. I was 17 when that video came out. Never watched the Brady Bunch (thought it was old/dumb/for girls), but I would have assumed that everyone across the country was watching the same stuff anyway. And I do think these new names have a bit of that "shared secret history" to them simply because they are generational signifiers. Some of this stuff I'm only vaguely aware of due to younger relatives, but older people would certainly never get some of the cartoon and video game references.

and yes, i do think a crucial diff is that the bands used more obscure references. Like they found poetry inside junk culture to exploit ie,

in the chillwave era a decent band name like Dash Rip Rock would just be called The Beverly Hillbillies. Toad The Wet Sprocket would be called Monty Pyyython and Eve's Plumb would be called Brady Bunch

these new names have a bit of that "shared secret history" to them simply because they are generational signifiers

but if you're on the internet as much as these guys, you start to LOSE the generational signifier because TMNT references start to belong to everybody, all the fucking time, constantly.

I was too old for Pokemons but I know SO MUCH ABOUT THEM just from being on the internet.

i also think it has a lot to do with the rise of internet and "remix" culture or whatever.. rather than abstract a reference from the object, they'll just opt to simply use the object i.e. photoshops

like the only true way to do it is to pick more obscure references, so people of your generation can share a joke that isn't being LOL STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE-d to death on Adult Swim

xxpost didnt see your post whiney but otm

emil.y, if you are under 30 if someone says the word "ducktails" to you there is exactly one thing you think of, and don't try to pretend otherwise

― krippendorf's trife (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, July 30, 2010 4:53 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

sex

actually whiney your new display name makes me think that "krippendorf's tribe" would be a pretty cool post-anco band time

i didn't really feel like the Buddy Holly/Eve's Plumb pop cult-referencing band names were part of anything secret or shared with people i had some bond with. i watched the Brady Bunch, but plenty of annoying people that i thought were dumb also did, though i was more dismissive of people that watched "full house." i probably felt closer to the way Whiney feels about these current "creatively bankrupt" bands.

my best friend in college - this was 1995 - bought a record by a band named Grover, because "awww Grover from Sesame Street!" - and they had a song called "Hole in my Eye" that was pretty great.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere and never traveled much so my concept of mass culture wasn't really all that mass, nor were things like the Brady Bunch really all that popular when I was ten years old - the show had been off the air for ten years and there wasn't yet movie remakes or off broadway ironic musicals about it.

Seeing references to junk culture like this in popular music felt different, because it was much harder (especially in small towns) to seek out and find other people who were into the same things that you were. You didn't know they existed or that there were so many of them, when now you can find a huge group of people devoted to stuff that was crazy obscure 15 years ago.

but if you're on the internet as much as these guys, you start to LOSE the generational signifier because TMNT references start to belong to everybody, all the fucking time, constantly.

I was too old for Pokemons but I know SO MUCH ABOUT THEM just from being on the internet.

Well, that's perhaps an interesting larger point about people trying to stay younger and clued in for longer and the internet making that easy. I mean I'm 33 and have a kid, why the hell have I even heard of any of these bands or even care?

The generational divide used to sometimes mean that older people were actively hostile to the way the kids dressed or whatever. Now we just want to copy them so we can be cool dads and stay "relevant." So maybe the only way for them to really get to us is to name their band Reading Rainbow or some shit and we get all mad and "back in my day..."

that the 90s were a very different time.

when all the poets studied rows of verse and ladies rolled their eyes, presumably

lol Shakey! Whiney wishes he were on a great big clipper ship going from this land into that (never mind the risk of scurvy)

in the chillwave era a decent band name like Dash Rip Rock would just be called The Beverly Hillbillies. Toad The Wet Sprocket would be called Monty Pyyython and Eve's Plumb would be called Brady Bunch

See, I still have a problem with this because they're all pretty terrible band names. I don't think any of those three examples are decent and your made up ones are pretty much an across the board improvement.

rows of verse

rosy verse surely? ducktails/ducktales

what if they were called Thee Bevverly Hillbillies? would that be an improvement?

See, I still have a problem with this because they're all pretty terrible band names. I don't think any of those three examples are decent and your made up ones are pretty much an across the board improvement.

nah even the made up ones are bad. but the original ones are worse, yr right about that

at this point, bands should just resort to a numbering system

dude have you heard 5887933176? MINDBLOWING