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

Yerself Is Steam and Boces are both awesome, the former is a hair better. Play it loud.

Not sure what's wrong with Mercury Rev as a name either?

Easily confused with Martin Rev?

Deafheaven

xp I heard something about the band reading a review of one of their gigs or something to that effect and having some words stand out in a way like how Exploding Plastic Inevitable was chosen. Mercurial.... & Rev... as part of a word elsewhere in the text that they connected.
THink I heard it was a Chris Roberts review too. Memories of an early 90s Melody Maker double spread story if i'm remembering right.

Spotify at least used to have a couple of earlyish gig recordings available from teh David Baker era which is the earlier singer an dthe chaotic era. I think that direction slightly outlasted him and was going by about 95/96. The band became a bit less improvisational and started using strings and things in places.
I always heard the early material as sharing some of teh same ballpark as Flaming Lips though the rhythm was a lot more fluid. Jonathan Donahue had played guitar with the Lips before going solo and leading Mercury Rev. I think the band had formed asa bunch of players who had come in to add playing to a soundtrack for subaquatic video footage . When they were doing so they were coming in at different times and overdubbing and I'm not sure they had played together as a band until after the lp was recorded. Which may be one reason that Boces is more coherent for the main part. Yerself Is Steam is pretty great though as are the singles and bsides from the era and whatever is on Lego My Ego and other mop up sets from the era.
I find the Caribou Vibration Ensemble set with Marshall Allen that came with Rough Trade copie sof Caribou's Swim cd shares some of the same qualities as that David Baker era Rev.

I remember something about the Baker band being volatile; fistfights and general chaos. The side project Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void is one of my favorite heavy psych albums.

Re: Just Mustard, first heard of them from a Maura recommendation so it was already too late for the name to bother me. Also I kinda like how it's something you could say if someone offered you Mayostard or Mustardayonnaise.

There was a band on a Max's Kansas City comp called Just Water, which I thought was a stupid name, but then I started hearing that phrase here and there (liquid spills, rain, etc) and came to appreciate the idea more.

They did a cover of "SIngin' in the Rain," didn't they? Used to hear it on the radio all the time back then.

Not rain, just water

Yerself Is Steam and Boces are both awesome, the former is a hair better. Play it loud.

Thanks for the recs, will give them a go. Haven't been in a heavy psych mood for a while but it's about time to try again!

Not sure what's wrong with Mercury Rev as a name either?

I dunno, it's just visceral for me. Instant bad vibes. I think maybe 'Rev' just makes me think of gross boy things?

Obviously Rev must have connotations I'm not aware of.

I just realized I only consciously realize I've written off an artist because of their name when one of their songs comes up in a Spotify playlist and I think "huh, maybe the War on Drugs are worth listening to"

Mudvayne

That reminds me. Collapsed Lung. They did "Eat my Goal". How does it go? I have no idea. The name puts me off.

sexual jeremy

Eyehategod

Kurt Vile

didn't even realise it was his real name

King Gizzard and the whatever Lizard

Kurt Vile

didn't even realise it was his real name

Big Head Todd and the Monsters

Well, the name and the fact that the lead vocalist seemed very skeezy during an appearance on The Real World 25+ years ago

morrissey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxK-jFI9xPU
before the name got any recognition. I think I saw something saying they cherry picked the name from a longer sentence or had teh significant parts revealed to them from their state of intoxication or something. Something about it being part of a Chris Roberts review or something.

I came across the lp in the 2nd hand record shop I used to frequent when they were still very unknown. Pink/puke coloured vinyl lp somehow new in an otherwise 2nd hand record shop. I picked it up put it on the listening player, liked what I heard so bought it. & hearsd later taht I got it oddly early, Seemed to be before the actual release date. Yerself Is Steam.

I caught a few dates on the end of the tour they had started supporting Ride on. They did about 4 more dates on their own.

I don’t care how many AOTYs it gets, I’m not listening to a band called Jockstrap

Peaness.

Would make a good double bill with Jockstrap.

Couple more novelty band name I recently came across:

Lana Del Rabies
Michael Cera Palin

Tallest Man In the World
Portugal the Man

probably some other bands with "man" in the name

"Lana Del Rabies" and "Joanna Gruesome" are both incredible names because the reference material is somewhat insular, as opposed to awful names like "Wevie Stonder" or whatever

I wrote off Portugal the Man because of their name and finally broke down and listened and there i was writing Portugal the Man off again

Tallest Portuguese Man in the World

I had a dream the other night about a band called The One Night Show with Lay Jeno, which they subsequently shortened to Lay Jeno. I would not listen to them either way, if they actually existed.

Happy The Man

Mortugal the Pan

Blake Mills

Cage the elephant
Foster the people

Was shocked to learn that Blake Mills was not a Detroit techno guy...

Ha Ha The Moose

(docked an additional star for being a moe. side project)

Alvvays
Chvrches

Both of those seem like bands who found a non-annoying name they like, but couldn't get the twitter handle / trademark / discogs entry, so they inflected it enough to be unique. I do sympathize with bands trying to find an unclaimed band name in 2023 without resorting to "ha ha the moose".
(also, your loss on both of those bands)

One of these days we should have a poll of ungooglable bands. The Band, The Music, X, The The.

!!!

The oldest I ever felt was when I found out there's a band called Alvvays. Spelling shit in a Transylvanian accent is a thing now? No fucking way.

Anyway I later found out it was just to make the name google-able but the damage was done.

― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, May 31, 2022 12:47 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

ROFL @ "Ha ha the moose"

I don’t care how many AOTYs it gets, I’m not listening to a band called Jockstrap

There was a trailer all over BBC 6Music a few weeks ago for a show called "Lose Yourself With Jockstrap", delivered in that terribly earnest 6Music trailer voice. Did wonders for my mental wellbeing.

tbf the 6Music voice would make anything sound horrible

Ha ha the moose

said Gramps, watching Rocky & Bullwinkle.

I would like that name a little better if I knew that's where it came from.

One of my favorite jokes:

A moose hunter and his friend are hunting in the woods. They come across a third man, who puts up his hands and says, "Don’t shoot, I’m not a moose!" But the moose hunter raises his gun and shoots him. The hunter's friend turns to the moose hunter and asks, "why did you shoot him? He told you he wasn’t a moose!" And the moose hunter goes, "Oh, I thought he said he *was* a moose.”

I stayed away from Prefab Sprout for a very long as I thought they were a prog rock band based off there name