The Current Music Blog: September 5, 2006 Archive

Band Names: Lawyers Are So NOT Rock 'N' Roll Edition

Posted at 6:19 AM on September 5, 2006 by Hans Eisenbeis

Speaking of band names, please take note of this week's Weekly Download. It's the digital deutschman, Radio Citizen. RC has a new album arriving in just one week, but in the run-up we noticed that Niko Schable recently blogged about the subtle shift in name from "Radio City" to "Radio Citizen."

why is this project called radio citizen and not radio city anymore? you know the cultural world gets divided into claims. mcdonalds gets i love it, canon you can and volkswagen is trying to trademark the volks, which simply means "of the people". no wonder radio city had already been occupied....

It seems someone pressed the trademark issue, and Schabel retreated. (So rattled, he forgot to capitalize!) Which got us thinking about other bands who have been served legal notice, and lost the battle to have a cool name--because someone else already held claim to it, and set a pack of lawyers on them. Remember when Tilt-A-Whirl got a face full of cease-and-desist, and became Arcwelder? How about when the US Olympic Committee took their ball and went home, leaving the Olympic Hopefuls merely hopeful?

Send along your own fond, litigious memories--and tell us why Hüsker Dü never got sued by Milton Bradley--in the comments. (There is a correct answer, by the way!)

Band Names: One Hit Wonders Edition

Posted at 7:16 AM on September 5, 2006 by Hans Eisenbeis (7 Comments)

Remember how we were chatting the other day about great band names that were (a) inspired by literature, (b) inspired by movies, or (c) complete sentences? Someone who is much less lazy than we are has started to compile an exhaustive list of band-name origins here. There are some interesting entries that we chalk up to holes in our memory, but this one caught our eye:

BUCK CHERRY - possibly a goof on the often heard speaking disorder wherein the speaker will interchange the first letter{s} in two successive words i.e. "I have just received a Blushing Crow 
{crushing blow} Metallica uses such a device in their album entitled "Cunning Stunts." Buck Cherry would then equal Chuck Berry, famous classic rocker.

Fair enough. But what chafes about this little survey of spoonerisms is that it gives Metallica credit where it isn’t due: The Cows had an album with that dubious title in 1992, six years before the spooky puppet-masters repurposed it. And more importantly, it totally rocked.

Give us your favorite band names, band-name origins, and rules of grammar in the comments.

Feel The Pain, But Check the Pawn Shops

Posted at 7:21 AM on September 5, 2006 by Hans Eisenbeis

Last Tuesday in Long Island City, the recently (and tenuously) reunited Dinosaur Jr. suffered a band's worst headache--they had seven guitars stolen, many of them irreplaceable, vintage instruments dating back to the early sixties and fifties. Adding insult to injury, singer/guitarist J. Mascis lost his pedal board, including his beloved wah-wah pedal. The band reassures fans that no shows will be cancelled. (Though this picture makes them look pretty PO'ed, doesn’t it? )We have to wonder what they'll be playing for the remainder of their reunion tour--kazoos, pickle buckets, and trash-can lids?

Spreading The Love, One Bathrobe At A Time

Posted at 7:55 AM on September 5, 2006 by Hans Eisenbeis

The Polyphonic Spree are working feverishly to finish their new record--and it has involved a coast-to-coast effort at numerous recording studios. The band with more members and bathrobes than a pro football team expect their new album to arrive sometime in early 2007. But the Dallas, Texas congeries--well, actually, they're more of a squad or even a fraternal organization--are all about turning that frown upside down. So in the meantime, they are offering some consolation. Today, they release an EP called, appropriately enough, "Wait." The Spree's gift to you will include covers of Nirvana's "Lithium" and the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way." Those two songs alone should provide plenty of 20th-century flashbacks, and the rest of the EP will undoubtedly take you all the way back to the womb. Which is so often the case with a Polyphonic Spree recording.