Indie Band Names
 

I know its a running gag that indie bands are pretensious but does anyone else get so turned off by band names that you can't bring yourself to listen?

Their either something like "...and you will know us by the trail of the dead" which I don't think is that bad, to names of bland you'd think they were the title of pearl jams songs.

Am I crazy or has the whole indie world over thought their names with some self-righteous jab at everything they think is laconic?

I think indie gets too much crap for bad band names and I think other genres are just as guilty. I don't know why everyone picks on indie for it, I mean we have My Chemical Romance, Bullet For My Valentine, Matchbox 20, Mr. Mister, Goo Goo Dolls, Enuff Z'nuff, etc. Bad band names are common in every genre, people need to stop picking on indie for it just because the !!!'s get popular. Actually I'd say the worst genre for this is really that whole mtvmo scene because it's very rare they even have a good band name.

I try not to judge bands before listening to them especially because some bands with horrid band names are actually really good, take My Bloody Valentine for instance.

I don't see a correlation with indie band names and pretentious band names.

I think he's saying unnecessarily long/random band names are considered pretentious which is true - as to whether they actually are pretentious, well, probably not as often as they're considered pretentious. 'Pretentious' isn't a word I like to use very often, because it is abused when people assume too much. E.g. I wouldn't wager that every indie band with a long name is being pretentious. Some are just having fun or conforming to others who have done that.

Also, there's the whole prog is pretentious thing where a prog band is pretentious for having long songs and being technically skilled. Rubbish. If a prog band wants to write a long song, I don't see how that makes them pretentious... it's merely harks back to classical structures. It's their choice, but people assume that prog bands think they're superior to other musicians for having long songs.

And obviously jazz musicians are being pretentious when they use unusual scales... no, they just like to use those scales because they find them musically interesting.

People often use the word when something doesn't fit their standards or they don't know the motive behind something and assume pretentiousness. Sure in some cases, a band is being pretentious... e.g. there are a lot of jazz snobs/elitists who deserve to be called pretentious, but often there's nothing pretentious at all.

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Anyway, that was just my horribly jumbled rant on that topic and now follows my on topic part of my post.

I'm not put off by bands with bad names but it is slightly annoying because people assume too much. My Bloody Valentine is a great example... people assume they're emo. Death could be seen as a generic band due to a 'generic' death metal band name when they're anything but, and their name isn't generic because they were around at the start... in their time, that bandname wouldn't have been generic. Destroyer 666 is another good band with a shite name. People assume Eagles of Death Metal are a death metal band.

It took me awhile to think of the real offenders here, but the one that I always thought was beyond toleration was “The Division of Laura Lee” and for multiple reasons really

A band full of men used a woman’s name for their band. Are you trying to be ultra feminist or funny? I don’t get the need, and a division? Is this like a “her face could launch a thousand ships” type thing? Whenever a band seems to uselessly gender question for no real purpose other than to “shock people” it just makes me think that their either 13, stupid, or have nothing to do with their damn time. To me, if you don’t have anything that means more to you than shocking people, you’re music is probably boring.

I stayed away from the band THE 80'S MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER because I just connected them with the awful MATCHBOX 20. Happily I put my prejudice aside and found a great band.

Indie certainly isn't the only genre with bad band names - take a look at metal. Now, there are just plain pathetic d&d character names out there used by bands.

If you think band names are bad
:
Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D (1991)

And yes, it is a film!

I credit Porcupine Tree with the worst name for a great band. They're not indie, but they deserve mentioning.

I am in a blues/folk band called; The Moans of the Dead Men Who Are Buried in the Earth and Feel Our Footsteps

Or simply, "The Moans" as we are known locally. We are definitely pretentious.