Bands With Ethnically Misleading Names

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Soviet, Laika, the Leningrad Cowboys (not Russian)
Bauhaus, Messer Fur FM, Spielerfrau (not German)
Desaparecidos, Polvo (not Spanish)
Depeche Mode (not French)
Etc.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:39 (twenty years ago)

yo la tengo
desaparecidos

― bowers, Friday, 1 October 2004 20:41 (twenty years ago)

turbonegro (not black)

― bowers, Friday, 1 October 2004 20:42 (twenty years ago)

Jesus. Every spanish indie band?

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:43 (twenty years ago)

Franz Ferdinand (not assasinated)

― oops (Oops), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:44 (twenty years ago)

Yet.

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:44 (twenty years ago)

Barry White
Frank Black

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:45 (twenty years ago)

White Town

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:47 (twenty years ago)

Jesus. Every spanish indie band?

Really? I thought foreign indie bands would prefer names that reflect their culture PRECISELY because all pop is trying to pass as English/American. At leats in Russia they do. As soon as a band call themselves an "international" word like Mirage or something, you know they've "sold out" before they wrote a note.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:49 (twenty years ago)

Re: "Desaparecidos, Polvo", isn't that like if I said "Daft Punk: not english"?

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:49 (twenty years ago)

No, see, it doesn't work the other way because, as I said, Americanization of foreign names is, sadly, the current norm. I'm interested in the reverse of that.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:50 (twenty years ago)

Even though if an American band called themselves Daft Punk, it would be even more interesting, because "daft" (unused in the US) would indicate that they want to specifically pass as Brits.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:52 (twenty years ago)

Young Black Teenagers
Fearless Iranians from Hell
Angry Samoans
Die Kreuzen

― chuck, Friday, 1 October 2004 20:53 (twenty years ago)

They Must Be Russians (british)

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:53 (twenty years ago)

Angry Samoans - nice! Metal Mike Saunders's band innit? x-post

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:54 (twenty years ago)

Secretly Canadian Records are a bunch of liars.

― everything, Friday, 1 October 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago)

Flux of Pink Indians

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 1 October 2004 20:57 (twenty years ago)

"As soon as a band call themselves an "international" word like Mirage or something, you know they've "sold out" before they wrote a note."

I agree. And what's sadder, they're not actually "selling out" to anything tangible, but to a everlasting critical trend that decided that spanish music is bad and (specifically) anglo-american music is good. Resulting in nobody outside the indie community caring much about that bands, but rarely resulting in some re-thinking of that trend (better to be the misunderstood discerning idiot savant amongst the Bisbal fans than sing in spanish).

Not ALL spanish indie bands are like that, of course.

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:02 (twenty years ago)

Muslimgauze

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:04 (twenty years ago)

No, that's a religiously misleading name.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:06 (twenty years ago)

FUCK SECRETLYCANADIAN!!!!!!1

― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:16 (twenty years ago)

afghan whigs
new bomb turks

― f ath, Friday, 1 October 2004 21:18 (twenty years ago)

Pole

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:18 (twenty years ago)

japan
asia
husker du
daktaris

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:22 (twenty years ago)

No, that's a religiously misleading name.

-- joseph cotten (josephcotte...), October 1st, 2004.

yes, you're spot on there. my bad, as they say

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:32 (twenty years ago)

fela kuti & egypt 80

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:35 (twenty years ago)

The Black Lips.

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Friday, 1 October 2004 21:37 (twenty years ago)

the lead singer of fearless iranians from hell was iranian.

― jk cl, Friday, 1 October 2004 21:57 (twenty years ago)

Of Montreal, obviously.

― everything, Friday, 1 October 2004 22:01 (twenty years ago)

alabama 3

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 1 October 2004 22:10 (twenty years ago)

The Hal Al Shedad
Young Black Teenagers
Los Crudos (they were actually a hardcore alien race that won)

― REFICUL!, Friday, 1 October 2004 22:11 (twenty years ago)

Montreal is not an ethnicity!

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 1 October 2004 22:24 (twenty years ago)

Half Japanese?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 1 October 2004 22:26 (twenty years ago)

the delgados

― jeremiah (jeremiah), Friday, 1 October 2004 22:38 (twenty years ago)

They Might Be Giants

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 1 October 2004 23:15 (twenty years ago)

Whoops, missed the "ethnically."

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 1 October 2004 23:16 (twenty years ago)

And the "Might". They're not promising anything.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Saturday, 2 October 2004 03:07 (twenty years ago)

Black Flag - Not black
Black Sabbath - Not black
Black Crowes - Not black
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Not black
Black Grabe - Well, one of them was black.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 2 October 2004 03:13 (twenty years ago)

There should be a black hip-hop crew called The White Men. They could have albums like, "As White As We Wanna Be," "Whiter Than You," "White Makes Right,"...

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 2 October 2004 03:45 (twenty years ago)

"the Burkina Faso Five" (from northern Ghana)
"Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (from the Greek province of Macedonia)
"Half Black Dave and the Reglues" (dave is actually 3/4 black)

― Ray Burleigh, Saturday, 2 October 2004 03:50 (twenty years ago)

And what's sadder, they're not actually "selling out" to anything tangible, but to a everlasting critical trend that decided that spanish music is bad and (specifically) anglo-american music is good. Resulting in nobody outside the indie community caring much about that bands, but rarely resulting in some re-thinking of that trend (better to be the misunderstood discerning idiot savant amongst the Bisbal fans than sing in spanish).

I guess spanish indie music isn't that different from italian indie music. the worst thing, at least in italy, is the obvious/boring jumping on the current bandwagon: the italian music scene is definitely based on foreign trends (yesterday the post-rock thing, today it's punk-funk etc). This doesn't help developing a more personal (i won't say national) sound, while in the 70's Italian prog/pomp rock at least had a peculiar, if often bad, smell.
Anyway, i have to admit that if you want to play rock n roll in Italy (and perhaps also in a country like Spain) you HAVE to relate yourself with anglo-american music, because rock n roll is a mostly anglo-american tradition (operas in XVIII century were sung in Italian because Italy was the place where they were born etc).
Btw, italian language is particularly anti-rock.
Finally, I find very interesting how anglo-american rock tradition melted with local culture in bands coming from Norway, Sweden, Japan etc. - and of course Germany.

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Saturday, 2 October 2004 07:55 (twenty years ago)

Boards of Canada
The Penniless People of Bulgaria
Laika and the Cosmonauts

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 2 October 2004 09:05 (twenty years ago)

Tragedy Khadafi
Capone-N-Noreaga (Nore has a Spanish name, though, I'm not sure if he's half-Latin or something)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 2 October 2004 09:09 (twenty years ago)

I think Spain and Italy are very similar regarding this issue; 70's spanish bands like Triana translated the prog-rock ideas instead of simply xeroxing them. Even if it just that the lyrics are in spanish, and have spanish themes, at least it's something. Simply because it would be trying to engage the spanish audience in the same way that the anglo-american band they're influenced of is trying to engage his. I remember an interview with the Super Furry Animals where they were saying that one of the funniest things of being on tour was seeing spanish indie bands trying to pass as english, and singing rubbish lines like "I wanna kiss you higher"; I know a lot of people who are in bands like that, and they're happier to be english indie/britpop sound/lookalikes than to have an audience (and I think that's not a brave or interesting or meaningful way of risking never to have an audience, if you know what I mean).

And that a language other than english might be seen as "anti-rock", my reasoning goes, is more consecuence than cause.

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Saturday, 2 October 2004 11:18 (twenty years ago)

Telefon Tel Aviv
Dresden Dolls

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Saturday, 2 October 2004 11:20 (twenty years ago)

"I know a lot of people who are in bands like that, and they're happier to be english indie/britpop sound/lookalikes than to have an audience (and I think that's not a brave or interesting or meaningful way of risking never to have an audience, if you know what I mean)"

...sigh, exactly like Italy...

"And that a language other than english might be seen as "anti-rock", my reasoning goes, is more consecuence than cause"

yes, if you have a REAL national language. Italian language is more or less an artificial construction made last century out of a reinterpretation of the Tuscan dialect - it is recent, it doesn't have a real literary history behind itself and it is not particularly flexible or effective. Above all, unlike our regional dialects, it does not have a popular, culturally shared resonance - so Italian pop music, with some major exceptions, is lyrically rather stiff or filled with faux intellectualisms.

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Saturday, 2 October 2004 11:47 (twenty years ago)

Don't know that much about the italian language; I suppose the vernacular is shared enough to be used in pop/rock music?

― Diego Valladolid (dvalladt), Saturday, 2 October 2004 11:55 (twenty years ago)

The Negro Problem -- misleading because the singer actually IS black. Apparently he has to book shows in person so club owners know he's not a white supremacist or something.

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 2 October 2004 11:59 (twenty years ago)

Berlin
Stockholm Monsters
Paris Angels

― Didoismus (Dada), Saturday, 2 October 2004 12:31 (twenty years ago)

the lonely samoans

― pfeffernuesse (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 2 October 2004 12:44 (twenty years ago)

The Redskins

― Didoismus (Dada), Saturday, 2 October 2004 12:44 (twenty years ago)

> Nore has a Spanish name, though, I'm not sure if he's half-Latin or something

He's half-Spanish. He cooks with Goya.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 2 October 2004 14:34 (twenty years ago)

Les Sans Culottes - they're not *actually* French, are they?

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 2 October 2004 14:35 (twenty years ago)

A-Teens. First of all, they're not teens. Secondly, their name should be A-Retard-Teens.

Courtney Love. First of all, they're dudes. And not Courtney Love. AND TRHWEYPIOWEHFDOÖIW1EHJDFJ SUCK.

― I'm American, Saturday, 2 October 2004 16:11 (twenty years ago)

Terry Lee Brown Jr. (house producer on Plastic City) is not black. He's German, and his real name is Norman Feller.

― paulhw (paulhw), Saturday, 2 October 2004 21:53 (twenty years ago)

Komeda

― peepee (peepee), Saturday, 2 October 2004 22:50 (twenty years ago)

Smashing Pumpkins - not squash

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 3 October 2004 00:09 (twenty years ago)

lois maffeo is not a dude

― pfeffernuesse (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:10 (twenty years ago)

barry white -- he wasn't
magma -- they weren't really from a volcano

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:15 (twenty years ago)

vladimir delay -- a finnish dude w/ a russian first name and a french-sounding last name

scritti politti -- they aren't italians

warsaw -- they were really from manchester

rednex -- they aren't from the american south. in fact, the lead singer isn't even from the south of SWEDEN.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:18 (twenty years ago)

3 mustafas 3 -- they aren't muslims.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:20 (twenty years ago)

and are any of the silver jews actually of the hebrew persuasion?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:21 (twenty years ago)

the electric prunes were actually people, i hear.

― pfeffernuesse (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:21 (twenty years ago)

and are any of the silver jews actually of the hebrew persuasion?

david berman is.

― pfeffernuesse (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:23 (twenty years ago)

redman

― Symplistic (shmuel), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:26 (twenty years ago)

ego trip's book of racism to thread

― Symplistic (shmuel), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:26 (twenty years ago)

bobby "blue" bland
kid creole
wu-tang clan
black keys

― Symplistic (shmuel), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:31 (twenty years ago)

The Gaza Strippers
Goyem Division
Jews for Jesus Jones
Karma Kameleons
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Tribe 8

― kid creole, Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:56 (twenty years ago)

"kid creole"

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 03:59 (twenty years ago)

siouxsie sioux -- she wasn't really a sioux. or even a native american.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:00 (twenty years ago)

Taj Mahal Travelers

― mattp, Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:03 (twenty years ago)

siouxsie sioux -- she wasn't really a sioux. or even a native american.

nor are crazy horse.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:07 (twenty years ago)

"kid creole"

august darnell is haitian-american.

― pfeffernuesse (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:25 (twenty years ago)

ok, never mind kid creole

brother ali
dusty springfield

― Symplistic (shmuel), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:33 (twenty years ago)

aztec camera
michael jackson

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:37 (twenty years ago)

michael jackson

?!?!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:39 (twenty years ago)

arab strap

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:39 (twenty years ago)

well, he's just ethically misleading.
Xpost

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:48 (twenty years ago)

hahaha "ethically misleading" is a telling typo.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:48 (twenty years ago)

3 mustaphas 3

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:49 (twenty years ago)

yusef lateef
yusef islam
rahsaan roland kirk
etc.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:50 (twenty years ago)

jah wobble

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 3 October 2004 04:51 (twenty years ago)

Bukka White
Tragic Mulatto (?)
Mary's Danish (No she isn't)
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians

the lead singer of fearless iranians from hell was iranian.

Yeah, but he wasn't really a native of Hell, so it still counts!

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Sunday, 3 October 2004 06:52 (twenty years ago)

How is Dusty Springfield's name "ethnically misleading"?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 3 October 2004 09:43 (twenty years ago)

Jan Jelinek - German dude called the Czech equivalent of John Smith

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Sunday, 3 October 2004 10:23 (twenty years ago)

rahsaan roland kirk

Roland dreamt the name "Rahsaan", as far as I know it has no ethnic origins

― Didoismus (Dada), Sunday, 3 October 2004 11:16 (twenty years ago)

Sun Ra

― Didoismus (Dada), Sunday, 3 October 2004 11:17 (twenty years ago)

britney spears

― pfeffernuesse (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 3 October 2004 12:21 (twenty years ago)

Yikes, I kind of regret starting this thread. I envisioned it as a list of pretentious American bands naming themselves random European words...

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Sunday, 3 October 2004 12:27 (twenty years ago)

CHAVEZ!!

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Sunday, 3 October 2004 12:53 (twenty years ago)

xpost to dido: I think i was suggesting that these Muslim names suggest something other than what you're getting... although your milage may vary.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 3 October 2004 15:40 (twenty years ago)

Perhaps the thread-starter was interested in intentionally misleading names? I mean, if you are misled by the Arabic names of Black Muslims, surely that's the fault of your own ignorance? Or if you think "Warsaw" should be the name of a Polish band (instead of, say, "Warszawa"--or "Leningrad Cowboys" rather than "Leningradskie Kovboi" for that matter) that might be because you are easily mixed up in general or at least very very new to the conventions of pop music?

― a south asian person, Sunday, 3 October 2004 18:43 (twenty years ago)

The Pixies

(I'm under the impression that most of them are actually human)

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 3 October 2004 18:45 (twenty years ago)

i used to hope black flag were black.

― splooge (thesplooge), Sunday, 3 October 2004 18:46 (twenty years ago)

siouxsie sioux -- she wasn't really a sioux. or even a native american.

Hahahahaha

Jimmy Gestapo of Murphy's Law - not actually German, nor a member of the Nazi SS.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 3 October 2004 18:48 (twenty years ago)

Manu Chao--misleading on several levels, really.

― 4klsk, Sunday, 3 October 2004 18:50 (twenty years ago)

China Crisis

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:26 (twenty years ago)

Perhaps the thread-starter was interested in intentionally misleading names?

Right on. In fact, what I was interested in most was indie American Europe-worship. But I had the misfortune of using the word "ethnically," which apparently unleashed a bunch of race associations.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 4 October 2004 02:26 (twenty years ago)

Yikes, I kind of regret starting this thread. I envisioned it as a list of pretentious American bands naming themselves random European words...
-- joseph cotten (josephcotte...), October 3rd, 2004.

haha, i play in a band called 'tolchock trio'. (we're americans) we once had a russian guy come to our show because he thought were a russian band. i do have slovak blood from my father's side, but it's more of a coincidence than something we explicitly thought about

― 6335, Monday, 4 October 2004 02:45 (twenty years ago)

Nice. Especially since "Tolchok" means "john", as in toilet. Excellent.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 4 October 2004 02:46 (twenty years ago)

hehe, we found the toilet meaning out later and had a good laugh. we borrowed it from the book 'a clockwork orange' where it means 'to strike or hit'

― 6335, Monday, 4 October 2004 03:13 (twenty years ago)

Japanese glam bands with frenchified names:
dir en grey
pierrot
l'arc en ciel
despairs ray
aliene ma'riage
l'areine
Many more, probably. The apostrophe is to visual kei what the umlaut is to metal.

― briania (briania), Monday, 4 October 2004 13:59 (twenty years ago)

blackgirls. All Euroamerican. I loved 'em.

― briania (briania), Monday, 4 October 2004 14:01 (twenty years ago)

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