Here's where you can ask how to pronounce exotic band names

Les Savy Fav, anyone?

lay-sahvy-fov

autechre anyone?

bogdan raczinski?

(not that I would ask for a Beulah record, mind)

I expect we'll run into problems here because so many musicians are such atrocious spellers. They go around telling you to pronounce their band name a particular way when it's clear that if they had any understanding of phonetics (or the languages, usually French, whose phonetics they're appropriating) they wouldn't have spelled it the way they did. I.e. they knew what they wanted to be called but then they spelled it wrong, necessitating this giant game of make-believe where we pretend there's some deep meaning wrapped up in there.

On the other hand, I'm surprised people ask about Beulah so often. I mean, it's a pretty common name, right?

authchere = ort cha

siguor ros?

Anybody want to take a stab at Schlammpeitziger? How about his albums Erdrauchharnschleck and Spacerockmountainrutschquatier (which are both great, by the way.)

on what syllable is the emphasis?

Oh wait, that would be how do you SPELL The Strokes.

Damn.

And no, I wasn't being serious.

I used to call them Spudfucker but I'm sure that's not how it was meant to be pronounced

Fennesz
Jan Jelinek
Luomo
Hakan Libdo

I had this problem with the word before the band was even around, but I never bothered to check. Actually, don't correct me, I like saying both, just like I like saying Georgy Borges just cos I'll never be able to pronounce it properly...

I can't say Baccaruda.

Sunn o))

I read once it was pronounced "sun" just like that big ball of fire in the sky, and the last part was just a visual.
Anybody else hear anything?

http://991.com/newGallery/Prince-Love-Symbol---Dis-16035.jpg

Terre Thaemlitz is pronounced like "Terry Temlits"

Sunn o))

I read once it was pronounced "sun" just like that big ball of fire in the sky, and the last part was just a visual.
Anybody else hear anything?

― steampig67, Thursday, October 23, 2008 1:36 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark

Yup, named after the amps they use:
http://www.orcoastmusic.com/amplifiers/sunn-sceptre.jpg

Prince is such a turd. I was so devastated when, after going through all the trouble of "coming out" by legally changing his name to the bisexual symbol, he then insisted it be "unspeakable" (starting that whole "artist formerly known as..." idiocity).... "Ok," I thought, "the unspeakability could be a critique on the invisibility/silence around pansexuality within dominant and queer cultures, or something profound..." *BUT* then he marches out on the Tonight Show with his new bride, who was one of those lingerie queens he keeps around, and she was totally silent like an accessory the whole interview while he was being a total macho prick - totally offensive to any critical notion of gender. I mean, that kind of macho super-hetero performance combined with silence about his name (totally refusing to answer questions about why or how to pronounce it, etc.) just showed how un-profound the whole thing was. It was that same month that Michael Jackson married Elvis' daughter... I was like, "The closet has gotten a lot more complicated."

It dawns on me that I say "Royal Trucks" slightly differently than I say "Royal Trux." The second Trux comes out white-trashier or something. Does the band make a distinction?

T'Pau?

teh pow?

teh POW!!!

Whenever I see Sunn o)), my brain says "suNNNN-ohhh"

I'm aware that one is supposed to say "Sunn". But I often call them "Sunn - Oh" when speaking about them.

i call them 'sun' and then cackle inwardly at my own amazingness

Prince is such a turd. I was so devastated when, after going through all the trouble of "coming out" by legally changing his name to the bisexual symbol, he then insisted it be "unspeakable" (starting that whole "artist formerly known as..." idiocity).... "Ok," I thought, "the unspeakability could be a critique on the invisibility/silence around pansexuality within dominant and queer cultures, or something profound..." *BUT* then he marches out on the Tonight Show with his new bride, who was one of those lingerie queens he keeps around, and she was totally silent like an accessory the whole interview while he was being a total macho prick - totally offensive to any critical notion of gender. I mean, that kind of macho super-hetero performance combined with silence about his name (totally refusing to answer questions about why or how to pronounce it, etc.) just showed how un-profound the whole thing was. It was that same month that Michael Jackson married Elvis' daughter... I was like, "The closet has gotten a lot more complicated."

― beavis, Sunday, September 13, 2009 4:38 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Prolly the first mistakes a guy can make when Prince is doing something crazy is to think about it. Or if you really wanna analyze it, your conclusions need to be relegated from approval/disapproval on over to o_O. Prince is like legit crazy. What's that story of him calling Kevin Smith because he required a camel at 3 in the morning? Dude's a crazypants.

re: prince
:) point taken! *phew* i feel better already.

now, what to do with those people blogging about michael jackson, saying twisted stuff like "i pray your children turn out to be just like you" ...scary

An Horse?

Prince is such a turd. /.../
― beavis

Ay, you puzzled me there, beavis. The pronunciation of Prince is "such a turd"? Where's the accent then?

SUNN O)))
― W i l l (common_person), Thursday, October 7, 2004 2:34 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I always think of it as "Sunnnn WHOAAAA!!!!"

Sun O Bracket Bracket Bracket

XIU XIU anyone? I used to pronounce it as 'kseeu kseeu' but I've heard some people pronounce it as 'shoe shoe'.

xpost I think the band once explained it's only pronounced 'sun'.

yeah i always thought it was "shu shu."

i don't get that band.

a guy once told me King's X is pronounced "King's Cross". Is this true?

if I'm American do I have to say "CLEE-en-tell"?

always guessed it was pronounced "zhu zhu"

“That’s how we pronounce it,” says Xiu Xiu frontman and songwriter Jamie Stewart approvingly after I fluke out and correctly identify the band as “shoe shoe.” “But we’ve been told by, like, nine million people that we pronounce it wrong, and those nine million people have told us nine million different ways to say it.”

Stewart points out that he’s never found the inevitable mangling of his band’s name all that troubling, although he admits that one variation is a bit contentious. “I think the only pronunciation that we actually object to is ‘zoo zoo,’” he says, “just because it sounds like a bad hair-metal band.”

the X sound in mandarin is more of a "sy-" then "sh-" sound imo.

shiu-shiu wd be closest I'd think?

the X sound in mandarin is more of a "sy-" then "sh-" sound imo.

I feel like there's still a hint of a "sh" after the initial "sy."

But that's immaterial, since it's Jamie Stewart's band, and he sez "shu shu."

except he named them after the Joan Chen film in which they pronounce the lead girl's name correctly lol.

sh sound in mandarin = "sh-"
x sound in mandarin = "sy-"

imo

here are several ways of interpreting 秀秀 in roman letters approximating the mandarin pronunciation using all the most common romanization methods:

xiu xiu
hsiu hsiu
shiou shiou
shyou shyou
sheou sheou
shiow shiow

I was in china for a week before I learned how pronounce thank you correctly (xie xie). the xi sound is tough because it doesn't occur in english and the regional dialects will compound yr confusion. I kept mispronouncing it "water" so at restaurants I ended up getting another glass of water every time a dish was brought to the table.

also, ewa demarczyk

avuh de mar check?

my polish ancestors weep

Neither exotic nor a band but is it Phill NIH-block or Phill NYE-block? ("is" sound or "eye" sound?)

https://youtu.be/jL4Jt4Tc_i4?t=9

Remember kids, Dokken rhymes with Rockin'!

xp That settles that! Thanks. That's what I've always said but today for whatever reason it occurred to me that it might be 'nye-block'

grachan moncur .... GRA-chin (german style) MON-kurr ?

I have been saying "gra-SHON mon-CURR," but I assume this is incorrect, because when I pronounce it this way it sounds like I am referring to a French delicacy. I need to know though, because I've been listening to him a lot

The latter sounds more likely than the latter tbh. Moncur is a Scottish name and is definitely pronounced mon-CURR.

... Latter more likely than the former, that is.

He pronounced his first name “Grayshin”

thank you!

This guy does not get his due, possibly because of his choice of instrument. But he wrote some terrific music! Been listening a lot to Jackie McLean's Destination...Out, on which Moncur composed all but one of the tunes, and it's great

apparently he had a personality that kind of got in the way of success/wider recognition

It's KRONG-bin, right? I think you know who I am asking about.

just had two audiobooks back to back have Bert as "Yanch" - but apparently it really was a hard J?

the only time i saw him play he was introduced at the start with a soft j & thanked after his performance with a hard j (think it is the latter, but i always forget when i actually say it!)

I think Bert's attitude was pronounce it how you like.

There are two people with the surname Jansch on Wikipedia... Bert and his ex-wife Heather.

Maybe I should've guessed this because of Alvvays, but I just learned today that Hovvdy is pronounced "howdy." I've been saying "huv-dee." But maybe I'm also influenced by the fact that I once knew someone with the surname Hovde, and that's how they pronounced their name.