Media Slag
A monthly rant on the tepid traits and tawdry interactions of the music business with its rabidly sycophantic ally, the music media.
Moniker Monitor
Ah, Snow Patrol, let me count the ways I loathe thee. Now you return with a new album, ‘Eyes Open’, relentlessly touting the post-millennial rock star mantra of “I can’t believe how lucky we are, I’m so grateful we’re just normal blokes” guff.
Even bloody Embrace, once a bullishly arrogant bunch of Yorkshiremen, have joined the ‘I can’t believe how lucky we are’ brigade. True, they did go through what looked like a terminal commercial slump, but that’s no excuse.
Oasis, bless ‘em, muster a sneering insouciance, even when their music is turgid rubbish that Status Quo would hesitate to release.
I did not, however, put fingers to keyboard for a furious rant about the post-Travis nice-boy-band syndrome – I already did that back in the Christmas issue – it’s the subject of band names that has tantalized my jaded palate.
The other day a band with whom I have a very tenuous connection asked me what I thought of them. They’re called Urbanspacelab and my first response was, “Junk the name.” ‘Urbanspacelab’ is so ’90s that it hinders the band from the start. There’s nothing wrong with the 1990s, of course, but it’s bizarre the way a band’s name can influence people before they’ve even heard a note. ‘Urbanspacelab’ is redolent of Radical Dance Faction, Asian Dub Foundation, Active Loop Zone and various other festival staples of that decade. It makes one think of Megadog events and crusties in fluoro gear largin’ it on E. Now, I adored those days with their utopian electronic futurism but still don’t think such a name gives out the right message for a fresh band dealing in catchy drum&bass jazz-pop (check ‘em out).
All of which raises the question of what kind of name is hot now. What sort of name will make everyone from industry bods to potential gig-goers intrigued. Going for something immediate and over-the-top doesn’t necessarily breed interest, and in any case Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction et al, pinpointed such frivolity twenty years ago. Meanwhile, the opposite, the snappy meaningless single word approach takes us straight back to the 1990s again with Oasis, Embrace, Blur, Pulp, etc.
There is a chunky academic book to be written about how the semantics of band names reflect the culture and society that bore them. Why do Asia, Journey, Sky, Rush, etc all have a similar ring to their names? Is it just hindsight and musical knowledge that makes this seem so? Humble Pie, Badfinger, Lynyrd Skynrd… it’s a blokey pub debate that would go on for hours and send every woman within earshot into a deep sleep.
Instead, suffice to say that for the moment a band would do well not to have the prefix ‘The’ as the post-millennial, post-Strokes and Libertines era has seen an overdose of this – The Paddingtons, The Editors, The Rakes, and on and on. History, I hope, will recall the era of the ‘The’-prefixed NME-endorsed identikit indie band with little affection. This is all totally nebulous, of course, but it seems to me that the type of band name that’s coming up is personified by the likes of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or Get Cape Wear Cape Fly. Do you see what I’m getting at? I’m not referring even slightly to the music (I haven’t the faintest what Get Cape Wear Cape Fly sound like) but simply the relative zeitgeist-friendliness of the names. I know, I know, it’s all drifting into the realms of the preposterous, writing frantically about forty seconds before Beatmag’s final, final deadline…
…but …a couple of my friends once had a band called The Dada Christ Society – I rather liked that, although it’s entirely redolent of the Jesus And Mary Chain/SWANS axis to which the members aspired. It is, in any case, a damn sight better than Snow Patrol, as were the three wall-of-noise ’songs’ that were The Dada Christ Society’s repertoire. Perhaps my favourite band name, though, is The Butthole Surfers, for sheer pugnacity, but maybe I’m influenced again by the fact they were once creators of totally ace music. For the purity of this ludicrous premise, then, I will then have to plumb for American hardcore punk act Art Fag. I couldn’t name a single song of theirs, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever even heard them – but what a great name. All of which is undoubtedly of no use or interest to Nottingham’s Urbanspacelab who will, in all probability, retain their name and have No.1 hit singles in France, Japan and Malaysia.
Hey there!
My band recently recorded our very own song!!!
Check it out, we’ve learnt a lot from your blog!
xxx