Monday, May 23, 2011

What Not To Name Your Band

I'm just looking up some bands that I found in the "Now Playing/Night Life/Rock and Pop" section of a year old New Yorker magazine. Found some good stuff too, New Bomb Turks ("an explosive garage band of spiky-haired Buckeyes . . ."); WhoMadeWho (Danish, "disco-punk [but] actually remarkably versatile and always entertaining"); Beach Fossils ("Brooklyn favorites offer a moody update on the sun-drenched beach hits of the sixties); Woven Bones (". . . the primal spirit of drugged-out and droning garage punk").

So here's some good advice: when picking a name for your band, don't pick something that won't allow a successful search on YouTube. All of the above bands passed the test, they were easy to find. Then I looked for a band named "Secret History." YouTube listed thousands of vid's about the secret history of everything under the sun, except the band. I was curious, since the band make "lushly emotive pop by adding big guitar hooks to chilly synthesizer work and sweetly harmonized choruses . . ."

Maybe I'll try Google. "Secret History," and "band," maybe add "Lisa Ronson." How to word search is such a critical skill these days.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good point, Fred...hadn't thought about that.
In similar fashion, if you crave anonimity, change your name to Smith or Jones or something similar that will return a billion google hits. Conversely, if you seek attention, have a unique name that is only traceable to you.
(I have an ex-girlfriend who is the only one in the US with her odd name... even with with my weird surname, there are a dozen "Ed S's" in the US.)
-Ed

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvmfsbT2NfY&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Video for THE Secret History

This is Johnny Anorka, they also have a video for a song called Johnny Nightmare

Googling 'The Secret History band' brings you their myspace, lastfm and Facebook.