One of my biggest pet peeves is being gimmicky, or, as I like to call it, doing something for the sake of doing it—as opposed to doing something because it makes sense or is a good idea. In other words, I despise most things that come from a conversation along the lines of, “We should totally JUST communicate in LOLcatsspeak… man, people wouldn’t know WHAT to do!,” or “I might as well start smoking – I mean, what’s the point of life anyway?,” or “My birthday party theme is just going to be, like, anti-fashion.” Such lines of pseudo-reasoning inspire a particular look from me [even if no one is around I still make this face! I might be making it right now!] that’s been described as a mix of incredulity and disgust.
A prime example of this can be seen in band names. I hate when I feel like a band has looked at the entire catalogue of life’s words and phrases and chosen a particular one ONLY because it will be difficult to print on posters or will incite discussion that has nothing to do with their music. Examples would be Prince’s turn to that weird symbol, any band with F*ck [or other words I can’t say to my mother] in their name, a reference to some disgusting bodily function, or—even though I used to kind of be okay with it—a long title with incongruous! punctuation.
A band that selects a gimmicky, complicated, or eff you, the man! sort of name is telling you something about them right off the bat: being shocking and/or annoying to “squares” or “tools” or “gen Y” or “adults”, or whoever they think will be shocked or annoyed, is more important than their music. For the most part, I don’t want to listen to any group that considers gross-out humor part of their act. I would rather not even listen to a band that has to think about HAVING an act.
However, I say “for the most part” in the above qualifier because I have been foiled in this stubborn assertion of mine before. Exhibit A: the short-lived Test Icicles. Their name was ridiculous, yet I think it accurately reflected the scummy dance thrash pop of three chavvy little London teens who broke up within a year just because they felt like it. I thought [and still think] their album was pretty rad. Exhibit B: Holy F*ck. I REALLY did not want to like them out of principle [principle being its stupid to name yourself something just for the sake of making certain people grimace], but of course they make lovely gorgeous ambient rock music that is one of my favorite things of the moment.
And finally Exhibit C, the impetus for this post. Does it Offend You, Yeah?: I HATE this name. I wouldn’t even listen to them, assuming it would sound like Vampire Weekend or some other newish pop I’m supposed to like a lot but that actually sounds a lot like the Arctic Monkeys [yeesh, another winceable name choice there…]. But just like Holy F*ck, they snuck onto my Hype Machine a few times and before I knew it, I kind of liked it. There, I said it. Maybe I’m just FINALLY over my post-Justice weepy folk kick or something, but I thought it was kind of catchy…
For Rob: What’s the consensus on, err, DIOY?Y….? Is it inexcusably cliché? Or perhaps more than BEARABLE?
Checkmate!
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