Bands that don't sound like their name

A few days ago I was driving in my car when a song by Vampire Weekend came on the radio, and I realized how much – at least to me – the band name just didn’t go with the music they make. A band called Vampire Weekend obviously sounds like it should be a goth band or a heavy rock band, not the breezy indie pop band that it is.

Similarly, I had avoided checking out My Bloody Valentine for the longest time with a similar misapprehension about the genre of music they played. This one was probably not as far off the mark but, once again, I expected either goth or a heavy metal type band, not the (great) shoegazing noise-rock/pop band that it is.

I’m sure there are heaps of these examples, so what have the Dopers got?

When I first heard of the Black Eyed Peas I thought they would be a country group.

Their earliest stuff was much closer to goth that the later shoegaze stuff.

I’d have expected Death Cab For Cutie to be more gothic.

I was at an outdoor concert last night and saw the 70s band War. Not sure what “war” should sound like, but definitely not like War.

KISS

Eagles of Death Metal, the band playing the Bataclan when it was attached in Paris, do not play death metal. Rather, they’re a more traditional rock band,. The name is meant to be humorous.

Huh. Never heard anything pre-Isn’t Anything, but I did just find the Geek! EP on Youtube, which actually has kind of gothy-sounding (and understandable) vocals on it, and that is closer to what I thought My Bloody Valentine might sound like. Still, not quite as “dark” as I’d imagine with the name, but closer.

The Pixies
Grateful Dead
Skinny Puppy
The New Pornographers
Widespread Panic
Panic! At the Disco
Cinderella

Squirrel Nut Zippers? Not a clue.

Alice Cooper sounds like a female folk singer, but the name was deliberately misleading.

The Darkness.

I would have expected them to be Elvis impersonators.

When I first heard of the Average White Band, I had no idea they performed funk and R&B.

The Presidents of the United States of America
Pearl Jam
The Police
Sting
Cream

The Old 97s are an alt-country band, but for me the name always conjures up something like “The Good Old Boys” from the Blues Brothers, a bunch of fat old guys in matching western shirts.

Never heard of them – to me the name comes across as maybe some old timey throwback rock and roll band or a rockabilly band. Alt-country band, though sounds close enough to me.

I appreciate the explanation, though. A lot of the bands listed, for me, do not conjure up a strong vision of their sound in the first place. For example, The Police sound like it could be any of a wide range of bands. It could be a modern-day indie rock band, or it could be the reggae-and-punk influenced rock band they were.

So I’m also curious about what kind of music you expect, given the name.

That’s a good one. I recorded and toured briefly with a Hungarian indie rock/indie pop band named “Amber Smith” that was named because the Hungarian singer thought it sounded like the name of a singer-songwriter “woman and a guitar” type of artist, and wanted the name to subvert expectations. (Turned out there actually was a semi-famous soft porn actress named “Amber Smith” in the US, as well, but that is just coincidence. He did not name it after her.)

The Ramones doesn’t tell you anything about the band. If you had been judging from recent history, you would have been thinking Partridge Family, Osmonds, Jacksons…

j

Incubus sounds like they should be a metal band.

10,000 Maniacs
Fine Young Cannibals