Jude the Unobscure

by Lydia Pudzianowski in Opinion Posts

After a long hiatus (and one blog), your favorite post-grad is back for some guaranteed Sunday blogging. Now that I have a BA in writing from the University of Pittsburgh, I’m qualified to do this (apparently that’s it though, as no one wants to hire me).
Recently though, I was browsing a site I use to get free mp3s legally (rcrdlbl.com, because I still can’t download with a clear conscience). As I went through the artists on the site, I remembered something that pisses me off really badly: when bands name themselves after something they think is obscure but isn’t at all. (Worse is if they know it’s not but do it anyway.) The groups on rcrdlbl are listed in alphabetical order, and it only took until AB to annoy me. I came across a song by Abe Vigoda. Because the band is called that, it’s guaranteed that I’ll never listen to one of their songs. Abe Vigoda is a person, not a band. But wait—it is a band.
I can’t be the only person bothered by this. Like when Pretty Girls Make Graves came out, and I thought of the Smiths and now can think of nothing else when I hear that band name. Really, is “Meat is Murder” that far in the past that sub-par bands can start naming themselves after its tracks? I actually don’t even know if the band is any good, because I can’t listen to them. Ditto Charlotte Sometimes and Uh Huh Her. That album just came out, didn’t it? (Quick fact check reveals it was released in 2005, which to me constitutes “just”.)

Also unacceptable are bands that vary names of famous people to be totally hilarious, like Dananananaykroyd. Again, I could care less if their music sounds like the Beatles having a collective orgasm—I’ll never know. (Gnarls Barkley is an obvious exception.) A band like Ringo Deathstarr is a tough call, as that’s my childhood in a name that also appeals to my love of cheeseball wordplay.

Basically, if you want me to listen to your band, don’t call it Judy and the Dream of Horses.