google-averse band names
This came up in the office today after I got an invite to a show featuring a band called, wait for it… McDonalds. I would post a link to their Myspace, but I, *ahem*, can’t find it. I think there was an ILM thread on this at one point, but I can’t find it now.
So, here’s what we came up with off-handedly:
X
Girls
Fucked Up
Holy Shit
The The
DD/MM/YY
Women
Woods
Spoon
No Knife
Harvey Milk
The Fall
Stars
Pavement
Interpol
Real Estate
Annie
Why?
Low
The Guess Who
The Clean
Headlights
Heart
Justice
Orange Juice
Wire
Seam
Hole
I think The The wins. The funny thing about coming up with this list of names was typing something like “Why?” into Google and instead of getting, I dunno, a couple of pages of results about philosophical quandaries or silly Yahoo! Answers hits, the first FOUR links actually pertain to the musical artist Why?. A lot of music nerds searching Google these days, I guess!
Got anymore?
!!! is never easy to find. Try typing it into the eMusic search bar.
Haha. I don’t think I’ve ever seen ILX linked from eMusic. I’m all for it.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Also: Studio.
How about fun. ? Google ignores the period, even (use best Snagglepuss voice there).
Therapy?
I hate it when search engines automatically edit your query terms. I’ll often use a space before or after a word to get the isolated term and many search engines will ignore it. Some will even do so when I use quotes. The The was actually really easy to find when quotes were applied.
Television
Sweet
Earth
Doom (not MF Doom, but he’s dropped the prefix)
Iran (on page 2 of the GOOGLE search)
Antena
Strategy
Health
Joker
Scientist
Trinity
Sorcerer
Various (formally “Various Prod.,” which probably is search-able)
Also Condo Fucks, Shit Disco, and the Wu-Tang Clan.
I’ve always loved when bands come up with names like Fucked Up. They are making it clear from the get-go that mainstream success isn’t what they are in it for.
What Wu-Tang?? Really???
also Condo Fucks came right up on the google machine
Was kidding.
Took me a while to find info on the band Canada.
i’ve never had trouble googling commonly-named bands. all you have to do is type “band” with the band name. even typing in “the the band” gets you all the results you need.
pete’s correct (to a point) however that’s not the point of the game
However I would like to point out that if you search “the the band” you do get the the but you also get the “the band” band http://www.thethebandband.com/ :OI
I always thought Gay Beast would return interesting results, but amazingly the top searches are all band-related. I wonder if others with a different search history tied to their IP would return a different result? Google is smarter than we think, and it scares me.
James.
I’m a bit of a fanatic, and it’s not only nearly impossible to Google, but to search general music DBs (like allmusic.com) as well.
bp
I saw a terrific guitarist last year called John Smith. Try Googling that…
Breasts This is actually a wonderful record. Insert your favorite “I like Breasts” joke here.
The Vulva String Quartett is easier to find via the goog than I thought. I also really like this record. The goog do not, alas, show it at emu…although they list it at mspot and Boomkat. Hilarity ensues.
Office was by far the most annoying band name I’d ever looked up when I first tstumbled across them a few years ago.
At least they didn’t name their first LP “Supplies”.
I don’t think they tested their list against google. I randomly picked two to type in: No Knife or X, and the first thing that pops up is the link to the band’s website.
Here’s a few that I tested against google…
Clinic
Crumb
Far
Jellyfish
Karate
Pelicans
Pomegranates
The Sound
Spokane
Stars
TOBACCO
It’s no coincidence that all these names suck.
Worst band name ever for use on the internet:
A
Well, on the plus side, despite having top 10 UK singles, you can never pirate their music on P2P. On the other hand, it’s impossible to find any other information on them…
The Information from Boston and The Movies from LA–both are google-proof.
A couple years ago I remember having a hard time googling The Books, but I just tried again and it looks like better times for those guys, the first few hits are all band-related now.
probably the worst one would be America
The progressive rock band called ’3′ is another one.
Years ago I had a CMJ compilation CD with a fantastic song by a band called My Favorite. They have been impossible to find ever since.
I *LOVE* My Favorite! They have since broken up — some of the members are now in a band called The Secret History. We used to have their EPs on eMusic, but they appear to be gone now.
They were on a label called Double Agent, and there are opportunities to get their records here. Highly, highly recommended!
Add “PDF Format” to that list