one of the stupider list post ideas I've come up with but for some reason I was thinking about it last night and only came up with 2. I know there must be more out there.

jello biafra

>jello biafra

the first being the German spelling of the city name, the second I stumbled on accidentally via Google whilst trying to remember Tokio Hotel's name.

and I guess w/o scrutinizing I would have thought that 'De La ___' had been incorporated into English enough not to be considered 'foreign.' But nope... 'a la ___' probably, though, but they're not A La Soul.

Plus there's also the fact that they felt compelled to tell us what it meant in one of their tunes!

>Plus there's also the fact that they felt compelled to tell us
>what it meant in one of their tunes!

...when he saw the name, lol, here's the a piece of an interview he said it from:

Afrika: The first time I heard of De La Soul was funny. I was sitting in Red ‘s room, and he had demo tapes and acetates. I would listen to records as they came in, and he’d ask me what I thought of them. And, like, he had this cassette, and I remember it clearly. It had this blue sticker over the whole cassette, and it said ‘De La Soul’. We had just gotten back from England, this was in September, and I’m saying to myself, ‘De La Soul? What is this? Is this a Latin rap group?’ And I’m gonna tell you: instinctively – and it might have been to my own ignorance, because there was a rapper I think in one of these old school groups who was Hispanic – but I was like, ‘It’s too soon for that. Why would somebody try to go there?’ And I put the tape in and it was Plug Tunin’. And I’m like, ‘Oh, they’re not Puerto Rican! This is cool.’ That’s how prejudiced the average rapper might have been! The new rappers, not the old school rappers. And the purists might have been by that point. We wasn’t accepting west coast, we wasn’t accepting European rappers, we wasn’t accepting commercial rap, we wasn’t accepting Latino rap. So I put it in, and I was like, ‘Oh, Plug Tunin‘! I know that beat, that’s a cool beat. It’s different.’ So that was the intro to me.

(assuming, of course, correct tonal inflection most likely not exhibited in their pronunciation of their own name in their sole hit)

Okay, the Wiki tells me two things:

1. The name Wang Chung was summarized by the band early on saying the definition was "perfect pitch" and later, on American Bandstand, they claimed it was the sound a guitar made.

2. They had five chart hits. Huh?

okay, and a third thing: FOR SOME REASON THE CARS WERE THE OPENING BAND FOR WANG CHUNG'S 1984 TOUR.

WTF?

Wang Chung isn't worthy of sloppy seconds on Rik Okasek's groupies. That's just bizarre.

and cosign the sentiments in lonesome_d's reply

though that's certainly a worthwhile head scratching adjunct.

Anyway the classic imho is Yo La Tengo. I once had a girlfriend reach for that thinking she was getting some Latin music. She was very confused as it came on but I think we wound up enjoying Surfing with the Shah together.

I picked up one of their CDs on spec when I was getting heavily into Latin stuff.

No harm done, though... I worked at the record store so I could return it if it didn't work out, but I actually ended up liking it!

Yo La Tengo, and Los Campesinos!


http://funkmass.com

but I'm not sure if Straitjacket is a legitimate word in Spanish.

*edit* whether or not it's accurate, I also tend to think of the Tijuana Brass as having a vague mariachi influence. Probably wrong, though... it's been years since I've bothered listening in an attempt to figure out why someone seems to have carpet bombed all the $1 bins with their records.

There are no mexicans/latinos in in that whole ensemble. Same can be said for A&M labelmates Baja Marimba Band, which is basically the TJB without Herb although he still had a hand in producing it. The whole operation made a killing, and HATJB was amongst the most sold records in the 60s only behind Elvis, The Beatles, and Sinatra (explains why you see plenty in the dollar bins).


http://funkmass.com

pronounced raruku an shieru

but apply the kanafication of it and they'll be like OHHHHH, raruku an shieru!

They were pretty big when I was there, along with the more mysteriously named Gley (I always assumed the band's name was Grey, but they always romaji'd it up as GLEY. Noone was ever able to tell me if it meant something. *shrug*)

Then there was Spitz. (I still have a soft spot for the appealingly MOR jangle-pop of 'Sora me toberu hazu' though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqm4qZlEoyk)

*edit* and the short-lived (literally; he committed suicide shortly after formation) Hide & Split Beaver, after X broke up. Seeing TV announcers pronounce that, however butchered, with a stragith face always cracked me way up.

but I'll refrain and suggest you listen to a little Richard Thompson to ease your mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P41Qdkk6OA

just one example

but all their songs are good.

nm

or are primarily noted for non-blues material

Climax Blues Band, I see you.

Ditto for The Blues Project

and yes, I was actually disappointed the first time I saw Blues Traveler that they did not incorporate any blues at all into their sound.

Of course, I was only 18 at the time (jesus, that was now over 20 years ago.)

Ralph Scala-keys & vocals...



http://twitter.com/collazo
http://www.reverbnation.com/livesociety

i was hoping for a funk band. it isn't. not by any stretch of the imagination.

They were not a funk band, sure, but pretty damn groovy at times and clearly inspired by contemporary funk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myGbLRWFlBY

I LOVE that band up to '73 or so...

The fact that the group's name is in French makes no sense, especially considering they were sponsored by the Bulgarian state.

Marcel Cellier, Swiss music producer, discovers the beauty of Bulgarian folk songs, folk singers, their unique voices and choral skills and in 1975 releases his first album – Volume I which he called “Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares”(The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices). The album soon became a best seller. In 1987 was made Volume II which earned in 1990 to Marcel Cellier and this choir which is the main performer on the album, the American “Grammy Award”. It was at that time that the choir was called “Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares”.

They were originally called The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir (but in Bulgarian) up to that point.

But Jay Electronica does sound like he should be a House DJ from Belfast or something.

if we just want to make it about grossly misleading names in general

i don't care, it's a free for all.

daft punk, air, phoenix

all french bands.

other than the name already being used by other artists?

phoenix is a word in French of very longstanding.

In fact I believe Jean de la Fontaine used it in th17th century in one of his fables I had to memorize in high school.

Et alors, si votre rammage rapporte a votre plumage, vous ete le PHOENIX des hotes de ces bois!

(I dunno how to do the special keys for accent marks, so my apologies. Also I'm not googling to make sure my facts and quote are correct - this is how I remember it though.)

phoenix?

um

merde.

you might be right about Phoenix though, as it may be Phenix in French with the egu over the e.

*shrug*

no? me neither, at least for anything beyond the name. But this is what they looked like: http://www.musicmayhem.com/mattk3.jpg

yeah.


And keeping it with Kicks, there was a late 90s indie band called the French Kicks there too. They were not French.

the MC

but in keeping w/ yours, Hanoi Rocks

also: Spread Beaver is the name you meant earlier

>the MC
>
>but in keeping w/ yours, Hanoi Rocks

again I remember the name but nothing else.

>also: Spread Beaver is the name you meant earlier

either way, it remains humorous as the kanafied pronunciation of 'biibaa' is the same for both Beaver and BIEBER. Probably some good hilarity going on in the gaijin community over Bieber photo spreads and whatnot over the past year.

I'd forgotten that you have a thing for X, don't you?

Also, sorry to read you're going through some shit. This seems to have been a lousy winter for most people. Hope everything smooths out.

>either way, it remains humorous as the kanafied pronunciation
>of 'biibaa' is the same for both Beaver and BIEBER. Probably
>some good hilarity going on in the gaijin community over
>Bieber photo spreads and whatnot over the past year.

ha


>I'd forgotten that you have a thing for X, don't you?

yeah. i had a friend in high school who had a "thing" for all things japanese and especially X and hide. i have a dub i made of his spread beaver cassette, and i made my own original artwork for it as i did for my CD-R copy of his 'art of life' by X.

this same friend and i made plans back in high school to do a project under the name y-japan, and if i do get into making music, that is something i plan to bring into fruition.


>Also, sorry to read you're going through some shit. This seems
>to have been a lousy winter for most people. Hope everything
>smooths out.

thanks. it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

The New York Dolls of the 80's and IMO better than Guns&Roses...

They weren't that good.

.

and wu-tang definitely had some kung-fu influence even if on just a superficial level when they first dropped.

Veteran power-metal band, not very asian-sounding...

Timbuktu-popular Swedish rap-veteran (and no, it's not his real name). He has actually gone in a "world music" direction (example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv759wmsSFk ) in the past decade but still...

Nile-duh! While they play many middle-eastern-esque scales in their songs, it's still an enormous stretch to say that stuff like this sounds egyptian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p7saPx6NnU