Wednesday, March 19, 2008

That's Just Ridiculous



Gadzooks! Jumpin' Jehosaphat! And other silly exclamations!! Another Contrast Podcast episode is upon us, and this week we see how many ridiculous band names our contributors can come up with. Hint: it's quite a few, and you can hear them all by downloading the 'cast here. Herewith the tomfoolery:

(00:00) Honest Bob and the factory to dealer incentives - All of the cool girls
Tim from The face of today

(03:46) The Fire Hydrant Men featuring The Fabulous Fezettes - I’m in the pits since my racing driver baby left me
Dirk from Sexy Loser

(07:29) Splodgenessabounds - Michael Booth’s talking bum
Conrad from White Car Records

(11:14) Half Man Half Biscuit - Joy Division oven gloves
FiL from Pogoagogo

(16:18) The The - Slow emotion reply
Marcy from Lost in your inbox

(20:43) The Monsoon Bassoon - The king of evil
Chris from Phosphorous.net

(27:23) Someone still loves you Boris Yeltsin - Anne elephant
Linda from Speed of dark

(32:43) Flock of Seagulls - I ran (so far away) (die krupps remix)
ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away

(36:45) Double Fish - Clockwork toy
Eiron from A Blog of No Importance

(40:08) Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club - Prosthetic Brain
Alex from Totally True Tales from Texas

(43:54) Harry and The Potters - Cornelius Fudge is an ass
James from Appetite For Distraction

(46:13) Dogs Die in Hot Cars - Apples and oranges
SiD from Too Much Rock

(51:36) On this day we met Gambas Pil Pil - When no-one is around
JC from The Vinyl Villain

(58:49) Prince boo hoo and his little smuts - Rhinestone Cowboy
Adam

Half Man Half Biscuit was first to spring to mind when I found out about the theme, and I went with them because a) the name IS ridiculous, but b) the tunes are grand. You see, I didn't want to actually serve up a crap tune. Dearest Dirk from Sexy Loser (N.B. now added, albeit very belatedly, to the blogroll) was concerned that any band submitted this week would automatically be portrayed in a negative light, but I'm not so sure I agree with that. There are plenty of ridiculously named groups who pump out righteous music. Why, just look at what else I considered:

Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong - Sleazy Hughes (buy here )
I mean, how SHITE is that name? Come on, tell me. You can't? Well, let me tell you, it's as shite as shite can be. But Sleazy Hughes is a prickly pear of frantic pop pleasure, and the lads look pretty sharp. Pop over here to see what Dearest Toad had to say about then live in concert.

Kajagoogoo - Too Shy (buy here )
Er, heh, heh, guilty pleasure alert. That hair! The eightiesness oozing from every pore!! And yes, a ree-dee-cue-lus name. They're touring again, if you're keen..

Throbbing Gristle - Zyklon B Zombie (buy here)
I've loved that silliest of band names since the first time I heard it. And I've developed a soft spot for the sonic trials wrought by the promethean Genesis P Orridge and his muckers. I considered posting here Very Friendly, a detailed, 18+ minute, scary-as-fuck masterpiece recounting Ian Brady's and Myra Hindley's axe murder of Edward Evans. But then I thought that'd be a bit much, so I went for this charming ditty about, er, gas chambers. But I promise you, if hear Very Friendly you'll never drink a glass of German wine again without thinking of it...

2 comments:

Dirk said...

Actually, dearest Fil, the point I was trying to make is that one shouldn't under any circumstances whatsoever put the allmighty Half Man Half Biscuit into a context which heads under 'ridiculous': they are of course the living proof for the very fact that bands with silly names don't automatically write silly tunes. The same is true for the excellent Joe Lean featured above, by the way. But whilst going through my record collection in order to find a playable tune from a band with a ridiculous name, I learnt that 99% of the songs by those bands were utter crap: just like their names. Blame it on my record collection, if you want to ... and now go ahead and find an even halfway decent song by Kajagoogoo to prove me wrong!

Cheers,

Dirk

btw.: hats off for putting Sexyloser on your blogroll: highly appreciated!

FiL said...

Dearest JC: I found the ticket generator online over here. And did I really confess my love for Haysi Fantayzee over a plate of strangled priests??

Dearest Dirk: I think we're on the same side of he coin regarding ridiculous names & excellent music. As for Kajagoogoo, it's all got to do with time & place & context. I'll say no more lest I incriminate myself...