Re: Oh, no no, you're not calling yourself *that*!

Bands who changed their name for the U.S. (or some other) market.

The Angels/Angel City
Flowers/Icehouse
Yazoo/Yaz

I know there are a lot of others, but those are the only three I can think of at the moment. (My apologies if this thread has been done before.)

The Swedish psych rock band Silverbullit changed their name to Citizen Bird for what is as far as I know their only U.S. release.

I can name an example, uh, such as ...
... in the United Kingdom, The Chameleons UK are better known as The Chameleons.

Corect Spelling/Cold Fish

'80s British pop band. Suspect the name change was prompted by fears that international listeners wouldn't get the joke.

The Beat/English Beat

Didn't most of the major record labels tack on "U.K." at the end of band names in the 1980's? Chameleons U.K., The Mission U.K., Wham! U.K., etc.

More recently, there's also The Automatic/Automatic Automatic. Now, that's an easy way to Google-proof your band.

The U.K. ending was when a band with a similar name already existed in the U.S.

There were two bands named Berlin that appeared in the early 1980s, one in Canada and one in the U.S. The American one was known as Berlin (USA) in Canada, although, since they were from the West Coast, someone suggested they should be known as West Berlin, and the Canadian one (from Ottawa) as East Berlin.

Another Ottawa band went from Bugs Harvey Oswald to something like The Soundtastics in trying to break into the U.S. market. The fact that I can't remember their U.S. name tells you how much success that move was met with...

And Bush was known as Bush X when their first album came out in the States,

For reasons I cannot remember, the Comsat Angels had to become the C.S. Angels in the US.

That puzzled me for years, but apparently "comsat" (short for "communication satellite") is a copywritten term. Or at least some lawyer somewhere thought it was.
Also, not because another band had the name:

Kissing The Pink changed their name to KTP, I'm assuming because the original name sounded dirty.

The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy became JBC when they did an Madchester record, for commercial reasons I'm guessing.

The Presley estate made JunkieXL go by the name JXL for the "Little Less Conversation" remix.

Is Lennon Murphy, the Tori Amos of metal, still around and still recording under the name "Lennon"?

I know there was a dust-up a few years back where she was claiming Yoko Ono was suing her to to keep her from using her own name while Yoko was counter-claiming that no, she had no problem with that, but she had big problems with the fact that Murphy was seeking to get or already had gotten the copyright to the name "Lennon" for any musical purposes.

It was a typical "blame Yoko for being horrible when she's just doing something any reasonable person would" controversy, which are always popular with the general public. I don't know what the upshot of it ever was, beyond getting Murphy her first bit of publicity since her debut, which featured the immortal "Property of Goatfucker," came out in 2001 to moderate fanfare and promptly sold three copies worldwide. (In fairness, it was released on 9/11, which was a bit of hurdle for any new artist to overcome. I kind of remember actually liking "Property of Goatfucker" though I can't remember at all what it sounded like.)

Julian Lennon was quick to side with Murphy because A) he'll side with anyone badmouthing Yoko and it's not as if there was much chance of him ever using the name "Lennon" for any musical purposes in the future, at least none that anyone would ever notice.

Edit: Hmmm, I see on Wikipedia that she's still out there and seems to have won the lawsuit with Yoko, apparently because she already had the copyright before Yoko noticed and the court saw no reason to overturn it. Furthermore, she "left" Arista Records of her own accord (sure she did) and began releasing albums on her own label, John Galt Entertainment.

So fuck her. Anyone who would name their record label John Galt Entertainment is by definition an asshole. What a good Objectivist she is, copyrighting someone else's famous name then howling that she's being persecuted when a lesser being takes issue with it.



Post Edited (06-25-14 19:03)

I think a subject like this has come up before, cuz I remember writing about how the Bangs had to change their name to The Bangles, and someone else here heard that it wasn't because there was another Bangs as much as the fact that "Bangs" sounded too sexual. But that would require me searching the archives...



Post Edited (06-26-14 14:12)

Quote

"... it wasn't because there was another Bangs as much as the fact that "Bangs" sounded too sexual."

Yes. "Bangs" is much too suggestive. Wouldn't you agree Miss Scrumpti--

The Raped/Cuddly Toys

Quote

Is Lennon Murphy, the Tori Amos of metal, still around and still recording under the name "Lennon"?

Wait.

I thought Y Kant Tori Read ...

...was the Tori Amos of Metal.

.
.
.

(((Consults with the Appropriate Authority)))



"THOUGH MARKETED AS A VIXENISH ROUGE-AND-HAIRSPRAY METAL BABE, YKTR’S MUSIC IS AN ARTLESS PLUNDER OF MID-‘80s COMMERCIAL POP, FROM TRUE BLUE-PERIOD MADONNA (“COOL ON YOUR ISLAND,” “FLOATING CITY”) TO PAULA ABDUL (“FAYTH”) AND EVEN SOUR HINTS OF HEART AND BON JOVI!”

.
.
.

Heart? Bon Jovi?

I think I see now. Y Kant Tori Read was actually The Tori Amos of False Metal.

.
.
.

Which leads me to (of course) ...





Seriously? There are Heavy Metal Fatwas? Who knew?

I cannot ever in good conscious condone calls for violence between schismatic metal bands over what is ultimately a mere doctrinal dispute.

.
.
.

That's right. I refuse to support fundametalism.

James Chance

James White & the Blacks. Either way it's cool beans.


John Cougar

John Cougar Mellencamp

John Mellencamp. Ya, seriouser and seriouser.


Prince

Prince Matchabelli

Artist formerly known as Prince

back to Prince. The switcheroos were fun while it lasted.



Puff Daddy

P. Diddy

Piddy

P'shaw get the fuck outta here.


Stalk-Forrest Group

Soft White Underbelly

Blue Oyster Cult. Now that's perfection.



Post Edited (06-25-14 20:41)

Dinosaur/Dinosaur Jr. (after a bunch of old-timers named the Dinosaurs noted they had some "issues" with the younger band's name)

Red Cross/Redd Kross

Salvation Army/The 3:00

Chunk/Superchunk

Little Bo Bitch/The Lonely Boys

And didn't Comsat/C.S. Angels change their name to Dream Command for an album before going back to their original name?

Sherbet - Highway - The Sherbs


And 2 bands that tried to cash-in on punk in the late '70s

Supernaut - The Nauts

The Silver Studs - The Studs

Apples had to append Apples (in stereo) but were still known locally as just Apples