Symbolic interaction: Bands that don’t need the #@**! alphabet
!!!
Thanks to the Internet’s prominent role in our music-discovery process, the hottest band names aren’t rolling off the tongues of radio DJs (or even MTV VJs) anymore. That’s okay though, since so many modern acts seem to have resorted to high-ASCII antics and the misuse of all kinds of non-alphabetical symbols to create confusing and impossible-to-pronounce monikers. In honor of !!!’s appearance tonight at the Fox Theatre, The A.V. Club reviews some of the band names that refuse to be limited by the usual 26 characters.
!!!
Pronunciation: “Chk Chk Chk,” or any other monosyllabic word in triplicate
Letter of introduction: Realizing that punks love to get drunk and boogie down just like everybody else, !!!’s eight-man lineup helped usher in the dance-punk craze of the early ’00s. Although most of its contemporaries danced their way into irrelevance long ago, !!! keeps the party going, dropping Strange Weather, Isn’t It? just a few weeks ago on Warp.
Worth the mouthful? !!!’s name is a visual representation of its high-energy rock, and with Strange Weather, the act has made the jump from one-dimensional funk-punk to something infinitely more sophisticated (though still just as fun).
Pronunciation: None, though during that period Prince was referred to most often as “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.”
Letter of introduction: When Prince and Warner Bros. clashed over contractual issues and trademark disputes, Prince did what any self-respecting sex-funk deity would do: He changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in protest. He tied his identity to the glyph for seven years, releasing a single, equally unpronounceable eponymous album (fans call it Love Symbol) to usher in his entry into the post-linguistic era.
Worth the mouthful? Prince’s hyperactive legal team was sure a heck of a lot more interesting when he was fighting for his identity against a record company rather than suing half the Internet for posting photographs of him.
(-0-)
Pronunciation: TIE Fighter
Letter of introduction: Not to be confused with emo-core band Tiefighter, this Chicago post-rock outfit strung a bunch of mathematical characters together to make a text drawing of the TIE fighters flown by Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. When set next to its meandering drone-rock, the outfit looks as if it spent all its meager inspiration coming up with its character-art name.
Worth the mouthful? Lucasfilm’s intellectual property lawyers are bound to come knocking if (-0-) ever makes it big—yeah, like that’s going to happen.
GL▲SS †33†H
Pronunciation: Glass Teeth
Letter of introduction: With industrial acts like Leæther Strip and :wumpscut: already paving the weird-name way, it was only a matter of time before a gang of darkwave dance DJs tried to cast off the alphabet altogether. GL▲SS †33†H dabble in vintage synths, laptop drones, and the melodrama that comes with the price of entry into the microscopic witch-house scene in which GL▲SS †33†H finds itself. Spooky stuff, this is—so long as you’re easily frightened.
Worth the mouthful? Don’t bother unless you’re one of those who spends Sunday nights in goth clubs trying to convince yourself that you really, truly are a vampire.
? And The Mysterians
Pronunciation: Question Mark And The Mysterians
Letter of introduction: Although ? And The Mysterians’ name is pretty tame by today’s typographical train-wreck standards, you have to admire their singer’s commitment: Dude legally changed his name to ?. The admiration doesn’t stop there, as the band’s biggest hit, “96 Tears,” with its farfisa organ riff, hit No. 1 in 1966 and has since become a touchstone in garage-rock culture.
Worth the mouthful? There’s a reason we’re slightly struggling to pronounce ?’s name 44 years after “96 Tears” broke: It’s a bona-fide classic.
oOoOO
Pronunciation: Who knows? Discourse about oOoOO is confined strictly to the typed world of the blogosphere.
Letter of introduction: Another of those witch-house electronic bands that crawled out of the woodwork this summer, oOoOO combines icy synths and deliberately plodding, programmed beats as it introduces the cool-kids generation to the creepy-crawly sounds of post-industrial gothic dance and ridiculous typography in one fell swoop.
Worth the mouthful? Not if you’re previously familiar with London After Midnight and Front Line Assembly.
Sunn O)))
Pronunciation: Sun
Letter of introduction: You have to be either seriously in love with your gear or desperately fishing for an endorsement deal to swipe your band name from the logo on your amp. Considering Sunn O)))’s mass-market potential—it plays an amalgam of drop-tuned death-metal and ambient noise-rock, held together with experimental glue—the duo’s almost certainly just worshipping the full stack.
Worth the mouthful? It’s not often that a band can combine black-metal with a progressive streak, so however Sunn O))) decides to write out its name is fine with us.
