We used to be a proper industry (uhh, citation needed). Where once bands were called things like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Does It Offend You, Yeah? (not to mention later-castrated monikers like Say Hi to Your Mom and Now, Now Every Children), now we seemingly have an endless revolving door of songwriters releasing music under their biblically common first names (usually in all caps, as if that makes it OK?). I’ve riffed on this phenomenon before (more times than was really necessary), and our contributors have even had a hard time holding their tongues, but after the whole Goose/Geese fiasco came along (this tweet has been helpful)—to say nothing of becoming aware of Foy Vance and Vance Joy or MUNA and MUNYA or Dayglow and Day Wave around the same time, or Sessa, Messa, and Dessa all releasing music last year—this bit is slowly pivoting to a legitimate cry for help.
I think maybe it was the moment I realized I was getting a Brazilian bossa nova artist, an Italian doom metal band, and a Minneapolis rapper mixed up that I started taking down notes on similarities among recurring names in my inbox, creating a list that ballooned over the course of 2023—even looking beyond artists like Courtney Barnett and the oddly similar Barns Courtney who are established enough that the difference seems clear, or the small revival of the late-’00s fad of punning on celebrity names (it should be noted that Lana Del Rey and Lana Del Rabies did happen to release albums within a week of each other this year; though I can’t imagine Nmesh’s adoption of the Oblivia Rodingo moniker at the end of the summer was a coincidence). Or that mom celebrity name translator thing where a name like Caleb Lee Hutchinson scans to me as a confidently misremembered “Christian Lee Hutson.”
But 2023 felt like a different beast entirely, with press cycles for Truth Club and Truth Cult and Swim Camp and Swim Club (not to mention Swarm Comp) coinciding, or Microwave and Microwaves sharing a timeline—there were even two things called “Chandra” (new-wave-child-star-turned-We-Are-Time-co-label-head and Bristol-based pop-rock outfit). And don’t even get me started on the single-syllable band names that are only a letter off. (If you did get me started I would probably list a bunch of names like Belly and Bully, Cuco and Coco (and that isn’t even Clair Clair’s “Coco”), GALE and GAYLE, GHÖSH (now defunct) / GOSHI (skincare brand releasing its debut single), Hurry and Durry, Martha and Marthe, Native Sun and Native Son, Oneida and OneDa, Rosalía and Rosali, Samia and Samiam, Smidley and Smiley, Tems and Temps, Teni and Tenci, Travis and Trevis, or Worriers and Gurriers (eh, closed enough). But again, I won’t get started.)
Without further headache, considering we have a long list ahead of us, here are 54 more of the most dizzying (not to be confused with dazying or bizzying) examples of two (or more) artists occupying too similar of a nominal space for me to not say anything about it.
AJJ / JJ and the A’s
This one’s just downright cruel—it very nearly falls into the “Lana Del Rabies” category, but the latter doesn’t seem like an intentional interpolator of the former, so I’m including it here. (Side note: we have to deal with something called AJR now, too?)
Albert Hammond Jr. / Albert Hammond
This one is obviously less coincidental and more nepotistic, but I didn’t really expect to see new music from the latter ’70s soft-rock figure in my inbox in 2023, let alone around the same time his son was mass releasing his own singles.
Alex G / Aly G
While Alex G hasn’t done anything nearly as headline-grabbing as shaking his butt really weirdly to his own music in 2023 beyond dropping a live album and getting the drill interpolation treatment, the Brooklyn rapper could’ve at least waited until the God Save the Animals album cycle was firmly over with to release her debut single. I think this also may be Ali G erasure, but maybe that’s for the best.
Alvvays / All Tvvins
There was very much a moment when a bunch of bands were doing the double-V thing (thanks, Wavves), but for a long time it seemed like Alvvays had survival-of-the-fittest-ed the others out of the picture. Clearly doesn’t help that the latter Irish duo’s name begins with “Al” and ends plurally.
Amaarae / Amaara
Without looking it up, which one of these two achieved Best New Music on that other site?
Aminé / AMÉMÉ
OK, but can AMÉMÉ jailbreak the Tesla?
Beabadobee / Babebee
This one operates under the assumption that none of us are even reading the names of new artists anymore. It’s like that thing where the kid in your third grade class just quietly mumbles the word he doesn’t immediately recognize when he’s popcorn reading.
Benee / Benét
I’ve been pronouncing both of these like “beret” in my head all year, though 2023 was also the year I learned the hard way (i.e. in front of a crowd of people younger than me) that Bladee isn’t pronounced “Blah-day.”
Big Thief / Little Thief
I’m not finding evidence of the latter band existing before 2020, and if you’re gonna call yourselves this after the song “Not” has already been released you’d better be either a tribute band or a parody project.
Blxckie / B L A C K I E
For a while I think B L A C K I E officially went by “B L A C K I E (All Caps No Spaces).” I feel like if Blxckie was feeling experimental he could switch to “Blxckie (But the A Is an X).”
Braid / Braids
We had a mixup earlier this year when I accidentally assigned a reviewer the new Braids LP when they were actually pitching a Braid reissue. Didn’t help that Broods—a band whose singer released a debut project as Georgia Gets By around the same time a new Georgia album dropped—was the band I actually had in mind when ideating that assignment.
Budgie / Budgie
FLOOD would like to take this opportunity to formally apologize to Budgie (Navy Blue producer) for all the times we accidentally tagged him on social media for his involvement in that Lol Tolhurst project.
Bygones / The Bygones
Well, technically Bygones have been bygone since 2010, but now that Nick Reinhart has officially joined Death Grips’ live band (to say nothing of whatever Undo K From Hot is/was all about) I’m gonna go ahead and rule that they’re active.
Can’t Swim / Barry Can’t Swim
Damn, just needlessly putting Barry on blast.
CHAI / CHAII
CHAII? Like the sequel to CHA I? CHA II?
Chiiild / Childe
I take it “Child” was taken?
David Byrne / David Borné
Pretty sure David Borné was one of the guys who interviewed David Byrne at the end of Stop Making Sense.
Dinner Party / The Last Dinner Party
This one’s unique among this list in that every time I got emailed about The Last Dinner Party with an all-caps subject line I was convinced that that Robert Glasper project was calling it quits. (While the table’s already set, see also: Diners and DINER)
Eli Winter / Eli Winders
When my friends and I played through Resident Evil 8 a few years ago we set the gameplay language to Italian because the game takes place in Eastern Europe and that seemed like the closest thing to a reasonable accent substitute they had. “Winders” is kind of like how the villain pronounced Ethan Winters’ surname.
Fat Tony / Fat Nick
Neither of which, it should be noted, is the guy who co-founded Codefendants.
Field of Flames / Field of Fear
I don’t know if I can explain this but there could be a SoCal ambient project called “Field of Flames” but there could never be a SoCal hardcore group called “Field of Fear.”
Flesh Narc / Fish Narc
I can’t tell which of these saw the other’s name and said “How can I make this sound slightly grosser?”
Glasser / Glassio
Another mixup with the same Braid reviewer; this time, though, he was actually thinking of the alt-metal band Glassing.
God Is War / God of War
Thank god the latter is a side-project of They Are Gutting a Body of Water, permitting my mnemonic device “They Are Godding a Body of War-ter” to help me with this.
Groupthink / grouptherapy.
Certainly doesn’t help that there was a new Grouplove LP this year as well.
Guerilla Toss / Giulia Tess
I can’t tell what accent you’d need to have to cause confusion when pronouncing either of these out loud.
Hit-Boy / Hitkidd
I think Hit-Boy’s been around long enough that we can start calling him Hit-Man now, effectively clearing this one up.
Hum / Humm
I feel like the naming approach here is like when the screen name you wanted was already chosen so you just keep hitting the key for the last character until something was available.
J.I.D. / No I.D.
I don’t actually get these two mixed up, I just thought it would be funny to include!
Jay Wood / JayWood
This is like forming a band now and calling it Loves Lies Crushing or AndYouWillKnowUsByTheTrailOfDead.
I’m not saying every artist on this list should consider tweaking their moniker and drawing attention to the change within their IG handle, but I’m also not not saying they should do that.
Kate Pierson / Katy J Pearson
I guess the latter would be a prime candidate to front your B-52’s cover band.
Kilimanjaro / Kilamanzego
I’m trying to think of a joke that incorporates the Hemingway short story collection The Snows of Kilimanjaro and something about killing a man’s ego, gimme a sec.
Lizzo / Lizzie No
Turns out “Lizzo” is short for “Lizzie, no, don’t cite known serial abuser Chris Brown as, quote, ‘[your] favorite person in the whole fucking world!’”
Los Bitchos / Les Biches
The weirdest part is that neither of these band names translates to “the bitches” in the respective languages their articles indicate.
LUCY / LUCI / LUCKI
It’s like the evolution of a Pokémon or something.
Lync / Lynks
I give it two more years before I have to write another list like this with artists called, like…“LINK” and “Lynxxx” on it.
MIKE / mike.
If this wasn’t the case before this second Mike showed up you’ll need to yell the former’s name from now on to clarify. And I guess for the latter you’ll need to speak in sentence fragments when you mention him.
Mondo Drag / Molly Drag
The Mondo Burger to Michael Hansford’s Good Burger.
Sort of a Jason Williams/Jayson Williams situation here—not sure which one, metaphorically speaking, has a murderous crossover and which one has a manslaughter conviction.
Nisa / Nissi / Niia / NYSSA
Joint tour when?
Noname / Neonme
Almost an anagram. Instead it’s like that uncanny-valley thing where I’m typing so fast that I butcher a word but leave it to fix later, only when I return it’s just unfamiliar enough that I don’t remember what I was trying to write.
Open Mike Eagle / Mike Gale
This one’s for the true heads who know that OME’s moniker is a portmanteau for the thing he’s good at and his actual given name.
Osees / The Sees
Another one that feels inordinately cruel, considering John Dwyer tweaks his band’s name with nearly every release.
PAINT / MSPAINT
The Allah-Las guy should’ve just joined MSPAINT, they still need a guitarist.
PJ Harvey / PJ Harding
I know that PJ Harding can’t help being called that. I also know that PJ Harding couldn’t help PJ Harvey overshadowing his debut EP release cycle. Sometimes these things are inevitable.
RiTchie / RiTcH
My guy is literally copying the solo moniker of the Injury Reserve emcee down to a very intentionally capitalized tee.
Slow Pulp / High Pulp
This one would probably get a pass if they weren’t literally both signed to ANTI- Records.
Sole / SOLE
The emergence of the Swedish ambient artist only complicates my years-long (and, lately, losing) battle to keep a picture of the ex-Anticon rapper of the same name—rather than a K-pop star evidently also of the same name—as the top voted image on their shared Last.fm page. Speaking of Anticon, I assume the press release I recently got about a new ALIAS single (all caps; FFO LCD Soundsystem) isn’t from the late Anticon co-founder, while “Beans” no longer seems to predominantly refer to the Antipop Consortium guy who released a record on the label.
Thank You, I’m Sorry / thanks for coming
Back to my original point, I guess even the fairly specifically named groups can have some overlap. Based on their monikers both bands seem like they’d be polite enough to change their name next time they share a release date.
Vacations / No Vacation
“Vacations” is plural, since you have multiple options—say, a Beach Vacation, or a Lunar Vacation.
Varsity / VRSTY
Taking EDM’s ARMNHMR naming approach here.
Wolves in the Throne Room / Wolves at the Gate
One of the core tenets binding all metal subgenres is evidently a keen awareness of where wolves are at any given time.
Yeat / Yeek
Only one of these monikers refers to what you do when this bitch empty.
((( O ))) / Sunn O)))
If Sunn O))) is just pronounced “sun,” what do we do with ((( O )))?
