Yeasayer, The Cribs, Ministry Of Sound

Artrockers,
what's in a name? Would a rose by any other name smell so sweet? Can you judge a band by its name? It's certainly true that the naming of bands is about the most painful part of the 'forming a band' process, get it wrong and your screwed. Form a Folk band called Cancer Ward, Infernal Death or MC Yardee and you may experience a little difficulty in getting a gig on the 'finger in the ear' circuit. And then you run the risk of thinking up a great band name only to find out that there's a band with that moniker residing in Utah; they haven't released a record for ten years but that doesn't matter, should you ever head out stateside you'll be adding 'UK' to your name, and the only thing UK spells is 'uk!'
Where am I going with this? Well, have a little patience and I'll tell you: Last night I was driving home from a New Heavy Sounds gig at the Gaff with wonderful Radio 1 as company (note to self, must get DAB for the car so I don't have to listen to wonderful Radio 1), mein host was that northern geezer who used to present Sound, you know him, sounds like a member of The Cribs so is probably from Wigan. After a couple of tracks of inconsequential nonsense (wonderful Radio 1) he announced that he was now going to play a track from the most talked about band today - Yeasayer. "Aha!" I thought to myself, "he's right they are the most talked about band today", which is why I've avoided them like the clap, that and the fact that, to me at least, in my delusional state, the name shouted 'prog doom metal' (and yes, I'm sure such a genre exists) from Brooklyn, which is, of course, a ridiculous concept, like Country and Western from The Bronx (oh, hang on a minute, I think they call that Alt Country...). So I turned up the radio and apologised in advance to my companion that this was going to be "a bit heavy and maybe just a tad pretentious". She smiled sweetly, touched my hand and said: "Of course you're not Dear." "Not me, the music" I rejoined, slightly miffed, "Have a listen." And we did, we listened to the new Yeasayer single that the northern chappie was getting Pavlovian about, and, dear reader, we couldn't believe our ears. It turns out that Yeasayer are traders in inconsequential pop froth, they are, in fact, the new Scissor Sisters...like one wasn't enough. Yeasayer? Camp disco? How does that work?
I felt like such a fool, the evening was ruined, my companion cooly asked to be dropped off at her place and, on leaving, slammed the car door just a little too hard.
And I have learned a lesson: what's in a name? Nowt!

PS: I see The Ministry Of Sound is under threat. There is good news out there after all.