Adding 'The' to the front of a band's name: C/D?

dud.

examples: Lilys (fuck you, Sub Pop!!), Clouds (the Australian band, not either of the sucky UK ones)

Only classic in cases where the omission of the 'The' would roll off the tongue really awkwardly (e.g., "I'm looking for Pixies' first EP on vinyl").

Hey, putting a 'The' in front (and an -s in the end) of the name has worked beautifully for an awful lot of people. Just think about The Strokes, The Hives, The Vines, The Bright Eyes, The Limp Bizkits, The No Doubts, The Weens, The David Bowies and The Missy Eliotts ...

I'm all for maintaining the artists vision, but when you
get deeply into music and start exploring hundreds of acts,
it's impossible to remember these things. If in doubt, I
just add "the" cause it almost always sounds better.

what I hate the most is bands who insist on lowercase. that's fucking bullshit. I'm not ever going to start a sentence (for print, y'know, internet...whatev) with a lowercase letter.

Lilys? Sub Pop? What? Did I miss a Lilys fan club meeting?

I like "The"-prefixed band names. I have lots of geeky trivial opinions about it, which I will unload upon you here:

Band names that are single-word plurals (Lilys, Doves, Pixies) I usually assume to start with an implied, lowercase "the". Single-word plural bands that insist that their names don't start with "the" = not quite Dud, but certainly very silly.

Curiously, band names that are multiple-word plurals (Hot Snakes, Archers of Loaf, Silver Jews, Talking Heads) don't really need the implied "the" in front if they don't have one.

Quasi-plural band names whose meanings change when you add a "the" in front = fun! (The Burning Airlines, The Guided By Voices, The Girls Against Boys, The Mouse On Mars)

Putting "the" in front of non-plural band names = of course Classic (The Clash, The American Analog Set, The Dismemberment Plan, The Ex)

Lilys had a single on subpop ("Welfare Murder Plot") that credited the band as "The Lilys", the only record of theirs to do so (as far as I'm aware)..

sometimes definitive article bandnames are cool (eg. The New Year) but not always

Ah, okay. I thought plans for their next album's release had changed and they signed to Sub Pop, or something. Which admittedly would be cool, because I like (the) Lilys.

remember The Sebadoh?

psb own thread !!

they were furious, and rightly so if any flyer, poster or
bit of paper anywhere, ever said 'the' in front of the proper
3 word name.

infamously that ono woman used to say 'beatles' instead of
'the beatles' in business meetings to wind up paul.

I hate the fact that this wave of New! Rock! Revolution! the-bands has ruined the fun in putting "The" in front of band names. Sigh. We dropped our The on the last tour, and became Lollies 3.

It's fun to do it with single syllable bands, though. The Sloan. The Blur. The Ride. Heh.

The Tool.

Dud these days.

If its anybody but Matt Johnson doing it, then: Dud.
But wouldn't The 'The The' rule soundly?

I like it only when it's applied to a singular ... e.g.

The Cream
The Gang of Four
The Prisonshake
The Deep Purple
The Strawberry Alarm Clock

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It should be removed from plurals to make them sound better (most plurals seem to be lame anyway):
Yardbirds
Gin Blossoms
Wallflowers

I finally kicked the habit of calling Buzzcocks "The Buzzcocks".

I think it's strange that some bands start out with "The" at the beginning of their names and then it falls by the wayside. It was weird learning that Pink Floyd were originally The Pink Floyd and Cream were The Cream.

(And I can never remember if it's Boredoms or The Boredoms. I'm guessing the former.)

The Guns & The Roses, I like it.

What about saying "the" in front of a band name that seems to call for it even though you don't mean that the band is called "the" whatever? Scrupulously avoiding the word "the" makes people sound like wankerish rock-snobs.

"I am going to see doves (note lower-case d) tonight"

sounds a bit ridiculous, whereas

"I am going to see Electric Six"

sounds more proper.

Are Prodigy called The Prodigy again or what?