Bands/artists I sometimes get mixed up

[Hot Pepsi]

Some of these confusions don’t make sense:

TV On The Radio and Panic at the Disco

Erasure and the Communards and Bronski Beat

Archers of Loaf and Fountains of Wayne

Guided By Voices and Built to Spill

Placebo and Sebadoh

Spoon and Sponge

When I was young, I mixed up The Cars and The Doors

[Duncan Gardner]

Shakin Stevens, Sufjan Stevens, Norman StJohn Stevas

(the latter not actually a musician- he was a minor Brit politician and supposedly 'constitutional expert', ie drinking buddy of the Queen Mother. The name is pronounced 'Singent' but my Da called him Stinkin Stevens )

[Benjm]

They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies.

[andrew7610]

Blink 182 / Good Charlotte

[diggedy derek]

Barenaked Ladies and Band Of Susans.

[Stumpy Pepys]

I used to get John Cale and JJ Cale mixed up as a youth. Also Cliff Richard and Jimmy Cliff for some reason.

[Jah Womble]

Shakin Stevens, Sufjan Stevens

I’m sure you don’t, sir.

I take it these (apart from andrew’s, which is understandable) are ‘name’ things? Because in most cases, the acts are nothing like each other. (Communards and Bronski Beat obviously featured the same lead singer, however.)

If I’m right, then the ‘Steely Dan/Steeleye Span’-axis was probably the most universal during the seventies - with ‘Bryan Adams/Ryan Adams’ replacing it more recently.

US hardcore act American Headcharge apparently admitted that the group’s name was ‘borrowed’ from Peel-approved psychedelic/dub band African Head Charge. (I’d have sued their sorry asses to kingdom come if I’d been the latter.)

Personally, I get all these briefly-touted bland singer/songwriter-types confused - James Bay/James Morrison, etc. You know the form.

[Sporting]

Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips sometimes blur into each other for me.

[Jah Womble]

That I can see. Lambchop, Smog, Giant Sand and Wilco exist in a similar headspace for me, even though I have CDs by all of them.

Also, Buffalo Tom and Uncle Tupelo, elsewhere. (Even though Jeff Tweedy was in both the latter and Wilco.)

[Sits]

As a boy I conflated Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, Little Feat and Mott the Hoople. Or Mott the Hoopie, which I thought they were called for some years.

Steely Dan and Steeleye Span, obviously.

[Sits]

Cheap Trick and No Dice.

[Sits]

The Orb and Orbital.

[Sits]

Nazareth and Camel.

[Auntie Beryl]

Confusion arose after I stopped paying full attention - so late 90s, early 2000s. Often it's with Uncut-favoured bands.

The Shins <-> Modest Mouse : yes, I know Johnny Marr joined one of them, it didn't help that he was previously in The Smiths and not The Shins...
Grandaddy <-> Lambchop, although I've recently been listening to a lot of the former, so Lambchop are That Band Who Aren't Grandaddy

And, following on from Sits above, Camel and Caravan.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I don't confuse them personally, but having seen both live, I imagine there have been some hilarious mixings-up between Of Monsters & Men and Of Mice & Men.

[Stumpy Pepys]

I have dim memories of mixing up Michael Jackson and Jackson Browne.

[jwdd27]

A mixture of names, looks and sounds for me

Paloma Faith and Pixie Lott

Elbow and Muse

Luther Vandross and Alexander O'Neil

All Saints and Atomic Kitten and The Sugababes and Girls Aloud

Boyzone and Westlife

Busted and McFly (who helpfully merged anyway)

The Cult and The Mission and Sisters of Mercy.

[nmrfox]

Fun Loving Criminals and Fine Young Cannibals.

[3 Colours Red]

Some of these confusions don’t make sense:

TV On The Radio and Panic at the Disco

Stylistically, Panic! At The Disco (damn that exclamation mark!) and Fall Out Boy. I can tell all the other similar groups apart, just not those two.

[San Bernardhinault]

My Chemical Romance
My Morning Jacket
That Petrol Emotion
This Mortal Coil

[Hot Pepsi]

They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies.

Perhaps because they both have done popular theme songs to TV shows. TMBG did Malcom in the Middle and BNL did Big Bang Theory. And both of those particular songs sound like they could have been recorded by the other. But overall, they're very different.

[Hot Pepsi]

Communards and Bronski Beat obviously featured the same lead singer, however
I thought there was some overlap in personnel but wasn't sure.

I also get Erasure and Electronic mixed up sometimes.


I also get Meat Puppets and Butthole Surfers mixed up for some reason.

I also got Pavement mixed up with Tool for some reason. They sound nothing alike at all.

I used to get the Dead Milkmen and Dead Kennedys mixed up, but I've got that sorted.

[pebblethefish]

Everything that Keane and Snow Patrol ever did, I think was done by Coldplay
Everything that Weezer, Sum 41, and many other bands did, I think was done by Blink 182

[WOM]

I also got Pavement mixed up with Tool for some reason. They sound nothing alike at all.

Same here. And I like Pavement but not Tool, and they sound nothing alike.

[WOM]

James Taylor and Jackson Brown. Not for their music, but I held Jackson Brown in low esteem for thumping Carly Simon, while it was James Taylor doing the thumping. Sorry Jackson....