Sometimes you hear a song title/band name and it conjurs up an image of how it/they might sound. Then you hear it/them and it totally does not fit the bill. For example:

'Dancin In The City' - by Marshall Hain
'Fast Car' by Tracy Chapman
Mental As Anything

all convey a sense of excitement, thrill, energy but are actually everything BUT.

An opposite might be Swans.

Any others that spring to mind?

She speeds - Straitjacket fits
Like a Cannonball - Van Morrison
House Fall Down - Yo La Tengo
The Hammer Song - Nick Cave
Everything Breaks - The Woodentops
The drippy "dont stand on the lawn, you might kill a spider"* group: 10,000 Maniacs

*Yes, twirly lead vocalist Natalie Merchant actually did say that to an interviewer, yawwwwnnnnnn.

Primal Scream.

10,000 Maniacs/ Primal Scream - of course!

how about

Will To Power - I imagined some sort of SPK/industrial onslaught and instead got a tasteful segue of Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird. (They followed up that Top 10 smash with the less successful cover of 10CCs 'I'm Not In Love')

Emmy the Great - not actually very good at all.

Dead Can Dance - a) they're not dead b) they don't dance

Ultravox

Echo And The Bunnymen
f**k (great band, btw)

Monkey Steals the Drum.

Never heard of them. The name implies a degree of chaotic excitement & avant-gardism. Close?

Well, the best description would be really rather dull guitariness. The first time John Peel introduced them I expected to love them. I expected madcap electronic trickery, samples and noises all over the place. It seemed like the band name Peel was born to announce. Dissappointed is what I was.

M,n,M
I was expecting him to be a coloured Nut-Case.

Hood, not connected with shifty neighbourhoods or (black) rappers
Bachman Turner Overdrive, lacking in the overdrive dept.

Delirious?

In their case, the question mark was appropriate.

the smiths- none of them have the name smith.

Jackie-O Motherfucker....who woulda thought it was so BORING?

Everything But The Girl. I noticed straight away.

Sonic Youth (not any longer)

:lol:

See also Mogwai - "Rock Action"

Alice Cooper!

The Black Abbots. Not a Goth/Black Metal band at all, but a comedy group featuring Russ Abbot. (this was mentioned on thr radio tonite, I am cheating a bit)

Asia- none of the members were from asia. toto- none of these guys were in the wizard of oz,

:lol:

The Fuck Buttons: Upon hearing this band's name, I assumed they'd be into loud R n' R with lots o' laughs ... nothing could be further from the truth. Good band all the same and a great name .....

The Mekons.

None of them look like this;

sunshine superman- totally doesnt make any sense, pocket full of sunshine-this is impossible.

Lou Reed might have a different take on that.

You've raised an interesting point here. None of the the members of Texas are from Texas.

I see what's happening. We are being LIED TO.

Yeah, imagine the palava if you gave The Wedding Present to someone as a wedding present. Pop stars don't half like to make life bloody complicated sometimes.

How about the other way round e.g. the name Swans implying bucolic serenity and purity but delivering everything but?

The Woodentops could have been a Postcard-jangly indie band but had some very thrashy moments.
Sisters Of Mercy sounded nothing like nuns.

They're not even sisters.

The Stranglers,

I know Hugh Cornwall did time, but not for that.

The Cure,

Can't see them in any medical books.

Prince.

An acclaimed pop-funk artist maybe, but completely useless should we have an abdication on our hands.

how about the birthday party unless you give the albums of theirs to someone on their birthday party or throw a birthday party and play their music

The New Puritans--(supporting the fall in croatia tomorrow)
The way the present generation carry on, I find it hard to believe.

Cocteau Twins - there were three of 'em!

And there were originally EIGHT fucking Thompson Twins! Imagine that! ^_^

The Southern Death Cult were from Bradford and don't fucking start me about the other bit.