Heavy rock duo God Damn chat us through their favourite pop culture moments that feature their “stupid name that stuck”
God Damn have risen through the ranks of noise rock royalty thanks to a commitment to their savage sound, an appreciation of “rock music for degenerates” of all kinds, and a fierce sense of humour. Here, Thom Edward (who tackles vocals and guitar in the band) picks out five times he’s spotted their band’s name in popular culture.
Take it away, Thom.
—
Like every other band, we’re constantly followed around by people thinking they’re making hilarious puns in relation to our name.
“Yeah dead funny pal, ain’t heard that one before!” we say, wincing. “How very droll!” In reality it’s just a stupid name that stuck because we didn’t envision doing anything more than playing lockup parties and pissing people off in Wolverhampton.
However, we’re not sick of hearing it. It’s a badass motherfucking band name, and it’s better than your band name. Well, maybe it’s not as good as Pissed Jeans or Selfish Cunt – but it’s probably better than yours. Another thing – we’re not religious dudes or the Antichrist, either. We’re just here to try and save rock and roll from many of its cringeworthy, cruise-ship, bastardised, dishonest and bloated current incarnations… if we’re doing anything at all.
So with that all cleared up, here are our favourite times that people have said our band name on a recording. I’m sure there’s a million more that we’ve forgotten and I’m happy for you to remind us in the comments box.
Pulp Fiction - Mia Wallace bathroom scene
Yeah, that coke scene. There was once this coke dealer who I “knew of” in the small town I grew up in. I used to work in the Co-Op there whilst I was at uni, and he was the only dude who bought two kilogram bags of kettle de-scaling powder from there every week. We only re-stocked it because he bought it! But I guess if you know that the stuff is made from leaves and diesel in the first place, then it makes no difference to you.
Also Link Wray is playing in the background, and where would a noise rock band like us be without a guy like him.
Nick Cave - Stagger Lee
Probably the most badass song around. On a serious note, I’ve just become a father and my heart bleeds for Nick and what his family must be going through with the loss of his son. Unimaginable pain. It looks like he’s found some therapy in his music – well I hope he has. It’s a difficult thing to approach but he’s a strong man carrying on with what he does best.
Queens of the Stone Age - Misfit Love
The influence this band has had on any heavy rock band today couldn’t be more obvious and we’re no exception. We’ve just started using a big fat sub-synth live with our new member James, so if you don’t hear us making records sounding like this particular song in the near future, I’ll be damned.
Butthole Surfers - Dust Devil
…okay, Butthole Surfers is the best band name ever. We’ve fucked it, they won. Go home. Try harder douchebags.
The lefties among us might want to ignore the romanticisation of a shotgun with this song, and this is probably not the most politically correct stage performance with the whole firing into the crowd thing. I don’t think we’ll be seeing this as some 90s comeback trend at gigs any time soon.
God Damn’s second album, Everything Ever, is due 23 September via One Little Indian Records. See tour dates below.
23 September – London – Boston Music Rooms (release day headline show)
26 September – Brighton – Concorde 2
27 September – London – Koko
28 September – Bristol – Bierkeller
29 September – Leeds – Stylus
30 September – Manchester – Manchester Academy 2
2 October – Birmingham – Institute2
3 October – Glasgow – Garage
4 October – Newcastle – Riverside
5 October – Southampton – Engine Rooms
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