
What's New...? - MusicJul 7, 2016
How to pronounce 11 band names playing POP Montreal 2016
POP Montreal International Music Festival showcases hundreds of musicians and bands from around the world every year. This is your guide on how to pronounce 11 of the more challenging names from the latest 2016 lineup announcement.
I tried to make these phonetic spellings as fool-proof as possible, so just say them without thinking and it will come out right.
Chixdiggit – Chicks-Dig-It. The band claims ‘Chixdiggit’ is the proper heavy metal way to write ‘Chicks Dig It’.

D.R.A.M. – Drawm like brawn, or rhyming with the name Tom.

CO/NTRY – Country. I don’t know why exactly they spell it like this, but I would assume it’s to make their name unique for fans searching online. Punch ‘Country’ into google and you will understand. ‘Country Band’ is an even more useless search.

Colin Stetson – Steht-son. Just like a Stetson cowboy hat.

dj. flugvél og geimskip – I’m not even going to attempt this one because it’s Icelandic, but in English it translates to ‘DJ Airplane and Spaceship’, which is an appropriate name in North America to refer to her by.

Uniiqu3 – U-neek. Just a really unique way of spelling the word ‘unique’.

Diet Cig – Diet Sigg. OR think Cig like it’s short for cigarette.

Emilie & Ogden – You can say Emilie as French as you would like, Ogden is pronounced ‘Awg-den’ though.

Groenland – Grow-en-land from Montreal!

Allah-Las – Aw-la-Laws. Allah is pronounced just like the popular name with ‘Las’ being the difficult part, say it just like the word ‘laws’!

Kode9 – Code-9.

LVL Up – Level Up. They originally considered calling the band ‘UNHOLY STRENGTH’ after the name of a ‘Magic: The Gathering’ card, then settled on LVL UP after what happens when a player progresses to the next level in gaming.

Now you can be a pretentious music snob and shame anyone you hear pronounce one of these names wrong! Kidding, don’t be a jerk, be cool, and use any new pronunciations you’ve just learnt to help others.