Guess that would make TDA super-lame

Bain Mattox -- a Georgia musician named like a Simpsons action hero -- trawls thrift stores for offbeat instruments. Nothing all that new there.

But he's got a funny insight that sheds light on the challenge Those Darn Accordions is up against when facing a world choked with a never-ending parade of bands and an alternative press pool composed, mostly, of shallow media hipsters (please don't hate me just because I tried to be one before I grew up).

"When people first hear that we are a band with an accordion in it, they’re kind of thinking, 'Well that’s sort of lame,'" Mattox tells The Red and Black.

How many people see TDA's name in the club listings when we come to town and say, "No way! I'd rather floss my toes"? How many people would like our music but get turned off by an archaic vision of Myron Floren? Does the name of our band help us (it's undeniably noticeable) or hurt us (it's apparently very difficult to spell correctly)?

I guess it doesn't really matter -- after 17 years, it's too late to turn back. But I wonder what would have happened over the years if TDA's founder had picked a different name -- maybe something not based on a Disney movie.

P.S. In the Red and Black article, Mattox's friend and fellow musician, Claire Campbell, tells a funny story about shopping for a musical saw at Home Depot that was almost enough to shake me out of the introspective funk triggered by that squeezebox quote. Pass the coffee, please, lots of sugar.