Ben WesthoffJosh McLeod is the lead singer of Fartbarf, a South Bay band that performs something they call analog electronic thrash music. They've gotten hate mail saying their music's not really thrash, but who cares? They're called Fartbarf. We contacted McLeod to talk about how they came up with the name Fartbarf, what their grandmas think about the name Fartbarf, and how Fartbarf can be a verb.
Why Fartbarf?
Yeah, it's pretty much the worst name in the world. We started in 2008; the name kind of came before the band. Farting is funny, barfing is painful, so those two verbs seem to fit well with the music we make. It also sets a very low bar when people come to see us, so it actually helps, because it sounds like an 11 year old's punk band. It started as a joke, but it kind of snowballed. We got flown to Scotland to play the RockNess Festival in 2010. So now we're kind of stuck with it.
What do your grandmothers think of the name?
I actually gave my grandma one of our shirts and I think she wears it. On our logo (right), you can't really decipher what the name says. We give all our family Fartbarf shirts.
Did you consider Barffart?
Yeah. It's funny; a lot of people can't pronounce it as it is now. 50% of the people literally can't pronounce those two words combined.
Which part of your name do you think more encapsulates what you're all about, the fart part or the barf part?
I would say the barf part. We've all done more than our fair share. We do a lot of drinking before shows.
What other bands' names have inspired you?
Mr. Bungle is a good one. It seems kind of arbitrarily chosen, and their musical style is a big influence too. When we finally came to grips that we couldn't change our band's name — because we'd played so many shows — we realized that a lot of our favorite bands have have terrible names too. Metallica is a pretty terrible name. Pink Floyd is pretty terrible too, when you really stop to think about.
Do you think Fartbarf will be remembered in 40 years?
I would hope so. We're trying to do something different. We're staying true to playing only analog synthesizers. We're always out of tune, depending on the weather and the humidity — and the voltage, when we were in Scotland.
Have you ever farted and barfed at the same time?
Yes. I think it actually happened in Scotland. Also, I'm almost positive our drummer Brian fartbarfed after we played our show in Cleveland. He normally doesn't drink at all, but we got him really drunk on Jager bombs. After the gig at 3 am we went to a place like Denny's called The Eat'n Park there, and Brian tried the weird mustardy-looking sweet special sauce. He was puking everywhere and farting too. He definitely achieved fartbarf.
Fartbarf perform this Saturday, January 28 at Redwood Bar
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