Sweet Sunny North of Port Townsend plays a contra dance at the Alaska Folk Festival at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center on Thursday, April 11, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

Sweet Sunny North of Port Townsend plays a contra dance at the Alaska Folk Festival at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center on Thursday, April 11, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

Jizzle Fizzle, Garbage Bear, Buffleheads: The stories of Folk Fest’s weird band names

Find out where the inspiration for these band names came from

Jizzle Fizzle’s name has nothing to do with how Snoop Dogg talks.

The Juneau garage-rock outfit with jam band tendencies settled on the silly, rhyming name because members felt it described the way an improvised song could start strong before just sort of ending. Plus, the name didn’t take itself too seriously.

“The jizzle part would be kind of like, ‘Oh wow, everything’s awesome,” said Rob Weber, vocalist and rhythm guitar-player for the band in a phone interview with the Capital City Weekly. “The endings weren’t as tight or rocky, so it basically fizzled. That was the name we came up with, and it just kind of stuck. We never got rid of it.”

Three years after the band formed, the Jizzle Fizzle name is one that stands out on the Alaska Folk Festival schedule as particularly out there.

[Flustered Cluckers talk about their name and answer other questions]

Although, it has some competition from the 2019 folk fest lineup.

There’s foreign-language-influenced names like Rubato (from the Latin), Sérge le Magnifique avec M. Nate and Eight days on the Playa.

Puns such as Georgia O’Keith and The Young, the Old and the Restless abound.

More than a few bands, like the Buffleheads, Musk Ox Ramblers and Garbage Bear turned to nature for inspiration.

Regarding that last name, Wes Adkins, guitarist, vocalist and pianist for the Juneau band Garbage Bear, said it simply seemed Juneau needed a band by that very name.

“I have to give credit to my partner Charlie Kidd, he came up with it,” Adkins said in a phone interview with the Capital City Weekly. “We thought about it, then one day, I don’t remember where we were, maybe a social gathering, but he turned to me and said, ‘Hey, Wes, how about Garbage Bear.’”

That was about two months ago, and he said the duo knew right away they’d hit on something good, and people seem to be keen on the name, Adkins said.

“It’s been overwhelmingly positive,” Adkins said. “In fact we led sort of a Twitter campaign leading up to our show with the Garbage and Bear emojis.”

One of the most unusual band names found on the Alaska Folk Fest schedule is also one of the most entrenched and convoluted.

[How Stroller White led to Fire on McGinnis, Juneau’s Celtic rock band]

Johnny Negotiable and the Concessions draws its name from Jim Hale’s all-purpose stage name Johnny Negotiable.

“I always think it’s kind of an open secret,” Hale said, of his alter-ego often heard as a radio host on KRNN.

The concessions part of the band name comes from the sort that might be made during bargaining, not the “let’s all go to the lobby,” variety.

The Negotiable surname comes from a line Hale recalls from a review for a Johnny Paycheck album — something to the effect of not another Johnny with a negotiable sound. It’s since been mutated to apply to his wife, Michelle Bonnet Hale.

“I started referring to her as June Carter Negotiable,” Hale said, which is a reference to June Carter Cash, wife of Johnny Cash. That’s led to sometimes calling the band June Carter and Her Concessions.

The oblique reference upon which the rest of the names are stacked is sometimes lost on people.

“I introduced myself on stage as Johnny Negotiable, and someone said, ‘Is that your real name?’” Hale said. “I said, ‘Yeah, you wouldn’t make up a name like that.”


• Contact arts and culture reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.


More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast for the week of March 25

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Tuesday, March 26, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

The aging Tustumena ferry, long designated for replacement, arrives in Homer after spending the day in Seldovia in this 2010 photo. (Homer News file photo)
Feds OK most of state’s revised transportation plan, but ferry and other projects again rejected

Governor’s use of ferry revenue instead of state funds to match federal grants a sticking point.

The Shopper’s Lot is among two of downtown Juneau’s three per-hour parking lots where the cash payments boxes are missing due to vandalism this winter. But as of Wednesday people can use the free ParkSmarter app to make payments by phone. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Pay-by-phone parking for downtown Juneau debuts with few reported complaints

App for hourly lots part of series of technology upgrades coming to city’s parking facilities.

A towering Lutz spruce, center, in the Chugach National Forest is about to be hoisted by a crane Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, for transport to the West Lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to be the 2015 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
Tongass National Forest selected to provide 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Eight to 10 candidate trees will be evaluated, with winner taking “whistlestop tour” to D.C.

Annauk Olin, holding her daugher Tulġuna T’aas Olin, and Rochelle Adams pose on March 20, 2024, after giving a presentation on language at the Alaska Just Transition Summit in Juneau. The two, who work together at the Alaska Public Interest Research Group’s Language Access program, hope to compile an Indigenous environmental glossary. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Project seeks to gather Alaska environmental knowledge embedded in Indigenous languages

In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, the word… Continue reading

The room where the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee holds its meeting sits empty on Tuesday. A presentation about an increase in the number of inmate deaths in state custody was abruptly canceled here. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Republican lawmakers shut down legislative hearing about deaths in Alaska prisons

Former commissioner: “All this will do, is it will continue to inflame passions of advocacy groups.”

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Monday, March 25, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Employees at the Kensington Mine removing tailings from Johnson Creek on Feb. 17 following a Jan. 31 spill of about 105,000 gallons of slurry from the mine, although a report by the mine’s owners states about half slurry reached the creek 430 meters away. (Photo from report by Coeur Alaska)
Emergency fisheries assessments sought after 105,000-gallon tailings spill at Kensington Mine

Company says Jan. 31 spill poses no risk to Berners Bay habitat, but NOAA seeks federal evaluation.

Most Read