LimeWire Music Blog

Few bands generated as much buzz at this year’s CMJ Music Marathon as San Diego’s The Muslims. At a time when the indie vanguard is gripped by experimental electronics, scruffy, lo-fi punk and quasi-spiritual revelry, the band provided a refreshingly simple return to straight-up rock ‘n roll. And who knows? Maybe their religiously-charged name had something to do with the attention they attracted.

Now that The Muslims’ moniker has done its job, it seems the band is poised to cast its original name into the rubbish bin of history, like that Bob Dylan born-again Christian album you bought at a yard sale last year because, hey, could anything Dylan created actually be bad? (As it turns out, the answer to this is an emphatic “yes.”)

The new name, The Soft Pack, doesn’t really do much for me. It seems kind of generic… makes me think of The Soft Boys and impotence. These are sad associations for such an active, energetic group. I liked The Muslims better. Find out what the band has to say for itself after the jump.

WE HAVE CHANGED THE NAME OF OUR GROUP TO “THE SOFT PACK”. Working on
new material and firing on all four cylinders, we feel strongly about
this one. It’s a new chapter in our lives and hopefully yours. Stay
tuned to The Soft Pack page (www.myspace.com/thesoftpack), as we will
be posting new videos, music, and junk in the coming weeks. We are
pumped. Have a great Thanksgiving and keep it loose. Your buddies, The
Soft Pack

Final thought: I can’t help wondering if they changed their name out of fear that extremist Muslims (you know, like the ones who didn’t think that Danish cartoon was very funny) wouldn’t take kindly to their appropriation.