You may be shocked to hear that musicians sometimes lie about who they are. Some may say this is not shocking at all - it's almost a tradition. But there's a meaningful difference between Ziggy Stardust and a band from North Dakota claiming to be a Chinese black metal act to game the press.

In this episode we try to map that difference. We spend a healthy portion of time on what we're not talking about - aliases, concept bands, anonymity for anonymity's sake - before getting into the genuinely murky territory of bands that have used fabricated identities for commercial advantage. We cover the fake Zombies that toured America simultaneously in 1969, The Masked Marauders and the elaborate Rolling Stone prank that accidentally became a real album, Silibil n Brains, Dundee rappers who got signed to Island Records on the strength of their American accents, before discussing Ghost Bath, the project that brought this whole phenomenon into focus for us.

Along the way we also get into AI-generated music, Milli Vanilli (and why what they did is arguably less dishonest than what plenty of current pop stars do routinely, and a genuinely unresolved case involving a supposedly Iraqi black metal band that may or may not have put its members in real danger.

The question running through all of it: does context change how we hear music? And if it does — what does that say about us?

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction

01:24 Catfish and Hoax Bands Explained

02:11 Patreon

05:10 Famous Death Hoaxes

05:42 Mystique Versus Scams

09:02 Not Aliases or Roleplay

10:43 Anonymity and Masks

13:23 Fake Touring Lineups

19:03 Concept Bands and Bits

24:28 AI Bands and Deception

27:54 Outright Music Scams

30:13 Milli Vanilli Then and Now

30:53 Pop Star Fraud Culture

33:39 Mask Marauders Hoax

35:20 Orion Elvis Impostor

38:50 Platinum Weird Backstory

40:25 Syllable American Rap Ruse

43:38 Jana Mystery Metal Band

46:06 Velvet Cocoon Troll Scam

48:36 Ghost Bath Identity Debate

54:40 Context and Cultural Relativism

58:10 Ghost Bath Fallout and Ethics

01:02:53 Outro