Thanks to meredith for passing this on:
MANITOBA TO BECOME CARIBOU
Dan Snaith, who released the albums Up In Flames (2003) and Start Breaking My Heart (2001) under the name Manitoba, has changed his name to Caribou following a lawsuit in the US. Frontman for punk band The Dictators, Handsome Dick Manitoba, sued Snaith for trademark infringement, despite never having released music under the names “Manitoba” or “Handsome Dick Manitoba.”
“My immediate reaction was total disbelief,” says Snaith. “Most of the people I’ve talked to about it see this case as being utterly nonsensical. Unfortunately, US legal precedent didn’t agree and faced with a court case that I couldn’t afford to lose, I had no choice but to change the name.”
Having spent the last year touring Up in Flames throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Australia with bands such as Stereolab, Four Tet, Broadcast and Prefuse 73, Dan is back in the studio working on the first Caribou album. Tentatively entitled The Milk of Human Kindness.