Manitoba Changes Name, Fearing Lawsuit From Some Dick

Electronic whizkid Manitoba has been forced into a name change.

Handsome Dick Manitoba, frontman for U.S. punk band The Dictators, sued the Canadian artist (real name Dan Snaith) for trademark infringement — strange considering the punk has never released anything under that name.

From now on, as a result, whenever you mean Manitoba, you'll have to stop mid-sentence and say a different name: "Caribou."

Unable to risk the cost of losing the suit, Snaith backed down and changed the band name to that of his fuzzy forest friends. Snaith says he pulled the name from his own stoned experience — having conversed with many a talking caribou when some hippie pals inspired him to try a "vision quest" in the woods. Or he could be making it all up and just picked the name at random, like any other band.

To add insult to, well, insult, Snaith received news of the lawsuit right before his first ever show in Manitoba — no word yet on whether Handsome Dick will be suing the province for existing.

For some reason the name game always seems to hit Canada. This year we've already seen Death From Above forced into a suffix and then there was that ridiculous "X" that Bush were forced to add to their name back in the mid-'90s, when a defunct Can-rock band pushed the issue.

Snaith was first in total disbelief at the legal action, but has quickly moved on. A Caribou website has already been set up and the Manitoba back catalog will soon be re-released under the new moniker.

Snaith's last album was the well-received Up In Flames in 2003, which he toured with a full Manitoba band including multiple drummers, vocalists, a guitarist, and people on glockenspiel and melodica. A new Caribou release is currently in the works.