Girls vs. ‘Girls’: HBO series draws ire of indie-rock frontman

“It’s a bit sucky to be informed by a giant company like HBO that you don’t matter enough culturally to not have your name taken away or used,” Girls frontman Christopher Owens tweeted recently.

Owens is talking, of course, about “Girls”, the buzzed-about TV brainchild of Apatow-approved indie darling Lena Dunham that premiered on the premium network earlier this week. Of course, when you name your band after half the human population you’re kind of asking for this sort of thing.

“Do you think that TV show even thought twice before using our bands name for their show?” read another tweet. “I’ll bet they were just like ‘fuck it, fuck them'”.

Yes Christopher, I’m sure that’s exactly what happened. In a big meeting, with lots of people in suits. Laughing over expensive champagne, and probably high-fiving too.

“I’ve got an idea, let’s start a band called The Simpsons,” continued Owens. And later: “I just would’ve expected the people behind that show to say, hey let’s use a slightly different name since that band is using it already”. And also: “Girls is obviously a word that cannot be owned by anyone, But a choice was made and anyone that really respected us wouldn’t have used it”. Furthermore: “I said, it’s all good, I just believe it wouldn’t have happened of [sic] we had a top 20 hit is all”.

In the end, however, Owens appears to have been in a forgiving mood. Tweeted the singer a short time later: “Anyway, good luck to everyone, sincerely. It’s all good, probably just skipped their mind, probably not even intentional at all”.

Right, just keep telling yourself that.

Girls is slated to perform at Coachella next weekend. Their last album was the critically-acclaimed “Father, Son, Holy Ghost”, which peaked at #37 on the Billboard 200.

Follow me on Twitter @HitFixChris

Girls performing “Love Is Like a River” on last night’s episode of “Conan”:

Lena Dunham, also on “Conan”:

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