Bands who don't sound like their name

Violent Femmes
Pink Fairies
Hawkwind (should be a Ren Faire type folk act)

Spandau Ballet

All those bands like the Ozark Mountain Daredevils you think are going to be shitkickin' country rock n' roll but they turn out to be slick soft rock acts.

No Mercy

Urge Overkill sounds like they should be a metal band or a P-Funk tribute act.

Tesla
Rancid

Diarrhea Planet (tho tbh I don't know what they SHOULD sound like)

I have no idea what a Lynyrd Skynyrd is but to my ears it doesn't sound like that.

Derived from their high school gym teacher Leonard Skinner iirc?

Wikipedia sez:

Still known as The One Percent in 1969, Van Zant sought a new name after growing tired of taunts from audiences that the band had "1% talent". At Burns' suggestion, the group settled on Leonard Skinnerd, which was in part a reference to a character named "Leonard Skinner" in Allan Sherman's novelty song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" and in part a mocking tribute to P.E. teacher Leonard Skinner at Robert E. Lee High School. Skinner was notorious for strictly enforcing the school's policy against boys having long hair. Rossington dropped out of school, tired of being hassled about his hair. The more distinctive spelling "Lynyrd Skynyrd" was being used at least as early as 1970. Despite their high school acrimony, the band developed a friendlier relationship with Skinner in later years, and invited him to introduce them at a concert in the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum. Skinner also allowed the band to use a photo of his Leonard Skinner Realty sign for the inside of their third album.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

The backstory does make it more Cratylic.

xp

Suicide and solo Vega were both pretty heavy live. Vega seemed to be openly confrontational though not sure how much of taht was more performance art.
There are some pretty great live clips up on youtube. But I think his really confontationsl appearances may have been earlier, mid to late 70s where he would do things like swing bike chains around his head. He was also really into slamming the microphone into his face.
YOu can hear the intensity on a lot of the live sets from the late 70s and early 80s.
Not sure if you're being misled about the live band from the heightened use of melody on the 2nd lp the one with the blood in the plughole on the cover.
First lp is a lot rougher and lofi sounding. Still has a sense of rhythm verging on the funk and some reaslly good tracks worthy of pretty heavy covers on.

Looking through what I've been listening to, it's from a mix of times, from tracks like Ghost Rider through to 2002's Misery Train, but yes, you're right it was maybe tracks from the second LP that most made me call it Elvis synthpop. I gues

Have you heard "Frankie Teardrop"?

I have now! I can see that it's intense, but the occasional shriek jump-scare aside I wouldn't call it heavy going. Maybe it's just the thinness of the sound – which to be clear, I like. Yeah, I can imagine some of it sounded very different live.