The golden-shouldered parrot (seen here plotting a jewel heist) was not named after the band.
It was more likely named after something else.

The Golden Shoulders have been asked these questions frequently.

Q: So who is in Golden Shoulders?
A: Adam Kline and ______________. Some audiences have seen Adam with Jason Graham, Rich Good and Todd Roper. Some audiences have seen Adam with Joanna Newsom, or Todd Roper, or Elissa Spencer, or Rob Kieswetter, or Charla Ausman. A lot of audiences have seen Adam with Ehren Haas, Marc Snegg and Neal Morgan, or Adam with Ehren Haas, Jason Graham, and David Nicholson. For a while it was usually Adam with Brett Shady and Jonathan Hansard. There was one weird show in San Luis Obispo where Golden Shoulders was Adam with Brett Shady, Jason Graham, and Kyle Field, if you can even imagine that. Lately, it's been a big group of Adam, Brett, Haas, Jonathan Hischke, Jonathan Hansard, Davia, and Todd. It's all valid, man. You can click here to see a list of everyone who has been involved at one point or another.

Q: Are the Golden Shoulders the Gears?
A: No. Well, sometimes. Sort of. But not always, and not too often. The Gears were Adam Kline, Jason Graham, and Neal Morgan, back in the pre-Shoulders late nineties. The Golden Shoulders are Adam Kline and any variety of people - sometimes, yes, Jason and Neal. The Gears just really wanted to sound like the early-mid 60's Beatles with a bit of the Violent Femmes mixed in. Some say we succeeded, others are just being mean.

Q: Can I play in Golden Shoulders?
A: Probably, if you're one of Adam's best friends and you're good enough at music to distract from the fact that he isn't.

Q: Where did the band name come from?
A: This is a long story. You have to remember that, back in high school, some of us were in a band called Badical Turbo Radness. It is fact that the band name "Badical Turbo Radness" is ridiculous, and that fact has been celebrated on internet-based "Funny Band Name" lists the world over. Go ahead, do a Google search, we'll wait here.

The next band was more conservatively named, probably as a subconscious effort to distance ourselves from the vibe of the previous band. We were the Gears. Unfortunately, there were roughly seven bands also called the Gears, or just Gears. And one called Gear. And one called the Gear. This was a problem.

Then Adam had the idea that his next band would be break-up proof and consist of himself and everyone standing near him at any given time. The search for a name was long and painful. Remembering that dear friend and constant inspiration Kyle Field toured with the Microphones, Karl Blau, and Bunkbed on a tour called the Golden Shoulders Tour, Adam asked Kyle if the new band could steal the tour name. Kyle consulted the other involved parties and a total of none of them had a problem with a band called Golden Shoulders starting up.

The tour itself took its name from a Microphones lyric from the Glow Pt. 2. We have since returned the favor by giving Phil a free t-shirt.

Q: Why don't you put your lyrics up on your website?
A: Complete lyrics are available in the CD booklets, and putting them up on the website would make that fact slightly less special.

The funny thing is, a lot of people have put our lyrics up on various online ''lyric depositories'' (technical term), and boy oh boy, have they messed them up. The real lyrics to our songs are in the booklets that come with the CDs. When you see lyrics claiming to be ours online, they have most likely been transcribed by someone with very waxy ears. For example, our song ''the Honey, the Power, the Light (Kyle's Blues)'' does not actually contain the phrase ''shopping yard chisel.'' Not in real life.

Q: How does Thomas Kuhn's paradigmatic definition of theory-pure data, particularly in terms of its correlation with the epistemological account of sense data offered up by Rousseau--in answer to Descartes' solipsistic and axiomatic arrest of the infinite regress (i.e. Je crois, alors j'existe)--relate to the passage in "Long Time to Come," in which you vent, rather Foucault-like (to use an eponymous reference that tends towards the pedestrian) about your frustration with the delay in your personal transition from the acute verbosity of your sexual experience as a simple institutionalized discourse, into a productive and internal condition of the formerly superstructural position of exteriority with respect to you, totally being able to finally come? Cause that was rad.
A: Ladies and gentlemen, this question was brought to you by Joanna Newsom. Someday you'll see it framed above your table at the Hard Rock Café in Tuscon next to a Josh Klinghoffer guitar pick and the ashes of Bob Seger.

Q: How come you guys don't make enough money playing music to pay your rent and buy food, but groups like Slipknot, Limp Bizkit and Creed are all a bunch of millionaires?
A: They are better people than we are.

Q: Will you go out with me?
A: Okay.