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This topic is for discussing clues and potential answers to the Band Symbol in Epic Week 2026. Please stay on topic. Remember, these riddles are designed to be challenging and require a group of people brainstorming together; don't feel intimidated if you don't know the answer right away. Every little idea can help. Research is not cheating; it is expected!
Click here to visit the location of the Band Symbol
Click here to visit the location of the Band Symbol
This… sounds… familiar… *stares*
Oh oh oh! The Eleventh Hour guy!!
Congrats on solving this symbol! The answer was "splingtwanger".
For those of you wondering how this answer could be arrived at, here's a quick explanation.
For those of you wondering how this answer could be arrived at, here's a quick explanation.
Zelphyr, author of this riddle wrote:
The book "The Worst Band in the Universe," by Graeme Base, is a children's science fiction story in which musical creativity has been outlawed in favor of only playing the same traditional, ancient songs of generations past, when music is allowed at all. The only outlet creatives have is the underground, ironically-named "Worst Band in the Universe" competition. The book comes with a CD containing a collection of songs meant to be representative of that competition.
The first clue refers to lines from the song "90 Light Years From the Sun." In the song, the singer speaks of being a fugitive after playing the wrong music. It opens with the lines, "Sitting on a rock beneath a strange and empty sky / Just me and my splingtwanger, I sit and wonder why."
The second clue refers to two things. First, the design and function of a splingtwanger is clearly based on a guitar, and within the book's setting they seem to be as commonplace and synonymous with music as the guitar is to us. Second, the laws restricting music are enforced by the Musical Inquisitor, who also carries a splingtwanger - however, by the end of the story, it is revealed to be a symbol only; the Musical Inquisitor can't actually play.
The third clue is a line taken directly from another song that shares its title with the book. "In a world that's under an ancient curse / The first will be last and the last will be first / And a group of young groobs could do much worse / Than be the Worst Band in the Universe."
The first clue refers to lines from the song "90 Light Years From the Sun." In the song, the singer speaks of being a fugitive after playing the wrong music. It opens with the lines, "Sitting on a rock beneath a strange and empty sky / Just me and my splingtwanger, I sit and wonder why."
The second clue refers to two things. First, the design and function of a splingtwanger is clearly based on a guitar, and within the book's setting they seem to be as commonplace and synonymous with music as the guitar is to us. Second, the laws restricting music are enforced by the Musical Inquisitor, who also carries a splingtwanger - however, by the end of the story, it is revealed to be a symbol only; the Musical Inquisitor can't actually play.
The third clue is a line taken directly from another song that shares its title with the book. "In a world that's under an ancient curse / The first will be last and the last will be first / And a group of young groobs could do much worse / Than be the Worst Band in the Universe."
Now that's a blast from the past, LOL. My great-uncle long ago got me a copy of The Eleventh Hour and challenged me to solve it, and I proceeded to do so for hours on that visit with great glee. (Maybe that, uh, explains something about my love for these puzzles??) And of course, that meant I had to go look up the author in the library the next time I was there, and, well, here we are. Memory successfully twangered.
You're absolutely JOKING I can't believe you got this so fast! 
To be fair, that last clue is very Google-able.
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