Over the weekend, Martin Rossiter — of the Britpop B-list band Gene — drew attention to a Los Angeles-based alt-pop duo that were also going by the name Gene after seeing them listed as openers for an upcoming Pale Waves tour in the UK and Ireland.

“Genuine question. What should we do about this? I don’t want to financially screw over any up and coming musicians but they’ve taken our name,” he wrote in the tweet. “They’re on a poster supporting @palewaves and it feels wrong. They clearly know about us because they’ve already blocked me without having had any contact with me on Twitter. I’d be interested in people’s thoughts. Thanks.”

That set off some negative discourse on the very healthy social media site Twitter, which Rossiter was quick to condemn: “Can we avoid a pile on ‘the other Gene’ it feels undignified and unhelpful. But thanks everyone for your support,” he wrote in one tweet, and soon after followed it up with some others:

Please read and RT. I have discovered that the lead singer of @genetheband and @palewaves have been receiving unacceptable abuse on various social media platforms. It’s okay to have an reasonable opinion about this issue but the abuse (which I’ve seen) is fucking atrocious. STOP

I asked for people’s opinions (which I now regret) and a lot of people have offered valuable advice but to abuse people is just unacceptable especially women in a space which is already hard enough for them to exist in.

Martin Rossiter’s Gene and the other Gene have come to a conclusion between themselves, however. Earlier today, Rossiter said that the other Gene had changed their name to Bitters. Here’s Rossiter on their interaction:

I’ve had a very amiable conversation via email with Claudia from “genetheband” and I think it’s important to recognise that she has been fair, balanced and generous of heart. There was no malice on her part and I think we can draw a line under this. In fact as they’ve decided ..

to change their name give them a listen and if you like it, maybe you can become a fan and discover new music to fall in love with. I’ll post some links when the new name is finalised.

The Britpop Gene have been broken up since 2004, though Rossiter has put out music under his own name since then. The Los Angeles duo who now go by Bitters released their debut single “Stole Your Car” earlier this year.