Stupid Band Names

Any band name with a number sounds wonky to me. Matchbox 20. Sum 41. Blink 182. Eve 6. Maroon 5. Level 42.

I'm waiting for a band to call itself 3.14159.

mikeland said:

Led Zeppelin. Excuse me.

Pearl Jam. What does that actually mean?

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Led Zeppelin: Thus named for someone's comment that Jimmy Page's new band would "go over like a lead balloon."

Pearl Jam: There are some dumb myths that have been kicked around as to the origin of the name. To quote Eddie Vedder, "I don't know what it means."

I'm tired of new bands with cutesy animal names. Minus the Bear, Band of Horses, what have you. Blah.

mikeland said:

I was listening to the radio and the DJ starting talking about The Clash was a brilliant band name. They were writing in your face political songs with an in your face style. The Clash. It fits.

(As an aside: This radio station actually has DJs.)

But then the DJ said that all successful bands have great names. That the bands with stupid names don't succeed.

OK, that's just stupid.

So I started thinking, do we get so used to the names of certain bands that we don't realize that they don't make any sense?

The Who. Huh?

Led Zeppelin. Excuse me.

Pearl Jam. What does that actually mean?

So, what bands do you think have stupid names? Pretend you've never heard the music. Someone just walks up to you and says the name out of context. Which ones are brilliant and which ones are idiotic?

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Yes, The Who, not to be confused with that other band The Guess Who (they're from Canada, eh?).

For me the music "changed" in the early '80's when I was in my 20's and realized that the "new sounds" I was hearing appealed more to younger listeners than to me. Duran Duran - huh huh? Hey, DJ guy, I heard you the first time. And all of a sudden EVERY song had a synth in it. "Bette Davis Eyes," "Jump" (well, both Van Halen AND the Pointer Sisters)... Prophet 5's and then DX-7's (which KILLED the Fender Rhodes Electric Piano) were flying out of the musical instrument stores.

Then as the years and decades went on it (the band names) got worse - Fine Young Cannibals? Barenaked Ladies?

MeowGirl said:

Any band name with a number sounds wonky to me. Matchbox 20. Sum 41. Blink 182. Eve 6. Maroon 5. Level 42.

I'm waiting for a band to call itself 3.14159.

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There was the B-52's, straight outta R.E.M.-land (the big college town of Athens, GA), with the fun hit song "Love Shack."

Devil Ledbetter said:

Led Zeppelin: Thus named for someone's comment that Jimmy Page's new band would "go over like a lead balloon."

Pearl Jam: There are some dumb myths that have been kicked around as to the origin of the name. To quote Eddie Vedder, "I don't know what it means."

I'm tired of new bands with cutesy animal names. Minus the Bear, Band of Horses, what have you. Blah.

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The '60's had lots of bands named after animals, often misspelled: Eric Burdon and The Animals, Three Dog Night (supposedly from Eskimos or someplace cold up north - on an especially cold night you take three dogs to sleep with you to keep you warm, so it was a "three dog night"), Buddy Holly and The Crickets, The Turtles, The Monkees, The Byrds... did I <ahem> miss any popular band from the '60's???

MeowGirl said:

Any band name with a number sounds wonky to me. Matchbox 20. Sum 41. Blink 182. Eve 6. Maroon 5. Level 42.

I'm waiting for a band to call itself 3.14159.

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U2. "Me too?"

Bands named for places: Boston, Chicago, America. Bands named for food: Bread, Meat Loaf (OK, it's the guy's nickname, but still...) Bands with pretentiously cute names: The The (destined to drive grammar checkers mad.)

I just don't get a lot of hip-hop or rapper names. 50 Cent? Makes about as much sense as "half a buck"

Others that have me scratching my head:

Wu-tang Clan
Snoop Dog

And rock/pop isn't immune:

Goo Goo Dolls
Biff Naked
Chumbawumba
Def Leppard
Fountains of Wayne
Hootie and the Blowfish

I've been saying for the past 10 years that if a lot of these bands put half as much thought into their music and song writing craft as they did with coming up with their band names they'd be a lot more successful.

of course, I'm just a hippie from the 60's....what the F do I know?

Many years ago, a friend of mine found an old vinyl by an obscure band I'd never heard of: SWOLLEN MONKIES! The album was cut some time during the late 60's or early 70's.
Strange names are hardly a new thing.

Swollen Members
Rainbow Butt Monkeys
Bush
Panic! at the Disco
Naked Brothers

Devil Ledbetter said:

Led Zeppelin: Thus named for someone's comment that Jimmy Page's new band would "go over like a lead balloon."

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Possibly Keith Moon:

The band completed the Scandinavian tour as The New Yardbirds. One account of the band's naming, which has become almost legendary, has it that Keith Moon and John Entwistle suggested that a possible supergroup containing themselves, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck would go down like a lead zeppelin, a term Entwistle used to describe a bad gig.[24] The group deliberately dropped the 'a' in Lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent "thick Americans"[19] from pronouncing it as "leed".[25]

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Stutter, Poet?

ChunkyC said:

I just don't get a lot of hip-hop or rapper names. 50 Cent? Makes about as much sense as "half a buck"

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Also, the pronunciation is important, and not indicated simply by the numeric. It's "Fiddy Cent."

ChunkyC said:

Others that have me scratching my head:

Wu-tang Clan

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Wang Chung.

And don't look for the Wangcaster online...

ChunkyC said:

Snoop Dog

And rock/pop isn't immune:

Goo Goo Dolls
Biff Naked
Chumbawumba
Def Leppard
Fountains of Wayne
Hootie and the Blowfish

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Gina M said:

Swollen Members
Rainbow Butt Monkeys
Bush
Panic! at the Disco
Naked Brothers

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And while we're "going there:"
Butthole Surfers

Regurgitator

chevbrock said:

Regurgitator

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True. But their cover of the "Are You Being Served?" theme is excellent!

Eh. My tolerance is higher. It's tough to have a dumb enough name that it would bug me.

One that does, however:

The The

Wtf?! Just stupid beyond belief. Not even clever when you're stoned. Oh, and since we're beating this Led Zep thing like a dead horse, remember they were just copying Iron Butterfly...thick Americans, indeed.

Well, one thing about band names, dumb or otherwise, is that once the group has achieved a certain level of recognition, the literal meaning of the name becomes irrelevant. When you hear the name 'Led Zeppelin', it doesn't evoke the image of an airship made from lead, it makes you think of the music.

Quiet Riot is a great band name.

Wang Chung is a bad band name.

Guns N Roses is a great band name.

L.A. Guns is a bad band name.

Thank u.

I have heard a lot of bad band names. I try to put thought into names, even if only I get it. A weird one even though I like the band "Soul Coughing". Makes no sense, even though neither does their songs/

Haircut 100
The Korgis
The Vapors

As I Lay Dying is possibly the worst new band name out there. Panic! at the Disco isn't much better, especially because they have that stupid! exclamation point in there.

Wham!