Entertainment For Lively Minds
Great Band, Crap Name (or Crap Band, Great Name)
Posted by Con Coleman on 22 January 2008 - 6:07pm.
This seems like such an obvious blog topic that someone's probably already done it.
Lots of folk seem to agree that, in the final analysis, 'The Beatles' is a really stupid name for a band, yet it's so familiar, and signifies so many other things that we no longer recognise it as such. There must be quite literally hundreds of these: good band with a rubbish name. For instance:
Cinematic Orchestra (like calling yourself 'Loud Rock n' Roll Band')
Elbow
The Band (fer cryin' out loud)
Oasis (not a great band but it is an awful name)
The Kinks
Any others..?
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The Band
I always took it as a statement of fact. They knew they were the best so what else were they going to call themselves?
I don't have any problem with The Kinks either.
There's a band called...
The Seal Cub Clubbing Club - I've no idea what they're like but it's a fantastic name!
Um, 'And you will know us by the trail of dead' are far better than their horrible name suggests.
Blur is a pretty awful name for what is a good band, ditto Gorillaz.
Although they're no longer together, I always did have a fondness for the Scottish band 'Dogs Die in Hot Cars.'
Continuing the theme...
Bad name, good band:
Air
Alfie
Architecture in Helsinki
Barenaked Ladies
Ben Folds Five (there's 3 of them, thus trying to be funny but not)
The Dears
The Doors
Fountains of Wayne
Love
Good name, bad band:
Babyshambles
Chicks on Speed
Clap Your Hands say Yeah
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
Less than Jake
...and that's when I got bored of looking through iTunes
The Seal Cub Clubbing Club
That's a horrible name! Poor fluffy wuffy seals (snigger)
Stop sniggering
at the back there!
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Sorry...opposite. Crap name, magnificent band.
The Band
The great thing about this name is that it sounds arrogant and modest at the same time.
The Band
Couldn't agree more.
Just checking
Goldarnit. I chucked 'The Band' in there to see if it'd get a reaction. Looks like I was successful, though now I feel all small and abnormal.
Hmmm
I hadn't considered the modesty angle. I also think the simplicity of the name was partly a reaction to the silly names emerging on the West Coast.
Also
It was a reaction to everyone in Woodstock around 1967 referring to them as 'the band', in the context of those guys that hung around with Dylan; and one has to think all those angry British fans in 1966 calling them "the group" has to have played a part. But yes, Carl, you're right (although, East Coast too!):
Radcliffe & Maconie's...
...Record of the Week this week, and very good it is too, is by Dennis Hopper Choppers.
David Hates Jazz
Wouldn't say Prefab Sprout is a crap name, more of an odd name. It sums up images of a eighties pop band and artificially produced vegetable produce, but as well all know, they are a musch greater band than this.
Just thought of two more; Johhny Hates Jazz, crap name and crap band. The Blow Monkeys, strange name but not a bad band. so this is where the Artic Monkeys nicked their name partly from.
Terrible Spillling!
Terrible spelling errors there. It's been a long day, must preview in future.
The Band...
is the greatest name ever for a band. End of story.
John Cougar Concentration Camp
Genius name, if a touch un-PC. Have no idea what the music sounds like.
Aztec Camera
Good band, good songwriter, lousy name - too self-consciously "zany" (see also Prefab Sprout).
Wet Wet Wet
crap name, crap band. Also, "Set The Tone", an early 80's Scottish band which inexplicably once made the front cover of NME.
Agree on Wet, Wet, Wet.
Agree on Wet, Wet, Wet.
Bad but potentially good?
Neutral Milk Hotel: a name so bad it put me off listening to them for a year or so. Having said that, they're not exactly a great band, more an intriguing one.
And because if the same irrational dislike of their names I still haven't got round to listening properly to The Good, The Bad & The Queen or Blonde Redhead or Fountains of Wayne...
Neutral Milk Hotel
"not exactly great" - blimey! How high's your bar? Yes poor name but world class band.
High bar
It's all a matter of taste I guess. I love parts of the album, but find it difficult to sit and listen to straight through and I'm still old fashioned enough to think that's how albums should be heard. But I'm not going to argue with you if you think NMH are 'world class' - you may well be right. There is, after all, no definitive way of measuring that, as the previous discussion on The Beatles demonstrates.
Wasn't there....
a band that the NME were hyping not long ago called "Test Icicles", don't know if they were crap as I couldn't bring myself to listen to a band with that name. I can't imagine we will be talking about the "Testes"(as no-one calls them) in years to come
Yes and no
Yes there was and no I'm sure we won't be!
True...
...they were awful (noisy, asymmetric haircuts, style over substance, typical NME fodder), but one of them has come back and made a very different album. What I've heard sounds very promising. Oh, but he/they still has/have a rubbish name: Lightspeed Champion
The the
No more to add, really.
Pronunciation
I had a mate who insisted on pronouncing The The as "The Thee"; I was sure it was plain old "The The". Does anyone know - or care - who was right?
I think it's...
"thee the"
Definite article pronunciation department
But we can agree it wasn't "Thee Thee", yes...?
On that, we can
agree.
The Homosexuals
Great name, great band (and no, they weren't...as far as I know)
The Rock of Travolta
Swell Maps
and of course..Half Man Half Biscuit
Well, which one is it?
Was (Not Was)
Daft name for a great group. The unlikely moniker comes from the constant mispronunciation of Messrs Don & David's surname - Was, in this instance, should rhyme with Waz.
Thus, to say it proper, it's Waz (Not Was).
Saw them once at the Town & Country. They were a hoot!
Hello Dad I'm In Jail
Yes a great band, say them supporting Dire Straits back in the nineties. Brilliant zany group. Wish they would do another album.
UUHHH!!!!
Crap name: Shockingly bad band
Scissor Sisters
Good name
There is a band that plays in my bar called The Decent Cigar Emporium. And another called The Elephant Rescue Plan. Both good bands
The Final Cut
Terrible band, sadly my nephew was born to a Scissors Scissors track. Hope he won't be musically scarred for life!
Great name...
...crap band = Muse. Never heard either of these but I remember the names = Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead and Bobby Gillespie's Hair.
Can't agree on Muse, they
Can't agree on Muse, they are a great band and a great live experience too.
Current favourite...
... is the Japanese band 'Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her'. OK, it's a bit of a mouthful(no pun intended)and probably better as an album title, but it's still magnificent. There's plenty on Youtube if you want to check them out - they're actually pretty good.
Named after............
a track from the so-so album "Big Express" by XTC......England's greatest unsung songwriters!!!
Oasis
I actually think it's quite a good name, implying that they were a unique bastion of proper music in a desert of rubbish boy bands. Of course, the real wit behind the name is that they were just a mirage. They were as rubbish in their own way as anything they sought to eclipse.
The Slits
Throbbing Gristle had a certain wry charm, but "The Slits"? Eeeeuw.
Slits......
Always thought they were an anagram anyway. I agree, unlistenable claptrap, apart from their version of Grapevine. and maybe, only just maybe, I know what boys like
They no longer exist but...
...a friend of mine was in a band called 'Ice Cream Headache' which I always thought was a fantastic name.
Grunge had it's fair share...
.. of bad names. Screaming Trees, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden & Blind Melon to name a few.
Camper Van Beethoven is a great name for a band, but have not heard a great deal of their music - but I do love this...
That is...
a classic.
PSB
Despite them being one of my favourite bands, I've always found the name Pet Shop Boys slightly ridiculous.
Crowded House
Love their music but what a dull band name
Hate to admit it
but when I first heard the name Echo and the Bunnymen I feared for the worst so I was pleasantly surprised by the racket they made (first three albums only).
the good
Pink Floyd
Led Zeppelin
Hawkwind
Tangerine Dream
Genesis (Gabriel era only I hasten to add)
The Teardrop Explodes
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Bauhaus
The Sisters Of Mercy
Shriekback
Gaye Bykers on Acid
Napalm Death
Anthrax
Nuclear Assault
Soundgarden
Type O Negative
Nine Inch Nails
Monster Magnet
the bad
The Apples in Stereo
Teenage Fanclub
Electrafixion
Altern 8
Dreadzone
Ride
Suede
Mansun
1000 Homo Dj's
Revolting Cocks
The Dead Kennedys
Alice in Chains
Weezer
Simple Minds
The Happy Mondays
the ugly
Pop Will Eat Itself
Bomb The Bass
The Future Sound Of London
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Stabbing Westward
Stone Temple Pilots
Fields of the Nephilim
that'll do for now
Death Cab For Cutie
Could've been and should've been massive (check out the gorgeous Plans LP), but with that name, it was never going to happen.
too right
Good call on both fronts, your honour.
Death Cab For Cutie...
...Are there any other acts named after Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band songs?
I'll have to consult...
... my Vivian Stanshall expert on such matters, and I'll get back to you when he gets back from the Caribbean.
BONZO NAMES
Can't think of anymore, but there should have been, for example
We Are Normal
Hello Mabel
Trouser Press
Shirt
Tent
Noises For The Leg
etc etc
Just look at any album and virtuall every track could/should be a band name.
Is it ....
"Hunting the Tygers of Pan Tang out in India?"
I feel you've started something here...
...Urban Spaceman 3?
Traditional/Folk Music
seems to produce some great names - The Incredible String Band, Afro Celt Sound System and Moving Hearts but some really dodgy ones as well - The Jimmy Shand Experience, Ceilidh Minogue and The Red Hot Chilli Pipers.
And then you have all the groups that prop up...
the bottom of the bill at the Cropredy festival. They always have names like...
Shovebucket
Three Blind Mice
Folkin' Ell
Mongcrumpet
Prop up?
Comprise 50% of the bill, you mean, or, if discounting bands with current or previous members of Fairport, make up the entirety. And all with the sound/balance/mix turned deliberately muddy, so as to take no gloss from the headliners. Sadly, much as I love the old codgers, and I do, the best bands at Cropredy are at the Brasenose, sometimes even the Red Lion. Am I allowed to plug the ever excellent "Prussian Blue", world famous in my house?
Agreed...
In my Cropredy going days, the best music for me could be heard in the graveyard across from The Red Lion. Anyway, the music wasn't really why I went... it was more a case of cheap 6x and friends getting together every year...
Nearly names.....
Yes, there are some bad 'uns, apeing the names of other more successful bands. I am sure it all undeniably ironic. And maybe post-modern. So, a big hand for the Sussex Pistols, the Tex Pistols and probably many more.
The "Tribute" bands also come up with some clunkers I won't flatter by mentioning.