Band Names

[SG]

Kurticus`s thread on YLT got me thinking about where bands got their names from;such as:

Sonic Youth-sonic from Sonic`s Rendezvous Band,youth from reggae band Big Youth
Sebadoh-gibberish according to Lou
My Bloody Valentine- a Canadian movie
Velvet Underground- a novel
Palace Brothers-my guess:from the first Flying Burrito Brothers album-Gilded Palace Of Sin.
Son Volt-my guess:son from Son House,volt-record label
Husker Du-Swedish for "do you remember"
Drive Like Jehu-Jehu was a ancient king
Eric`s Trip-Sonic Youth song
June Of 44-a naval battle during WW2.
Bettie Serveert-translates to "Betty serves",refering to a tennis player.
Freakwater-Kentucky moonshine
Versus- a Mission Of Burma ep
Gang Of Four-group that ousted Chairman Mao in China in the 70`s.

Anyone know any more?

[buckingham rabbit]

sg- isn’t jehu another name for god? when i was in high school in a graphic arts class, a kid wanted to make a sticker with the name drive like jehu going through a faucet, but the teacher wouldn’t let him cause he was this religious bastard and thought it was blashphemous (this was in san diego, home of drive like jehu). also, ‘Vs.’ is mission of burma’s only proper full length album, the ep being ‘singnals, calls, and marches’.

i will add:

belle and sebastian–from a french childrens book or cartoon or something

galaxie 500–named after a model of car

joy division–from a novel, the joy division was where concentration camp victims were forced to prostitue themselves to the nazis.

the loud family–this was the name of the family featured in the pbs (i think) series ‘an american family’.

tall dwarfs–both chris knox and alec bathgate are pretty damn short..essentially like tall dwarfs

mogwai–has to be from ‘gremlins’

possum dixon–was the name of a hick on america’s most wanted or something like that

rocket from the crypt–no proof here, but seems like they ripped off the name of a cleveland band called rocket from the tombs, which had featured people who went on to be in pere ubu.

the teardrop explodes–taken from a comic book caption

[SG]

BR-I heard that Jehu was an ancient king,not God.A music guide I have says that Burma`s vs was an ep,misinformation there.
I think your right about all the bands you mentioned,Mogwai did get their name from Gremlins.The Loud Family did get their name from that PBS thing.

[rosa]

Pearl Jam- Eddie’s great-grandma Pearl was married to a Native American, who showed her how to make preserves with hallucinogens

Wu-Tang Clan- wu-tang is an ancient style of martial art from China

Righteous Brothers- there was a guy who used to listen to them perform (under a different name), who would always tell them "that’s righteous, brother!"

N’Sync- "cause when we sang together, man, we just clicked" <img>

The Animals- Eric Burdon knew this crazy biker guy who would come around to the neighborhood every once in a while and tell crazy stories about being on the road. His name was Animal.

The Doors- via Aldous Huxley, via William Blake

I’m sure I’ll remember more later-
xo
rosa

[malcom]

Aktually, My Bloody Valentine just made their name up, they found out about the movie later.

Mr Bungle-character in a cheesy ’50s childrens film about good manners. Later they found out it was also a character in the porno "Sharons Sex Party"

Dinosaur Jr.- I think they just made up the Dinosaur part, the Jr. came because there already was a band named Dinosaur.

Ozomatli-Named after the Aztec god of dance and music.

Weezer-they aren’t talking, some say it’s after a little rascals character, I think it’s the old slang term for penis.

Violent Femmes-". This is a very frequently asked question, to which few seem to know the correct answer. The Femmes themselves have clouded the issue by giving bogus responses to the question in interviews! The most common, but inaccurate, answer is that "femme" is a local slang word for wimp, and "violent femmes" was chosen because of the inherent contradiction of the phrase. According to the book Rock Names, by Adam Dolgins, Brian Ritchie told the author that since the origin of the name was going to be recorded in a book, he’d better give a straight answer for once. He then proceeded to relate the story of a conversation he once had with Jerry Fortier, a local musician and photographer; this was before the V.F. had even formed. Brian, consummate bullshit artist that he is, started lying his butt off, talking about how his brother was a total rock n’ roller and was in a cool band (his brother actually was an insurance agent!). When Jerry caught him off guard by asking the name of his brother’s band, Brian responded immediately "the Violent Femmes!". It was pure stream of consciousness. Later, he told Victor what a bizarre name he’d just made up off the top of his head. The two of them started using it because they thought it was obnoxious, never expecting it to stick! "-from violentfemmes.net

<small>[ 02-09-2002, 11:42 AM: Message edited by: MaLC-MaN ]</small>

[Gideon]

Just thought I’d add to your list,

My Vitriol – From the book Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. Vitriol is what they used to call Hydrochloric Acid – The character Pinkie in the book always carried a bottle with him to pour in the faces of anyone who might attack him (It’s a book set in the 40’s about underground British gangsters)

The Pixies – Black Francis allegedly randomly opened the dictionary and that was the first thing he saw, so they called their band that.

[buckingham rabbit]

forgot these:

the auteurs: based on the lame theory that triumphs directors over everyone else in the movie-making process, claiming they are the ‘authors’ of the film.

trembling blue stars: from a line in ‘the story of o’

and damn, all this time i thought pearl jam were named after a certain bodily fluid

[SG]

Modest Mouse-from a book
Pink Floyd-two blues musicians:Pink Anderson and Floyd Chaucer
Rolling Stones-from a Muddy Waters song:Rolling Stone

[Hansione]

Belle et Sebastian was a tvserie for children at the end of the sixties. Belle was a big dog and sebastian a bigeyed kid, playing in the snow.

Pretty things named after the Bo Diddley song

Lovin’spoonful, from the song Coffee Blues

Deep purple, I have read somewhere that it is from a Bing Crosby-song
<img> <img>

<small>[ 02-10-2002, 08:13 AM: Message edited by: hansione ]</small>

[Gideon]

Just thought of a few more:

Jane’s Addiction – Named after the prostitute friend Jane, who introduced Perry Farrell to one of the other guys and thats how they started.

Foo Fighters – American wartime pilots who claimed to have seen UFO’s in the skies above Germany

The Smiths – According to Morrisey it was the most ordinary name he could think of.

Motorhead – Slang for Amphetamine user/addict

Nine Inch Nails – Supposed to be the length of the nails that Jesus was crucified with (at least that’s what I read in aprofile of the band)

Bush – They’re from Sheperds Bush in London

Godsmack – Shite band who not only rop off Alice in Chains bigtime, but see fit to name themselves after one of the tracks on ‘Dirt’.

Anyways, thats all that I could think of of the top of my head. (Apart from Marilyn Manson, but everyone knows that story)

[malcom]

Yeah Nin came from jesus, they were supposed to be named crown of thorns, but that name was taken.

Butthole Surfers-origionally the group would change their name every night (favorites include nine foot worm and The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astuires Asshole) but the only nights people would show up was when they went by Butthole Surfers, so they kept with it.

Buzzcocks-From some film where a guy says "get a buzz, cock

Sex Pistols-taken from Malcolm Mclarens Clothing store

The Clash-Supposedly the most used word in newspaper headlines <img>

[SG]

The other day Tom posted about Sleater Kinney`s live dates;the band opening for them is called V For Vendetta;which was an 80`s comic mini series that I was into back then.It`s about a post nuclear war era England that had survivors;a fascist government took control after the chaos of the war and turned society pretty dark.V is the mysterious hero who gets revenge helped by a girl named Evey.If you see any of these comics around check them out,it`s a really good story;cool that a band would call themselves that.

[JimmydaFuzz]

Soundgarden: taken from a piece of art they saw standing in a town square somewhere

Smashing Pumpkins: just the dumbest jokey name they could think of

Metallica: a name a friend of Lars Ulrich came up with. Also the name of a magazine around the same time.

NickelBack: one of the members ( I forget which) worked in a Starbucks or some similar place, where the most popular coffe cost $1.95. People would always pay $2 so he’d always have to give them five cents (a nickel) back.

Dave Matthews Band: Duuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrr….. <img>

[SG]

Led Zeppelin-from a phrase that Keith Moon of The Who used to say during gigs that went badly-"going down like a lead zeppelin".

[malcom]

Aktually, Led Zeppelin was named when Jimmy Page told Keith Moon he was putting together a band, Keith said "That’ll go over like a Lead Zeppelin"

A compleat Zeppelin Gear List can be found at http://www.Ledzeppelin.org

The Beatles- A pun, the Bug part came from the Crickets, and british rock groups at the time were called "Beat groups" hence the misspelling.

The Byrds- They misspelled their name as a play off of the beatles.

Emerson Lake and Palmer. . . hmmm. <img>

[Author]

Posts