Worst band name ever: Wilco

Just about every recent rap or hip hop artist.

MAYBE a few decades ago Velvet Revolver would have been acceptable, but to me it just sounds like they were like:

"What should our band name be?"
"I don't know, uh, what's something that's considered 'cool'?"
"Umm...Revolvers."
"Yeah!"
"And velvet is a cool word."
"Yeah!"
"Woah, yeah!"
"Cool!"
"Velvet Revolver, Yeah!"
"Awesome! Man, Cool!"

Umm, The Flaming Lips is probably really stupid but I can't see them having any other name. It just fits them somehow.

There are too many "the" bands to list here.

Edit: Oh and Do Make Say Think is decidedly not good.

quote:

Originally posted by rockbotle:
The name Death Cab for Cutie, I believe, comes from the Beatles' film "Magical Mystery Tour". The lounge singer in the film sings a song called "Death Cab for Cutie".

Sorry, the Beatles don't get any credit. Death Cab for Cutie are named after the same track in Bonzo Dog Band's debut Gorilla, which's featured in Magical Mystery Tour. If you love early Mothers of Invention, you owe it to check them out (also fellow cult acts like the Fugs and Godz).

quote:

Originally posted by Machols:
Talking Heads is one of the best band names ever, and Radiohead is as well (you can thank the Talking Heads for that as well)
***
Radioheads 'On a Friday' was because they could only practice on Fridays.

I never said I didn't like the name "Radiohead"--in fact, I think it's an awesome name. "On a Friday," however, sounds incredibly stupid and pretentious, and knowing its origin (which I already did) only makes it worse.

kwakerjak

I always thought that Limp Bizkit was a horrible name for a band. Of all that adjectives out there, why choose "limp"? I once heard Fred Durst explain that he named the band after his dog, Bizkit, and that the dog was injured and forced to limp. Why name your band after your lame dog?

Favorite band names:
Nirvana
Fatboy Slim
Nine Inch Nails

Other worst names:

Butthole Surfers
Los Lonely Boys
Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Dead Kennedys

I actually always thought Yo La Tengo was a pretty stupid name.

Also any "<Lead Singer's name>'s Band" or variations of it.

My question is do you understand what THAT name means and the context?

Dogs Die in Hot Cars...not much you can say about it really, it's just pityful!
Sixty Watt Shaman on the other hand, for me that names screams music that needs to be played loud.
Pearl Jam is another good name, nothing over complicated yet it has class.

I do but I don't understand why they chose it.

Someone already mentioned Mr. Mister. That is quite lame.

Another one that springs to mind is Oingo Boingo.

Neither of these is the lamest though. The lamest single name in the history of rock music would have to be awarded to...

The Soundtrack of our Lives.

Simultaneously pretentious and stupid, I can't imagine a worse name for a band.

Good Charlotte comes to mind
The Afghan Whigs???
Goo Goo Dolls - have to agree on that one
Def Leppard (just for the spelling)
Dream Theater
Audioslave (so contrived)

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Sometimes I think this is the worst name of all time and then at other times it kind of works.

Good ones Smilani, all of the listed suck ass. I especially hate Audioslave and for that matter Foo fighters.

Also shitty is Asian Dub Foundation (?), the futureheads, P:ano (the annoying spelling greatly hampered my ability to find the cd in online music store search engines) & even though I love the band "the dears" its a lackluster name.

fall out boy
jet
ben folds

I don't like to resurrect old threads, but this one hasn't been mentioned, and I feel it must be: Broken Social Scene.

I love the band, but going by that name, it would be all too easy to write them off as generic emo, because it's usually only emo bands who have names that heavy-handedly serious.

-Toad the Wet Sprocket
-The Von Bondies

Also, the J-Lo thing is pretentious.

Sincerely
P-Bo

Wait!!! I can explain.....

The Very Idea of Fucking Hitler. I remember seeing their album at a Discount Den shop.

John Cougar Concentration Camp. John Cougar was a dumb enough name by itself.

A band name take-off I did like was REO Speedealer. Band name take-offs, there's a thread by itself.

There are a couple groupings I hate:

"[Singer's name] and the _____" except when you're talking about Bob Marley and the Wailers and Toots and the Maytals. So I guess this is unacceptable except within the bounds of reggae. Although Hootie and the Blowfish is kind of funny, but also pretty dumb. Easily the worst: Jesse and the Rippers (Stamos's band on Full House).

Interjections, references to interjections, and punctuation. These would include !!!, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (the worst, yet I love them), and the Shout Out Louds.

Place references, though I'm not sure if it's worse to reference a place that you're from (Boston) or a place you're not from, especially if that place is Canada-related (Of Montreal, Boards of Canada).

Obviously the Wolf references are out of hand, even if the names themselves are actually pretty good (We are Wolves, Wolf Eyes); some are not (Wolf Parade, Wolfmother).

Some others:
-Neutral Milk Hotel
-The Kills (I read in an interview that they chose this because they thought it would sound cool in any decade, but, well, it doesn't)
-The Killers (kind of aggressive for a bunch of dorks)
-Cat Power (just try being a guy and telling people who have never heard of her that you really like Cat Power)
-Arctic Monkeys

One good one:
Some friends of mine in college had a band that played a lot of jam music. One of the guys was this Indonesian kid Aryo and they called the band Aryo Weedwagon.

best names:

To Rococo Rot
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Clinic
Meanwhile Back in communist russia
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
British Sea Power
Sonic Youth
The Les Claypool... (the different names)

worst names

Megadeth (...ouch...)
I Am Kloot (I am Jojo, I am Robocop...)
Mr. Mister
Whitesnake (how horrible.)
lesbians on ecstasy (hey! they had the guts to call their name like that! Coooooool!