I always thought Belle and Sebastian was a cool name! I believe it was a French cartoon.

I'm sorry, but Rage Against the Machine is not a bad name at all. it really did embody the music perfectly.

Death Cab for Cutie on the other hand, is a bad name.

anything with 'family' in it. How hard is it to thing of a real band name?

Excepting Sly and the Family Stone, of course.

I like bands who have bad names on purpose. It's like they're designed to annoy people, which is always fun.

Here are a few good ones. I apologise in advance to the owners of this website for the use of expletives, but these are actual band names -

Lawnmower Deth
Half man half biscuit
Butthole Surfers
Gay bikers on acid
Bomb Disneyland
Mongolian Dethkit
Eddie shit
Fuck off
Fudge Tunnel
Chuck Norris Fury
Turbowanker
Bastards trained by Bastards
Rapeman
Metal Duck
Genital Deformities
Headbutt
Hellbastard
Woundfucker
The Nonkie brothers
Stone minge
21 Chimneys
Jon Bon 10p
Stormtroopers of Death
Sceptic Death
Bolthrower
Babies with rabies
Skinflick
Pungent Stench
Raging Speedhorn
Nailbomb
Dogshit on toast

I could go on...

Dammit I forgot Pig Destroyer and Sheep on Drugs.

I think the name "Butthole Surfers" is quite hilarious.

"The Talking Heads" is a ref. to well.. talking heads. I love it.

I don't see what's wrong with "Dead Kennedys" either. (I'd say Jello Biafra is much worse!)

Oh well. To each his own.

I second Maroon 5 as the worst band name ever. Its just a color and a number.

"Hey, guys. Let's pick a really righteous name!"
"Yeah, that sounds Fantastic! By the way, my favorite color is maroon."
"And there are 5 of us!"
"Totally"
"Maroon 5 is such an awesome name"

I think they're regretting their name right now. They had to be stoned when they named themselves or maybe the corporate lords picked it for them. That would make more sense.

These are probably the most rubbish band names I've heard -

Deathcab for cutie
Modest Mouse

It took me a while to get round to listening to Modest mouse because the name was so crap. They sounded like the most boring band in the world.

I agree with pretty much all of the previously listed ones from terrible bands (Hoobastank, Mudvayne, etc.) The more interesting ones are the bands that are good that have horrible names. Some of the ones from good bands I agree with:

Butthole Surfers (Kinda fits their sense of humor. Still, it's just impossible to get over.)
Rapeman
Death Cab For Cutie
Smashing Pumpkins
Of Montreal (it would be different if they were actually from Montreal)

Some of the ones I do not agree with at all:
Talking Heads
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Rage Against the Machine
Yo La Tengo

My vote for worst world wide is Dogs Die in Hot Cars. Terrible, pitiful, regrettable.

quote:

Originally posted by less_success:
Yo La Tengo

I think Yo La Tengo is only cool because it's in Spanish. If they simply called themselves I Got It, it wouldn't be all that cool. I was dating a Puerto Rican girl a few years back, and though she liked their music, she thought the name was totally silly at first.

quote:

Originally posted by Jglass:
I think the name "Butthole Surfers" is quite hilarious.

"The Talking Heads" is a ref. to well.. talking heads. I love it.

I don't see what's wrong with "Dead Kennedys" either. (I'd say Jello Biafra is much worse!)

Oh well. To each his own.

I think talking heads is a reference to a style of film-making. In the UK, they had these televised monolgoues featuring one person talking directly to the camera. I think they referred to them as talking heads.

I could be horribly wrong here. I'm not well educated about the band. Feel free to correct me.

quote:

Originally posted by Duncan Black:
I think talking heads is a reference to a style of film-making.

You are correct, sir. It is indeed a shot during an interview that's just a close up of a guy talking.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:

quote:

Originally posted by less_success:
Yo La Tengo

I think Yo La Tengo is only cool because it's in Spanish. If they simply called themselves I Got It, it wouldn't be all that cool. I was dating a Puerto Rican girl a few years back, and though she liked their music, she thought the name was totally silly at first.

"Yo La Tengo" isn't cool because it's Spanish, it's cool because it's a baseball reference.

quote:

Death Cab For Cutie

Great band name because it references a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (Now that is a terrible band name) which was featured in the movie, Magical Mystery Tour.

quote:

"Yo La Tengo" isn't cool because it's Spanish, it's cool because it's a baseball reference.

Yep, there's a good story around their name. I'll fill everyone in:

For most of the 60s the Mets were one of the worst teams around. Straight out of Major League, the center fielder (Richie Ashburn) and shortstop (Elio Chacon, who was Venezuelan) would run into each other. Ashburn would yell "I got it!", but Chacon couldn't understand his English.

Ashburn finally learned how to say "I got it!" in spanish - "Yo la tengo!" During a game he yelled it and Chacon backed off. Ashburn readied himself to make the out, only to be run into by Frank Thomas (the left fielder) who did not know any Spanish.

Well, I still think Yo La Tengo is an awful name. It put me off listening to them for years. I'm not sure that I agree an awful name becomes cool because it has a nice story behind it.

There's probably a nice story behind the name Spandau Ballet too, but it's still a diabolical name. As is Flock of Seagulls, Erasure, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, The Police, U2 (possibly the worst band name of all time), Pet Shop Boys, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (What?!) and just about every other band named in the early 80's/late 70's!

What were they putting in the drugs back then? Drugs probably.

quote:

Originally posted by Borachon:
Well, I still think Yo La Tengo is an awful name. It put me off listening to them for years.

Well that's just silly. They had enough press you could have determined whether or not you would like them. Did it put you off reading about them-- oh, wait are you the one with the short attention span?

quote:

I'm not sure that I agree an awful name becomes cool because it has a nice story behind it.[/i]

Well we'll just have to disagree then.

[quote]There's probably a nice story behind the name Spandau Ballet too, but it's still a diabolical name.

Spandau is a neighborhood in Berlin. There is (or was) a prison there. In this prison the Nazi war criminlas were executed by hanging; ergo, the phrase "Spandau Ballet" refers to the reflexive twitching of the human body when it comes to this brutal end. Not such a nice story, but an interesting name.

What's silly about being put off a band by their name? I could list you a dozen bands I have no interest in listening to purely on the strength of their names. Throbbing Gristle for example. Selfish C**t is another. Butthole Surfers is another. Actually, strike what I said about U2. Butthole Surfers is the worst name of all time.

Also, regardless of my attention span, how would you know how much press Yo La Tengo have had in Scotland?

By the way, Wikipedia's great, isn't it?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Borachon,

Wiki can be great, for certain things. I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. I really should have used a smiley or something. I had just read your post in the Catcher in the Rye thread, so it was a lame attempt at humor. Apologies.

Perhaps "silly" was the wrong word choice. How 'bout "limiting." Why would you deprive yourself of the opportunity to listen to good music based simply on the moniker chosen by the band? I mean, not liking a name is one thing, but refusing to listen to a band for their name is completely different.