Ryan says:
A good band name can often do more for a band than, say, great songs, great gear, and/or great shoes.
I've never heard a lick from the Battlecats (hip-hop group, right?), but I'd wear their t-shirt regardless.
Similarly, a bad band name can become an immediate & eternal albatross, no matter how brilliant
the band. Bowling For Soup could record the nu-ska 'Rubber Soul', and I still couldn't
pull the trigger. David Bowie himself could burn me a copy & say 'this is utterly essential,
life-giving music - I haven't slept for days. See? Look at my eyes - they're all funny', and
I'd be all 'urrhhhhh ... but the name .... it hurts.'
And yes, it's completely your prerogative to think me throwing stones at glass houses w/ our
band name being what it is. That said ....
30 great band names
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01. Teenage Fanclub
02. Manic Street Preachers
03. The Ramones
04. The Blackbyrds
05. Call And Response
06. Spiritualized
07. Battlecats
08. Van Halen
09. Roxy Music
10. Air Supply
11. Black Flag
12. The Drifters
13. Phantom Planet
14. The Pixies
15. Magnet
16. Minutemen
17. The Microphones
18. Blondie
19. The Avalanches
20. Chic
21. Caravan
22. Green Bean
23. Hoosier Hot Shots
24. Blackalicious
25. The Incredible String Band
26. Faze-O
27. AC/DC
28. Cypress Hill
29. Crowded House
30. Grandaddy
and
20 non-great band names
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Note: A bad band name does not necessarily connotate a bad band (e.g. - Prefab Sprout, Plone, etc.),
so pls keep all hate emails appropriately focused, thx -
especially those incoming from bands doing vanity web searches.
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01. Stereomud (infuriatingly bad - you can smell the A&R wafting off of this one)
02. Temple of the Dog
03. Phunk Junkeez ('Funk Junkies' only slightly better)
04. Limp Bizkit (mainstream 2000 forever etched in stone)
05. Prefab Sprout (God bless Paddy)
06. They Came In Droves
07. The Judd Nelsons, The Jack Rubies, David Johanssen & the Harry Smiths, et al
08. LMS (yucccckkkkkk)
09. Salty The Pocketknife (or most BLANK the BLANK schemas, though Pedro the Lion is ok)
10. Lagwagon (competent punk, but name looks horrible, hate that rhyming meter [see #3])
11. Fad Gadget
12. Soil (see #1)
13. Bowling For Soup (possibly a funny name when you're flyin' high in the friendly skies)
14. The Flaming Sideburns (The Lips & the Groovies were there first)
15. D'Cuckoo
16. Lorenzo's Music (speaking from experience here - 'Rorenro Ruric' would've been a better call)
17. Plone (you know that scene in the 1st LoTR where Bilbo drops the ring on the floor w/ a thud?)
18. Psyco On Da Bus (Tony Allen is the absolute greatest ever, but the 'Da' alone qualifies it ...)
19. Samantha 7 (had CC gone w/ 'Samantha Seven' or just 'Samantha', they'd at least be off the list)
20. Bis (I like 'Biz' though)