Dealing with a Terrible Band Name

[fourstringdrums]

This is actually a good thread topic: Would you join a band if you HATED the band name but loved everything else about it. If I had to be embarrassed every time I had to tell someone our name it would probably kill the enjoyment.

I remember that my band in high school went through a few names:

Blindside (before there was a national act with that name)
Camshaft
Ballbag (WHY we chose that name I have no idea..my dad said "Why don't you just call yourselves "Scrotum"?

We finally settled on Syndakit.

[prd004]

I was in a sensational band in the 90's really strong five piece originals, great players, great songs, great dynamics/diversity, everything you could want..........................

Except the name! We actually had no name and were going into the studio to record and were practiced, polished, and pro gig ready but still hadn't come up with the name. The band leader had a horrible name that he really wanted to use but none of us liked it. No one came up with a better name that everyone could get behind so the bad name just kinda became the name. It was terrible, such a killer band and when people asked what our name was all I could do was look at the ground and shake my head.

Come up with a better name! Georgia Boys....... No good. GA Boys............ Not good either. GA Boyz............ Lame.
I think anything with "boys" in it is not good, it sounds like the backing band for Justin Bieber.

[Kmonk]

A good band name is very difficult to come up with. In the early 1980s there was a band in the Southeastern Massachusetts/Rhode Island area called "The Name". All of their ads stated "The Name is The Name of The Name". They did it because they were tired of people asking them the name of their band.

[TDSLaBassiste]

Originally Posted by Phalex

All band names are stupid IMO.

Do what BH Surfers did, change it for every gig. My personal favorite is The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire's A****le.

[TDSLaBassiste]

Originally Posted by fourstringdrums

This is actually a good thread topic: Would you join a band if you HATED the band name but loved everything else about it. If I had to be embarrassed every time I had to tell someone our name it would probably kill the enjoyment.

I remember that my band in high school went through a few names:

Blindside (before there was a national act with that name)
Camshaft
Ballbag (WHY we chose that name I have no idea..my dad said "Why don't you just call yourselves "Scrotum"?

We finally settled on Syndakit.

I played in a band called Siege of Malakand (Tampa area musicians might recognize them if they pay attention to the more underground scene) and holy hell, I hated playing with that name. It sounded so cool at first, but no one could understand what we were saying when we said "Malakand" and then everyone would ask how to spell it and then they'd just give up. Everyone looked at us like we had two heads when they asked for our band name. I quit a while ago for other reasons, but I still cringe when I hear about them.

[Itzayana]

A great band with a stupid name makes the stupid name a great name.
A crappy band with a great name isn't going to make it because they have a great name.
The music is 98% the name is 2%.

[bolophonic]

I feel your pain. I started a band a few years ago with three other dudes. It all kind of fell into place bit-by-bit, but when it came time to name the band, we took a vote and I was outvoted 3 - 1 on one of the worst band name ever. They wanted to be called The Ain'ts, which I hated on many levels: not only was it just stupid, it ALWAYS caused a problem when trying to communicate the name.

Random Person: What is the name of your band?

Me: (pause) The Aint's.

Random Person: The Hates?!?

No matter how clearly you would state the name, people would hear it wrong, because the word "ain't" only works in the context of a sentence. Not to mention the terrible way it looked with the apostrophe AND the 's' on the end. After much complaining from my end, the same three dudes re-voted to change the name to the Latter Day Ain'ts, which is the exact moment I quit.

[Joe Nerve]

Originally Posted by drpepper

"The GA Boyz" Hahaha! That's priceless!

I didn't catch that in the OP. Read it quickly. This had me laugh for about a minute straight. I agree to change the name. Unless the band is gay, in which case I think the name is brilliant.

[AuBassMan]

I was asked to play in a band named "Hang Cool Teddy Bear". I just couldn't get past that name...maybe "Cool Hang" or something like that....

[catcauphonic]

Originally Posted by bolophonic

They wanted to be called The Ain'ts, which I hated on many levels: not only was it just stupid, it ALWAYS caused a problem when trying to communicate the name.

Random Person: What is the name of your band?

Me: (pause) The Aint's.

Random Person: The Hates?!?

After much complaining from my end, the same three dudes re-voted to change the name to the Latter Day Ain'ts, which is the exact moment I quit.

I have the same problem when I introduce myself to a new acquaintance (<--- Hey, there's the A-word within a word!):

Random Person: What is your name?

Me: Lou

Random Person: Luke?

I guess a lot of names are subjective, because I kinda like The Aint's. Maybe it's because in the small city I grew up in in Pennsyltucky, the word 'ain't' IS in the local dictionary. My Wife, OTOH who is more worldly and a grammar nazi, hates it with a passion

[jmlee]

My new favourite band name. Some local guys here called "Dave and Confused".

[TDSLaBassiste]

Originally Posted by AuBassMan

I was asked to play in a band named "Hang Cool Teddy Bear". I just couldn't get past that name...maybe "Cool Hang" or something like that....

Hang Cool Teddy Bear sounds like it would be an awesome J-rock band.

EDIT: Just discovered that's the name of a Meat Loaf album. Nevermind.

[fuzzy beard]

Peach pits?

Try something with peach in it. I always thing George when I think peaches!

[darren1970]

A band I was in many years ago were struggling so much to settle upon a name that we decided that the first 2 random words pulled out of a dictionary would be the name.

We gigged as "Snarl Puppy" for 2 years LOL.

[Vincent P]

The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Who
The Guess Who
Rush
Freddy Goes to Hollywood
The Cure
Bananna Rama
Kiss
Queen
Foo Fighters
Green Day
Limp Bizkit
Pussy Riot

And the list goes on. Yep your band name seems out of place :-)

[1958Bassman]

Originally Posted by Vincent P

The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Who
The Guess Who
Rush
Freddy Goes to Hollywood
The Cure
Bananna Rama
Kiss
Queen
Foo Fighters
Green Day
Limp Bizkit
Pussy Riot

And the list goes on. Yep your band name seems out of place :-)

You mean 'Frankie Goes To Hollywood', right?

I always liked TBA- I just can't figure out how they can play so many gigs in one city on the same night.

[LiquidMidnight]

Purposely misspelled band names are almost always terrible. They are usually cliche and rarely clever. Replacing Ss with Zs is lame, was lame, and will forever always be lame. If a band has Zs in place of Ss in its name, I can almost gaurantee that its promo photo taken with a $30 camera that features four or five poorly dressed and unmatched people standing in front of a brick wall with blank expressions on their faces.

And I can diss the Zs in place Ss cliche. I played in a band for about eight and a half years that had a Z in its name...except the word that had the Z in it was actually a homophone for another word that was implied...so it was a shade more clever than a blatant misspelling. I still hated the name, and told my band members on more than one occasion that if I had been a founding member, there was no way in hell I would have allowed them to name the band what they did.

[LiquidMidnight]

Originally Posted by Kmonk

A good band name is very difficult to come up with. In the early 1980s there was a band in the Southeastern Massachusetts/Rhode Island area called "The Name". All of their ads stated "The Name is The Name of The Name". They did it because they were tired of people asking them the name of their band.

That reminds me of the movie That Thing You Do, where they name themselves The Oneders instead of the Wonders, and everyone they come across pronounces their name phonetically - The O-needers. A great cultural reference to why purposefully misspelled band names usually suck.

[LiquidMidnight]

Originally Posted by Itzayana

A great band with a stupid name makes the stupid name a great name.
A crappy band with a great name isn't going to make it because they have a great name.
The music is 98% the name is 2%.

Very true. There's a national band in the metal scene called Iwrestledabearonce (i.e., I wrestled a bear once). I'm not into their music, but they are talented. They probably have one of the worst band names ever.

But I still think that a band name should be good. It doesn't have to have any deep existentialist meaning that requires Derrida-level deconstruction to interpret. But it should be catchy, memorable, cliche-free, and fit easily on the average marquee. With a lot of the examples of bad names in this thread, it's clear that a lot of musicians don't have day gigs in marketing.

[mellowinman]

In the nineties, my band, Careless Abandon, was frequently introduced as "Carlos Savannah."

I figured, "hey, we better get some latin sounding songs into the act."