Odd Band Name Stories

[Swampish]

So, our band's name is Tone 11. Our guitarist came up with it and we always assumed it was some vague Spinal Tap reference. Whatever, we went with it. One day, when updating our webpage, the guitarist explained to me that, no, it had nothing to do with ST. His name is Tony and apparently when he voice commands his car's entertainment system to play one of his play lists, it interprets his full name as "Tony Levin" for some insane reason (he doesn't even know the amazing bass player of that name, by the way). It even displays on the screen as such. So, naturally, Tony Levin, TonyLevin, Tone 11 and it just kind of stuck. Stupid story, but kind of funny too. Do you have any weird band name stories?

 

[4SG]

My first band was called Chronic Citizens. (This was in the 80's before 'chronic' referred to weed.) The BL/singer wrote a lot of politically-charged tunes about corrupt government officials, corporate greed, mass consumerism, and other civic issues that affect ordinary people. I always assumed the name was about regular citizens plagued by those issues. Turns out the singer was dyslexic and had misread the banner of a local newspaper called the 'Citizen Chronicle.' He liked how the words sounded and went with it as our name.

 

[Swampish]

My first band was called Chronic Citizens. (This was in the 80's before 'chronic' referred to weed.) The BL/singer wrote a lot of politically-charged tunes about corrupt government officials, corporate greed, mass consumerism, and other civic issues that affect ordinary people. I always assumed the name was about regular citizens plagued by those issues. Turns out the singer was dyslexic and had misread the banner of a local newspaper called the 'Citizen Chronicle.' He liked how the words sounded and went with it as our name.

Love it!!! Funny thing is, it works on so many levels!

 

[NZBassman]

when I joined my first covers band we didn't have a proper name, but drummer and singer had come up with names such as 'Nitrous Rockside', Well Strung', 'Full Flight'... we ended up choosing the name 'The Dawnbreakers'... that is until I went to work and proudly announced the name of my band to my work colleagues.
One of them asked if I knew what a 'dawnbreaker' was, then said it is a slang term for morning sexual activity.....
Upon telling my band mates this we decided we needed to change the name
Guitarist suggested 'Overdraft' as a reference to his bank account, then I said what about 'Overdrive'?
and that's what the band became known as

there are or were 2 other bands in New Zealand called Overdrive and I know there are other bands out there also called Overdrive......

 

[jbybj]

My college band (1979) chose “Bizzare Crimes” by perusing a modern art picture book, looking at titles of paintings. We were almost “Buddy Balls and the Red Preview”

Around 1996 I was working on the audio restoration of the 1959 film, “On The Beach”. Fred Astaire has a line, “it’s true, we may have been the blind mechanics of disaster...........”
The moment I heard that, I knew that “The Blind Mechanics of Disaster” was the greatest band name of all time.
I finally got to use it in a jam band starting in 2012. It’s also the name I use for any solo work I may post.

 

[Swampish]

when I joined my first covers band we didn't have a proper name, but drummer and singer had come up with names such as 'Nitrous Rockside', Well Strung', 'Full Flight'... we ended up choosing the name 'The Dawnbreakers'... that is until I went to work and proudly announced the name of my band to my work colleagues.
One of them asked if I knew what a 'dawnbreaker' was, then said it is a slang term for morning sexual activity.....
Upon telling my band mates this we decided we needed to change the name
Guitarist suggested 'Overdraft' as a reference to his bank account, then I said what about 'Overdrive'?
and that's what the band became known as

there are or were 2 other bands in New Zealand called Overdrive and I know there are other bands out there also called Overdrive......

I like Well Strung! Classic!

 

[Swampish]

My college band (1979) chose “Bizzare Crimes” by perusing a modern art picture book, looking at titles of paintings. We were almost “Buddy Balls and the Red Preview”

Around 1996 I was working on the audio restoration of the 1959 film, “On The Beach”. Fred Astaire has a line, “it’s true, we may have been the blind mechanics of disaster...........”
The moment I heard that, I knew that “The Blind Mechanics of Disaster” was the greatest band name of all time.
I finally got to use it in a jam band starting in 2012. It’s also the name I use for any solo work I may post.

You're right! Friggin' perfect!!!

 

[thenazz]

Read an article about a convict that had L-O-V-E tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and H-A-T-E on the other knuckles. He had one of his little fingers ripped off in an industrial accident, thus the band name...Love Hat.

 

[Pilgrim]

I now have a band called Vintage Winds. It was named before I inherited it from earlier members. It's all older guys, and we proudly tell people it's code for Old Farts.

 

[dalkowski]

Some great stories here. Personally, I'd rather endure gum surgery than suffer through the band-naming process. Trust me on this, I've done both.

 

[grinx]

current primary band: Rubber Gypsy

when we first formed it, the BL/singer/songwriter/guitarist asked me what his originals sounded like.
I told him they sounded like a rubber trainwreck

at the time we had no name, just 3 guys playing some other guy's music
he said 'that would be a great name, but I want the word 'gypsy' in there'
ok, how about rubber gypsy?

20 yrs and counting
stoopid =p

older band: Boneyard
the drummer/BL/songwriter (yes!) played a lot of Dominos
the pile of Dominos you pull from is the boneyard
all of our albums had a hidden domino in the imagery somewhere

 

[Bunk McNulty]

I played for a couple years with a band called Gas House Mouse. It was the name of the plane flown by the BL's father during World War II. At various times a veteran's group of guys who were the plane's crew protested the use of the name. The band eventually parted ways with him, and took the name Mojomatic. They are still very much around: Link Removed. The guitarist is the sole remaining original member of the band.

 

[eKay]

I played in a group of white-haired old guys for a while led by a fellow named Gale. He came up with the name “Gale and the Jazzers” which I didn’t think was terribly clever. I suggested “Gale and the Windbreakers” but he didn’t seem to care for that too much.

 

[dadglasser]

I now have a band called Vintage Winds. It was named before I inherited it from earlier members. It's all older guys, and we proudly tell people it's code for Old Farts.

Vintage Wind (something of which we never get enough):

 

[PaulS]

My college band (1979) chose “Bizzare Crimes” by perusing a modern art picture book, looking at titles of paintings. We were almost “Buddy Balls and the Red Preview”

Around 1996 I was working on the audio restoration of the 1959 film, “On The Beach”. Fred Astaire has a line, “it’s true, we may have been the blind mechanics of disaster...........”
The moment I heard that, I knew that “The Blind Mechanics of Disaster” was the greatest band name of all time.
I finally got to use it in a jam band starting in 2012. It’s also the name I use for any solo work I may post.

.

The blind mechanics of disaster is an awesome name!

For a while one of the bands I was in went by 8-1/2 because we all wore that shoe size lol. After too many jokes that it was about the size of something else, we dropped it lol

 

[The Owl]

Once I accidentally named an original band I was in. We were auditioning bassists and drummers. (I played guitar at the time) While tuning up, the keyboard player was producing this insect-like sound, I commented "Ahh the insect effect". He and the singer look at me all wide-eyed and said "THAT'S IT!!!! THAT'S OUR NAME!" And thus Insect Affect trudged the L.A. club circuit for over 2 years straight.

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

For a long time I was in a band called "The Runnin' Kind". We would always tell our patrons, "That's right! Merle Haggard named a song after us."

Silly.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[Danny O Danny]

Naming a band is such a pain--trying to find something that fits, isn't pretentious, isn't taken... When we were in the "find a name" phase, I was describing our music to someone as "a little bit Americana, a little bit rock, a little bit jazz", etc. The person I was describing this to said "Why don't you call yourselves "Little Bit". So, since a Google search turned up nothing on that, we were going to be Little Bit, but we weren't really excited about it. Then our keyboardist offhandedly suggested "Kinda Sorta"--as in, kinda sorta Americana, kinda sorta rock, kinda sorta jazz, etc. And it stuck.

 

[bigjohnyeti]

Way back (around `68 I think) we were just starting out, , we really didn't have a name for the band yet,and we got a call for our first gig. We loaded in and were starting to set up, everything was scattered on the floor. An old drunk woman staggered up to us and said "This looks like F`n mass confusion to me"..So we called the band Mass Confusion for the next 6 years..

 

[Richland123]

I was in a band called Zabie Gazanger

A guy we knew saw a young lady and said, "Hey, it's Zabie Gazanger. Look at the gazangers on her." Being teenage boys, we found that to be very funny and named a band based on that.