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"Offensive" band names

AaronVonRock

AaronVonRock

Feb 22, 2013
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4,893
Bangkok
#1
Just read an article about the stoner rock band Black Pussy having to cancel a show due to threats of violence against the venue and promoter hosting their show because an online petition against the band is making the rounds on the internet.
Exclusive: Black Pussy Forced to Cancel Show Because of Serious Threats of Violence and Vandalism - MetalSucks

I remember in the 80s when Butthole Surfers was considered so offensive that magazines wouldn't even spell out the word Butthole. It would look like B#tth*le or something like that. The name wouldn't really raise many eyebrows today. Dead Kennedy's also upset a lot of people when they came out. Again, the name wouldn't make the same kind of waves today.

I'm not asking if you find these names offensive (for the record, I don't at all), but would you name your band something that you know is potentially going to cause problems down the line? This is mainly for guys in punk and metal bands since those are the genres that are more often apt to do this and where an "offensive" name can sometimes actually be an asset.
 
#2
My rules, band name should be non racial, non religious (unless its wicked funny like cheeses of Nazareth or something), and non political (again unless its worth it). Black pussy is definitely directly offensive to black people, just like I was pissed at an all redhead band called Ginger shags with a logo of a redheaded woman sucking two dicks with red pubic hair. This wasn't okay with me as a red head cause hey, I'm proud to be a redhead and that poopie is directly demeaning and im not about it.
Wont tell em they can't name their band that, but lets think about how people might receive it before advertising it
 
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#3
Yeah back in the days of when punk was big, sure you could be called anything and it's whatever cause hey built in fan base. Nowadays forget it, Cause I know from experience now when your band has "racy" name you just don't get booked. I didn't personally find it fun to be in a band where we where around for 2 years and only played 8 shows (Technically we didn't play out until our band was 1 year old already) cause we couldn't get booked cause of our name.
 
#4
It was all attitude for us. Either you appreciate the music, you don't, or you do but you're hung up on the name. That last one was the only one we thought was lame, so we thought it was cool to keep our name. Then we got a little older, and getting gigs was harder than it was when we were one of the only bands in high school (and there were benefit concerts all the time to play).

EDIT: Our name wasn't in anyway racial or anything though, just "suggestive" I'll say. I would never allow a racially insensitive name in any way, shape, or form.
 
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#5
I like being as edgy and anyone else in a punk band but I'm not into cuss words in band names (with very few notable exceptions-the atomic bitchwax, the bastards) Anything bigoted just doesn't work for me...although to prove I'm a hypocrite, JD Pinkus (formally of the Butthole Surfers) had a band called the Git down syndrome. Not gonna lie-I laughed. A lot.
 
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#6
Nashville Pussy, Bare Naked Ladies. I doubt either of these names would have passed in the decades leading up to the 1980's The P.arents M.usic R.esource C.enter wanted to shut down the band W.A.S.P. because of their name. Yeah didn't work.

I like creative and/or humorous band names so knock yourself out and call yourselves whatever you want. I personally don't care what a band wants to call themselves. It's not going to offend me.

One would be pretty hard pressed to offend me in any way least of all a band name.

However consider two things:
1) Clever names usually aren't that clever to the masses.

and

B) If your music sucks then what's the point.

It's fun being young but it's never fun being stupid.
 
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#10
Anymore I think everything has to be PC. I recall playing Creep and singing the F*** bomb (which is part of the lyrics btw) someplace and the owner/MC/whoever it was asking us to censor it out because they didn't want profanity going over the PA. I get it from an owner's perspective, you don't want to offend the clientelle and I respected it. But, sometimes I think we get a bit too carried away with stuff like this.
 
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#11
strictlybass_ic said:
Anymore I think everything has to be PC. I recall playing Creep and singing the F*** bomb (which is part of the lyrics btw) someplace and the owner/MC/whoever it was asking us to censor it out because they didn't want profanity going over the PA. I get it from an owner's perspective, you don't want to offend the clientelle and I respected it. But, sometimes I think we get a bit too carried away with stuff like this.
Click to expand...

Everytime I do Ceelo Green's '**** You', I ask the audience if they are a PG or R rated audience. I have never had an audience answer PG. Then I ask, so is it 'Forget You' or '**** You", and every single time it's "**** You'. When the chorus comes along, the audience is usually dropping F-bombs enthusiastically.
 
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#12
strictlybass_ic said:
recall playing Creep and singing the F*** bomb (which is part of the lyrics btw) someplace and the owner/MC/whoever it was asking us to censor it out because they didn't want profanity going over the PA.
Click to expand...

Last week I went to an acoustic (1 or 2 people at a time) open mic night and a guy did that song. A pretty decent rendition. Kind of in the style of Bob Dylan, yep he did a cover of this, awesome. Back on track, it seemed like the strummer/singer might have been told to censor himself but the lyric was so ingrained in his mind he forget and almost caught himself.
 
#14
strictlybass_ic said:
Anymore I think everything has to be PC. I recall playing Creep and singing the F*** bomb (which is part of the lyrics btw) someplace and the owner/MC/whoever it was asking us to censor it out because they didn't want profanity going over the PA. I get it from an owner's perspective, you don't want to offend the clientelle and I respected it. But, sometimes I think we get a bit too carried away with stuff like this.
Click to expand...
Kinda funny, a band I know was banned from playing the local county fair ever gain as when they did a similar song with the "clean" lyrics the entire audience shouted out the "real" words ;) .
 
#17
A great Australian rock band from the 70-80s did a song called "Am I Ever Going To See Your Face Again". Nothing wrong with that, until an audience one night replied with "no way,get fu###ed, f##k off" every line in the chorus. And some how it stuck and spread around the whole country to the point where whenever it is played the whole crowd chants it.
 
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#18
BAG said:
A great Australian rock band from the 70-80s did a song called "Am I Ever Going To See Your Face Again". Nothing wrong with that, until an audience one night replied with "no way,get fu###ed, f##k off" every line in the chorus. And some how it stuck and spread around the whole country to the point where whenever it is played the whole crowd chants it.
Click to expand...

There's a couple songs like that which come to mind.....
There's Mony, Mony which some crowds will sing 'Hey, hey, what, get laid, get ****ed' between verse lines.
There's also 'Family Tradition' where the audience will yell out "to get drunk' or 'to get stoned' in the chorus.

I'd love to do a set of Rocky Horror just for the audience interaction.
 
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#19
The lead singer of The Angels (who sang Am I Ever Going To See Your Face Again) died last year and a lot of bands were playing some of their songs as a tribute. My 14 year old daughter started doing an acoustic slow ballad style version of Am I Ever Going To See Your Face Again introducing it as a love song. If you read the lyrics it really is a love song and works well that way. She's used it to open gigs a few times and so far no one has come back with the crowd refrain. She is smart enough to only play it at the start of a gig before anyone has had too much to drink, and also having a young girl up there appears to make people think twice about it. I also think that most people don't click to what the song is till the last chorus.:laugh:
 
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#20
I hate to lump this stuff in with what republicans love to call "The general coarsening of society" but... under the rubric that even the blind swine finds the occasional truffle, they might be right. I was in a deli a few weeks ago and saw some fat weeble-like man wearing a black T-shirt that, in large red letters said "F**K Jesus Christ". Now, I'm an atheist so I have no real dog in that fight except... who wants to see that? Seriously - you want you kid/mom having to read that? I wanted to throat punch him for, if nothing else, making atheists look like jerks.

So yeah - there *is* such a thing as offensive and sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's mild and other times - it's just stupid and annoying.
 
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