Picking a band name sucks

It does. I'm putting a new cover band together, we have contacts we can get gigs from but I'd like to be able to at least tell them the name of the band we're asking them to book. We've been practicing together about six weeks now, starting putting nominations out there from day one. Here's the list of name ideas that came out:

Ow That Hurt (or just Ow)
Dirty Bubbles
Rock Bottom
The Ride
Bubblehead
Argyle Gargoyle
Get in the Van
Mug Shot Mary
Junk Drawer
The Kin
Long Hand
Payphones
What's Left
Ride the Beauty
The Last Call
All God's Dogs
Four Tea Thieves
Born on a Ship
Frogfeet
The Nibblers
Rider
The Third Way
The Kicks
The Easy Part
The Transients
Objects in the Mirror
The Switch

A week ago, we finally agreed to go with the Switch (three of us used to be in a band together called Switchblade Beat and it would have been a nice reference). Then I went home and googled it and found a bunch of other bands using the name. None are in our area but I'm concerned it would make it harder for anyone trying to search for us to find us. So I told the others this over email, and the singer and guitarist agreed to change it. We thought "Mug Shot Mary" sounded like a drug but modified it to Mug Shot Monday and were ready to go with that. But the drummer never bothers checking his email, so we get together for practice last night and he vetoes the name when he hears it.

Further discussion, no clear winner emerges, so we take a different approach. Pass the list of names around on a sheet of paper, everyone cross out any names that they positively do not want to use. One principle I laid down is that no one should be playing under a name they hate; I used to be in a band called Wipt (name chosen before I joined) where every single %&*@ing gig the female singer would introduce the band by saying, "Hi, we're Wipt! Well, the boys in the band are whipped, I'm the one holding the whip!" Hardy har har. So the paper goes around, everyone cuts the names they dislike, we wind up with nine candidates. Cut them into slips of paper, put them into a hat, and draw one. What comes out is... Longhand.

We're not sure how it will work as a name, so we said we'd use it for six months and not spend a lot of money on marketing with it, just a facebook page and maybe $60 for a banner to start. Then we'll review after six months and see if we want to keep using it or go with something else.

Yeesh. At least we have something to work with now. I'm itching to get gigging.

 

I actually have a different view on it: in my opinion, pretty much all band names are stupid, until the band starts to catch on. Who would want to join a band with a dumb name like the Beatles or the Who or Cream? Personally, I wanted to go with one of the more whimsical names, like Mug Shot Mary, Get in the Van, Dirty Bubbles or Ow that Hurt. But I couldn't force them on the others. Longhand is pretty vanilla, and as soon as I put up a facebook page for it my wife promptly told me it's boring and sounds like an Eric Clapton tribute band. Oh well. I don't want to delay booking gigs waiting for a perfect name that everyone loves to descend from the sky. That list is the best we came up with after a month of brainstorming. We'll try this one out for a while and see how it takes.

 

Thanks. I was the one to nix Four Tea Thieves. I kinda felt like it would be the Oneders from That Thing You do.

Thanks, I thought so too. Obviously this band needs to crash and burn so I can use that in the next one. It got nixed because some members felt that mug shots are sad and depressing and don't say "party." I thought that people would associate it more with all the joke or ironic mug shots that are out there in pop culture - or that the party would be so awesome this weekend that on Monday people would be looking at your mug shot. Ah well.

We had a bit of a running issue between the guitarist and me, because he wanted a super short name (a la Rush, Yes, KISS, etc.) and was hesitant about longer ones (like those with three words). I liked the way having a few more syllables lets you set up humor or contrast, and like you say, easier to avoid duplicating other bands.

ha ha exactly.

Argyle Gargoyle? That would be the guitarist. Probably two-thirds of the list were his ideas. I liked some of them.