The first band I encountered where I thought “Oh, that’s a bit much…” was Jim Thirwell’s Foetus.
Well, not Foetus, so much as his You’ve Got Foetus on Your Breath, *The Foetus All Nude Revue *and Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel incarnations…
… although personally I find a band name like Prussian Blue several orders of magnitude more offensive than any faux-shocking alt band name like Thirwell’s.
I think it’s a lot more of a stretch to claim that it was intended as a dirty joke. Almost anything can sound kinda smutty if you try, but I’ve never seen any evidence that “pearl jam” was pre-existing sexual slang while “jam” was pre-existing musical slang. “We needed a name, so we picked two words that we thought sounded cool” also strikes me as an story too boring not to be true.
In any event, I don’t think giving a band an innocent-sounding name that’s actually slang for semen (reportedly the case with The Lovin’ Spoonful and 10cc) is “too far”. It’s at worst a bit crude, but it’s not insulting to any person or group and isn’t treating some grim or tragic subject as a joke.
Anal Cunt’s music isn’t the best, but their song titles are a wonder to behold. For straight to the gut, there’s “Connor Clapton Committed Suicide Because His Father Sucks” about Eric’s son’s accidental death (Eric is also kind of a dick). Also, “I Gave NAMBLA Pictures of Your Kid,” “I Sent Concentration Camp Footage To Americas Funniest Home Videos,” etc. And just to make trolling full circle, an entire album of songs like “I Respect Your Feelings As A Woman And A Human,” with non-tongue in cheek lyrics.
Or “the Band.”
This, a variation on this. I find bands who choose a one- or maybe two-word moniker, sometimes preceded by “The” insulting to my intelligence. I mean, bands from the 60s get a pass, but nowadays you can act all shocked that an existing band sued you for recycling a name. I don’t give a crap if you pick an obscure word, someone else has already taken it. I’m looking at you Drake, even if that is your actual middle name.
Bands like Pixies and Talking Heads get a pass, because they consciously avoided the “the” (and their music is good).
The logos are offensive to the eyes. Names of “scary” metal bands (not all orthodox black metal, so chill out true belivers!): Impaled Nazarene, Enslaved, Death SS, Satanic Warmaster, Zyklon-B.
Industrial has also flirted with fascism for shock value.
…Multi-Death Corporations, Millions of Dead Children, Millions of Damn Christians, etc.
The middle guy is Seth Rogen and/or Jason Segel! (well actually it’s not)
If you like “This Bike is a Pipe Bomb,” probably don’t put their sticker on your bike.
I heard they outgrew the white supremicist stuff. Did they backslide?
So…is it still OK if I name my band “Viet Kong,” and have the logo be a giant Uncle Ho climbing the Empire State Building, with Jane Fonda in one hand, swatting at biplanes?
Only if Mario is flying one of the biplanes.
Anyone remember an 80’s song called “Digging Your Scene”? It was released in 1986 and was by a band named Blow Monkeys. They have some good songs, including the aforementioned song.
Well according to some sources the name is a racist slang used in Australia to describe Aboriginal didreridoo players. This is not mentioned on their Wikipedia page but there are few pages that make this claim. Lead Singer Dr. Robert(real name: Bruce Robert Howard) lived in Australia as a teen) before returning to his native UK and forming the group in 1981.
Here is a good link:
When I lived in England in the late '80s there was a band named Gaye Bykers on Acid.
They used to get played on the campus radio station in college (late 80’s-early 90’s.)
I played with a group in the late '60s called the Fine Upstanding College Kids. We found we couldn’t fit the whole name on the drum so we just went with the capitalized first letter of each word…We may have lost some high school gigs for that.
You’d be rightly criticized for glorifying gorilla warfare. 
This should be stickied in every forum.
This one kid I went to middle school with listened to a band called Sloppy Seconds or something similar to that. All I remember was him getting in trouble for wearing the band’s shirt to school on occasion.
We formed a rock band in high school, and tried to come up with the most offensive name possible. We eventually performed as “God.”
At least three of us were good Catholic boys, and it made them VERY nervous.
No mention of Nashville Pussy? Killer Pussy (can’t remember if that one is one word or two).
And then there was Rockbitch. The name’s not that bad, but they would perform nude, perform sexual acts with each other on stage, and would toss out a “Golden Condom” during shows. Whoever got it would get to go backstage and engage in sex acts with at least one member of the band, and sometimes several of them at once.
I’m not going to link to it, but there are a few clips on YouTube. The music isn’t that bad. But, like Gwar, seems like you go more for the stage show than the actual musicianship.
and I thought Cherry Poppin’ Daddies was bad
There is a local band called Muff Punch. My husband knows one of the members.
Are they also a GG Allin tribute act? (DO NOT Google him on a work or public computer. Just don’t.) He had backup bands with names like the Murder Junkies, Scumfucs, Toilet Rockers, etc.
When my brother was a teenager, he would invent bands just to name them. The first band name that comes to mind is Canine Homosexuality :p, and he also had a band with a member who called himself E. Jack Youlation. Now that he’s the parent of two teenagers, one of whom is the type who would do something like this herself, he probably chews his nails a lot.
That was the name of a Dr. Hook album.
And a George Clinton-P Funk song.