Perfect name for that band. Because what does a Vampire do?
Dammit! I just spent a half-hour reading this tread to post this!
Now I gotta come up with something!
.
.
.
Combustible Edison! Whatever the fuck you call what they do, it doesn’t sound what you would expect from the band name!
Pulled that outta my ass last minute!
According to wiki, “Slaughter” is, indeed, his last name at birth.
Mark Slaughter
Pink Floyd was named after two bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Never recorded any blues songs.
I just listened to Mark Maron interviewing Chris Cornell on the WTF podcast, and Cornell said that the Soundgarden name worked in their favor when they were an opening act. People expected something ethereal or a bunch of noodling shoegazers, and were pleasantly surprised.
They also hoped for sponsorship from Birmingham brewery Mitchells and Butlers, billing themselves as The M&B 5 and painting the initials MB on the bass drum: when the brewery declined, they were stuck with finding a name that matched the initials.
Or, as my hair metal-despising friends and I used to call him, Mark S. Laughter.
Blues Traveler. Folk Traveler maybe, Blues, not so much.
Windmills. The name is an indirect reference to Don Quixote. There was an old movie with the same name, containing the exchange (paraphrased from memory):
“You’re just like Don Quixote, always tilting at windmills.”
“Nonsense. Quixote thought that every windmill was a giant. I merely think that they might be giants.”
At least they feature the harmonica, so the name isn’t completely off the wall.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is much less bluesy.
I went through most of my life thinking Grateful Dead were a heavy metal band, also due to their skull-with-pigtails logo.
King Crimson also sounds like some dark metal band.
The Velvet Underground sound like some jazz lounge act.
Rainbow sounds like a Carpenters or Mamas & Papas style band.
…and the winner goes to…tears envelope…Joy Division.
So, what are they? I’ve always assumed, based on the name, that they were one of those faux-Satanism metal bands.
Strapping Young Lad sounds like the name of a 70’s Glam Rock band.
If you told me there was a band named after a character in The Neverending Story, I would expect some kind of light, kid-friendly pop band. Nope. Atreyu is a metal band.
Even if you don’t think much of their music, Blondie is aurally distinguishable from Hitler’s dog.
English Prog Rock band. Contemporaries of Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and the like.
The Traveling Wilburys. They didn’t travel, and there is no Wilbury.
Funny, just reading on Wikipedia how they did com up with that:
The 1970s band Death* was not a metal band, but one of the first groups to play a punk rock style.
They basically shattered any expectations you might have for any band. Variants of this band (3 black brothers from Detroit) have also played funk, gospel and reggae.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(protopunk_band)
*There’s another band named Death, but they play the metal style you’d expect.
It still might not evoke images of moody proto-goths, but you do at least get a slightly better idea of why they were so dark and gloomy if you know where they got the name.
Today Is The Day sounds like the band might be sort of hopeful. Instead, they are dark, bleak, heavy and noisy.
Young And In The Way sounds like a pop-punk band. Nope, it crusty, blackened thrash.
For some reason, Weekend Nachos play grindcore… (NSFW)