I’ve been thinking about band names and have concluded that a large majority of them are stupid, lame, or, mostly, unimaginative.
And so many of the best named bands seem to be very good at selecting a name but not so great at finding success in the music biz. There are a million of them - Hostile Comb Over, Rumpleforeskin, Cindy Brady’s Lisp - but those are for a different thread.
I’m really interested in bands that have made something of themselves, not bands that are known merely because they have a clever name. So maybe try to limit to those bands that have a Wikipedia page.
There are some good ones, though. Here are a few I like:
The Rolling Stones
Barenaked Ladies
Sex Pistols
Devo
The Clash
mmm
Everyone knows I’m going to toss in Cheap Trick. The back-story on how they named themselves is cool, plus they even managed to carry the general theme over to their logo. Finally, their music is, at one level, full of cheap tricks, flash, and homages to other classic bands (e.g., The Beatles).
It’s a Beautiful Day
Fat Mattress (named after a news story about a mattress stuffed with pot)
Blodwyn Pig
The The
The Flying Lizards
Brinsley Schwarz
Hot Tuna
Japanese
Super Monkeys / Amuro Namie and Super Monkeys (because Amuro was said to resemble a monkey)
MAX (Musical Active eXperience)
Korean
IOI (Ideal Of Ideals since the 11 members beat out 90 other contestants and a play on Produce 101 the program)
Wanna One (Not a fan of the group, but a clever play on Produce 101 - Season 2 which created a boys version of IOI)
Butthole Surfers
The Crystal Method
Gang of Four
The Art Of Noise
Slayer
Motörhead
The Cult
Cumbeast
The Fat Dukes of Fuck
Fear
Free Nelson MandoomJazz
Gay For Johnny Depp
Gigantic Brain
Iwrestledabearonce
Jesus Fucking Christ
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
LMFAO
The Lord Weird Slough Feg
Mindless Self Indulgence
Nekrodelirium
Public Enemy
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rage Against The Machine
The Residents
Stormtroopers Of Death
Soundgarden
Tar Babies
Trapped Within Burning Machinery
UFOMammut
Universal Congress Of
Vaginal Penetration Of An Amelus With A Musty Carrot
Waco Jesus
Whores
YOB
a-ha
Arabesque
Bananarama
Blondie
Book of Love
Bucks Fizz
Culture Club
Divinyls
Electric Light Orchestra
A Flock of Seagulls
Garbage
The Go-Go’s
Jefferson Airplane
Las Ketchup
Men at Work
Men Without Hats
Midnight Oil
No Doubt
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Pet Shop Boys
Quarterflash
Romeo Void
Roxy Music
Shriekback
Strawberry Alarm Clock
The Sugarcubes
Supertramp
Talk Talk
Tears for Fears
They Might be Giants
‘Til Tuesday
Tom Tom Club
Ultravox
Violent Femmes
Wall of Voodoo
X
K-pop:
Big Bang
Blackpink
Crayon Pop
Exid
F(x)
fromis_9
(G)I_DLE
Girls’ Generation
Orange Caramel
Red Velvet
Super Junior
T-ara
Twice
Echo and the Bunnymen
Death Cab for Cutie (mostly because of the name’s origin).
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
The Band
Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
I was going to mention them, but you beat me to it.
I remember how, for years and years, radio announcers had no problem saying their name on the air and then suddenly one day started calling them the “B-hole Surfers.” It took me a really long time before I realized they were actually the same group.
