IRS in this case stood for International Recording Syndicate.
Both Hootie and the Blowfish and Toad The Wet Sprocket, who actually toured together in the mid 1990s, said they would have chosen other names had they had any idea they would become famous.
The Tractor’s Revenge
Where’s the Kid?
Monica Sex
Dr. Casper’s Rabbit Show
Hoof and Mouth
Temporary Sanity
Aussie band the Hard-Ons have managed to become beloved figures despite a name that restricted their opportunities. Dave Grohl and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are prominent fans. They have been the subject of 2 documentary films The Most Australian Band Ever! and Harder and Harder.
Just for fun, I’m gonna go through the thread and see how many of these band names I know the origin of without looking it up.
Steely Dan - A sex toy in the novel Naked Lunch
Pink Floyd - The first names of two blues musicians whose records Syd Barret saw in a store
Blue Oyster Cult - Worshippers of alien gods in an unfinished rock opera by Sandy Pearlman; previously known as Soft White Underbelly, a line from a Churchill speech about the Allied invasion of Italy
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Monty Python sketch
10,000 Maniacs - The movie Two Thousand Maniacs!
Death Cab For Cutie - Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song
The Velvet Underground - title of a book about S&M
Led Zeppelin - Keith Moon told them the band would go over like a lead zeppelin; they changed the spelling so people wouldn’t pronounce it as “leed”
Creedence Clearwater Revival - The “Clearwater” part comes from a TV commercial for Olympia beer, I forget the rest
Lynyrd Skynyrd - A high school teacher named Leonard Skinner
The Doors - Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception
? and the Mysterians - The title of a Toho film
Limp Bizkit - A sex game involving masturbating onto a cookie
Dexys Midnight Runners - Slang for a meth user (same as Motörhead)
The Who - While brainstorming band names, a friend of the group kept criticizing them by commenting “The who?”
Eagles of Death Metal - They were supposed to sound like if the Eagles attempted to play death metal
Pearl Jam - Either a homemade hallucinogen or a euphemism for semen depending on who you believe
Sixpence None the Richer - An essay in C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity
The Band - they had literally been Bob Dylan’s backing group
Lothar and the Hand People - “Lothar” was the name of their Theremin
Foo Fighters - “Foo” was a WWII-era name for UFOs
!!! - The Xhosa-speaking tribesmen in The Gods Must Be Crazy
The story I’ve heard is that Copeland’s dad suggested the name “The Police” as a gimmick to get record executives to call them back. “Tell them The Police called.”
Alice in Chains
Nickleback
Puddle of Mud
and, of course, there is that Mongolian band that call themselves The Hu, which sounds dangerously close to infringing on an earlier band name.
It’s the name of a character in a play, the same character being the root source of the French word “Ubuesque” (meaning “absurd” or “ludicrous”)
Three Dog Night were inarguably big, back in the day (and the name is innocent, referring, I believe, to the number of dogs a shepherd would huddle with on a particularly cold night)
Splodgenessabounds (had a couple of hits in the UK)
j
I saw the Dead Milkmen in 1986, at Bogart’s in Cincinnati. Talked w/ Dean Sabatino before the show on the sidewalk out front, before the show. Cool guy.
I did not need to know this!
I’m sure their manager loves correcting that at every venue they play 
MC 900 Ft Jesus
Camper Van Beethoven
? and the Mysterians
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Tegan and Sarah (their actual names; they were named after Dr. Who characters)
The Arrogant Worms
Echo and the Bunnymen
The United States of America
The Presidents of the United States of America
When a band with a “weird” name makes it big, we all hear their name over and over, and over time it seems less weird.
Sure, yet the origin of “Grateful Dead” was supposedly pulled randomly from a dictionary to mean some act of kindness to a dead person repaid. No dictionary or anything I know, so I’ll just say Phil Lesh made it up.
The four Liverpudlians wanting a name like Buddy Holly and the Crickets, then misspelling an insects name to make a rock & roll pun, “Beatles”
Mr. Burns, to Smithers, after an upsetting set by “The Ramones”
Burns: Have the Rolling Stones killed
Smithers: But…sir
Burns: You heard me!
According to the story I heard on American Top 40 with Casey Kasem, the Commodores nearly broke up before they barely got started because they could not agree on a name. Finally, they did agree to open a dictionary and figuratively throw a dart to select a name. Per group legend, they were all quite happy that they did not end up being known as “The Commodes”.
Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich are still touring. I fear the worst for Dave Dee.
j
ETA
Fallout Boy
Shortened from the original name: The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.
Rats! Ninja’d.
Shortened from the original name: The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.
Rats! Ninja’d.
I had their LP ages ago (came in a special brown paper envelope). Replaced it with a CD when it came out, but I wish I’d kept the LP.