Realizing, of course, that it’s quite subjective and that the name may have nothing to do with the relative skills of said band…
I nominate the following bad band names:
Jimmy Eat World
Spoon
Franz Ferdinand
Modest Mouse
Travis
Without a doubt:
Hinder.
Makes me think of someone’s ass, every time. And their music sucks donkey dick, too.
I kinda like Modest Mouse. Got no problems with Spoon or Franz Ferdinand. I like the story behind Jimmy Eat World: apparently, when they were children, the younger brother of one of the band members drew a picture of him (Jimmy, who I believe was/is a chubby one) eating the earth and wrote over the drawing, “Jimmy eat world.” Or something like that. Travis definitely sucks.
Audioslave is easily the lamest band name ever. What a bunch of douchebags.
“It’s like…we’re so into the music that we’re…like…slaves…to the music. To the audio.”
“That’s fuckin deep, dude.”
Neutral Milk Hotel is pretty bad
Missed the edit window to add:
Staind
Trapt
Limp Bizkit
Godsmack
I’m a bit biased against these last four because I dislike their music. In the case of Trapt and Staind, it’s partially because of the music. Their names reflect the lousy angst-rock they produce. Godsmack and LB are just childish.
I’ve never heard their music, but Hoobastank is a rotten name.
I agree, that name is sooo stupid. Like, “look how random and quirky and weird we can make our name!” Also I hate that they always get compared to the Decemberists - the only similarity is that their singers both have slightly nasal voices, and the Decemberists blow NMH out of the water. With cannons from an 18th century pirate ship.
Any band that uses the Heavy Metal umlaut that isn’t Blue Öyster Cult.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Death Cab for Cutie
Linkin Park
Toad the Wet Sprocket. They stole it from an old Monty Python episode.
I have to believe that for a while they thought it was funny, but when they got famous they eventually grew to cringe every time they were asked about it.
I second Hoobastank, by the way. Just horrible.
One more vote for Hoobastank. If I didn’t hate them already, I’d be embarrassed to like them.
!!! (pronounced “chk chk chk.”)
Sunn(((O (I think that’s supposed to be Sanskrit, but it’s really just stupid.)
Panic! At the Disco (and yes, I realize it came from the Smiths song “Panic.”)
Death Cab For Cutie
Toad the Wet Sprocket
Death From Above 1979
Pedro the Lion
Godspeed! You Black Emperor
Neutral Milk Hotel
Olivia Tremor Control
Muddvayne
Panthro UK United 13 (old Gainesville, FL band)
Purposeful wrong spelling bothers me. Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park are the worst offenders, but there’s a nearly endless list of band names that substitute Z for S or do some other stupid creative spelling bullshit.
I once saw a poster in Seattle advertising an appearence by Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome. Also have seen a CD by AIDS Wolf in a record store.
The Band
The Who
The The
My band would continue the “The” tradition and be called “The Hell?!”
Strawberry Alarmclock is pretty lame.
The Goo Goo Dolls, a better name would have been “The Crybaby Emo Gits”.
Hoobastank’s already been mentioned, so…
My second vote’s for Incubus. Now, it’s not a bad name. In fact, it’s a pretty freakin good name. But I hate the fact that they have it and they suck. If they didn’t have such a freakin cool name and produce such fairly lame music I might not think they were quite so lame, which means their name is bad for me since it makes me dislike them. Incubus should be the name of a band that’s Goth as fuck.
Never heard of 'em, but it’s obviously based on the Sunn amplifier logo.
True, but In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the greatest album ever recorded, so they’re excused for the name thing.
I hope you’re not including The Beatles in this.
Love the band, love the music, but The Violent Femmes?
I also hate the names Bowling For Soup, and The Barenaked Ladies.
And also because I hate the names so much I pronounce these as follows:
Incubus (pronounced in-coo-booze)
Hobostank (pronounced poo-poo stink)
Hinder (pronounced high-nder)
Carrie Underwood (Carry Underpants)