Worst band names

[QUOTE=WordMan]

And Led Zeppelin was an inside joke and has a big, Germanic, heavy sound to it (okay Zeppelins were airships, but the Led part was heavy)
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It was going to be “Lead Zeppelin”, but that could be pronounced leed.

Anyway, I nominate “Ella Baila Sola”, the Spanish version (yes, from Spain) of the Indigo Girls. Awful name. It means “She Dances Alone”.

[QUOTE=fishbicycle]
Gay Bikers On Acid.

The name of this Canadian group upset both homosexuals and motorcyclists to the extent that they had to change the spelling of their name and have their album artwork changed to read “Gaye Bykers On Acid.”
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Were the acidheads too wasted to get *their * protest in, too?

I was going to mention that the acid heads had no comment, but I thought that was a given.

Inxs

( edit:Sorry, won’t take all caps)

[QUOTE=Marley23]
And for some reason, The Sea and Cake pisses me off - maybe because when I heard the name, I thought it was supposed to be meaningful and symbolic. Apparently just a misprint or mis-hearing or something.
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Funny, I was just listening to the Sea and Cake as I read this. Never would have thought that someone would have suggested them in this thread, but it is a rather silly name.

[QUOTE=I’m No Saint]
Queens of the Stone Age.
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I always liked that name for some reason. Also, Audioslave is a shitty name, but they were going to be Civilian at one point. Which is slightly better? And I love Tom Morello, so he can do what he wants.

I’ll throw in Puddle of Mudd (shitty band, shitty name) and Tool (great band, boring name). Short names in general are risky I think.

[QUOTE=Marley23]
Misleading how? Because it’s Spanish?
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Yes. When I first heard them I was just confused. That’s the point, they are subverting your expections so you can appreciate them without preconceived notions blahblahblah No sorry, its just stupid.

Crispy Ambulance is so bad, it’s actually quite good.

Agree with the misspelled nu-metal bands. The fact that their music sucks doesn’t help, either.

Korn is a stupid name for a metal band. Sounds like a group that would play at the Grand Ole Opry.
Even stupider is the backwards, uppercase ‘R’ that they use in their logo.

Hootie and the Blowfish
The Electric Prunes
Hooverphonic (I love them, but hate that name)

My husband is friends with a guy in a local band called Dumpster Juice.

Oh, and this thread reminds me of how, in 90s Seattle, my (youngish) aunt had somehow missed the existence of a band called Pearl Jam. I mentioned something about them to her and she repeated back, slowly and incredulously, “Pearl… Jam?” and started laughing. I got her going hysterically by naming all the grunge bands I could think of (the Screaming Trees, etc.). It was fun.

Screaming Cheetah Wheelies
Driving and Crying
Gene loves Jezebel
Helloween
Trixter
Phunk Junkees
Jackyl
Enuff Z Nuff

[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
Funny, I was just listening to the Sea and Cake as I read this. Never would have thought that someone would have suggested them in this thread, but it is a rather silly name.
[/QUOTE]

Imagine a kid saying it in a fey British accent and maybe you’ll understand why it bugged me. It sounds like it’s supposed to be some very meaningful point about sweet things being overwhelmed and destroyed by a deep, dark world of unrelenting sorrows. It also sounds derivative of Iron and Wine, but anyway… even though I know what the name actually means, I can’t shake the irritation.

[QUOTE=Team of Scientists]
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.”

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I think I remember even Chris Cornell admitting that they didn’t make the best choice of band name.

[QUOTE=Gatopescado]
Strawberry Alarmclock is pretty lame.
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I came here specifically to mention them. I do like “Incense and Peppermints” though.

A guy I knew in middle school joined a band once called Frankenstein Drag Queens from the Planet 13. They sucked.

“No Use for a Name”

Oh really? You don’t need a name yet you name yourselves. You are so damned clever with your oh so clever name. Your cleverness in naming yourselves has guaranteed that I will never listen to you.

[QUOTE=Tahssa]
“No Use for a Name”

Oh really? You don’t need a name yet you name yourselves. You are so damned clever with your oh so clever name. Your cleverness in naming yourselves has guaranteed that I will never listen to you.
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Nearly any band called “The Theory”, where X can be anything. Not inventive at all. And the bands usually don’t totally suck although none of them are my best band evar.

The exception about sucky names is the band called “The Blank Theory”, which I assume is a joke about all the other “The Theory” band names. (Hmmm, I guess “The X Theory” might be a bit better than all the other ones if it really existed.)

[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
I always thought it was a great name. Is it that you don’t recognize the film reference, or that you recognize it and still think it’s lame?
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I didn’t recognize it when I first saw them opening for someone many years ago. I just thought it was pretentious. Somewhere along the line I got hip to the movie reference, but it didn’t change my reaction.

[QUOTE=NailBunny]
And…I love their music, but Butthole Surfers is pretty bad.
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The book Our Band Could Be Your Life gives a few of their discarded names, which includes The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire’s Asshole.

I think indie band names are getting duller and duller. The seeminglessly endless variations on The Nondescript Plural Nouns in particular. Somewhere online I hope there’s a list of words that haven’t been used in band names yet, Og forbid there’s 2 groups plunking their way in a garage somewhwere called [looks in dictionary] The Lawns or The Books.

It doesn’t get much worse than Five Man Electrical Band, though. They couldn’t work “musical” and “Caucasian” in there somewhere?

[QUOTE=Ichbin Dubist]
Somewhere online I hope there’s a list of words that haven’t been used in band names yet, Og forbid there’s 2 groups plunking their way in a garage somewhwere called [looks in dictionary] The Lawns or The Books.
[/QUOTE]

How about when there were two different bands out at the same time called The The?