Worst Band Names

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In 1991, I saw a cassette tape in a Mount Pleasant, Michigan record store by a band named "Barney Trubble and Cunt Stubble". I really regret not buying it.

― joygoat (joygoat), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 04:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Broken Social Scene

― i am nervous (cochere), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Franz Ferdinand. It could be a cool name if it had a reason, but it doesn't seem to, other than "appropriation of historical names seems to be cool now." The name of a figure whose main claim to fame is having been assassinated doesn't really seem to work on a literal or ironic level for a dance-punk band.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Purple Vulture Shit gets my vote. Actually Tex Perkins gets a 2-play, since he also coined Tex Deadly And The Dum Dums. Equally as bad. Amusing. But bad.

xpost: I agree on Franz Ferdinand. The name is terribly distracting.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:06 (nineteen years ago) link

Argh, I used the word "seem"/"seems" three times in that post. I've been trying to break that habit.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Someone already posted The Doobie Brothers, which I think might be the single worst name ever.

Also, any band name with the construction -ING VERB + NOUN. Taking Back Sunday, for example.

Finally, the worst local band name I ever heard was "Give Me Danger"

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I remember a newspaper article around 1994 which said Pavement was the worst name since the Doobie Brothers.

― Magic City (ano ano), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:45 (nineteen years ago) link

But I think part of the reason The Doobie Brothers is worse is that when I hear it I have to think about The Doobie Brothers.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 05:58 (nineteen years ago) link

you say party! we say die!
dogs die in hot cars
blue skies at war

― derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 06:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Finally, the worst local band name I ever heard was "Give Me Danger"

-- Hurting

That is an exceptionally bad name.

― thee music mole, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 06:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Steaming Wolf Penis

― jergins (jergins), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 06:23 (nineteen years ago) link

"Finally, the worst local band name I ever heard was "Give Me Danger"

-- Hurting

That is an exceptionally bad name."

They were a punk band, but my friends and I thought it sounded like a musical and I think we actually invented a hypothetical one, based on the title, about a mama's boy who decides he's had enough of his small town and wants to see the world: "Give me danger! Give me excitement!" etc.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 06:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Give me danger!
Give me danger!
Give me a world of excitement and madness and fun and delight!!

Give me danger!
Give me danger!
Let me roam through the streets of the cities that bathe me in light!!

I've got some rough choreography ideas at this point.

― thee music mole, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 06:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Allegiance
The Sound
As I Lay Dying
Rage Against the Machine
59 Times the Pain (I like the Dü and all--but what a shitty, shitty thing to name your band)
Atombombpocketknife
The Reindeer Section
the Thrills/Chills/Kills/blah blah interchangeable

100% agreed about Songs: Ohia.

― babyalive (babyalive), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 07:08 (nineteen years ago) link

The Bravery

― Jena (JenaP), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 17:29 (nineteen years ago) link

Men Without Hats: I always thought this was at least a funny name. It's like , they're the men *without* hats, as though having a hat was the natural state of man.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 17:42 (nineteen years ago) link

"The name of a figure whose main claim to fame is having been assassinated doesn't really seem to work on a literal or ironic level for a dance-punk band."

The assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is seen as the first event that triggered the First World War. So in historical context he is pretty important. Maybe by calling themselves Franz Ferdinand theyre suggesting they will make such an impact on modern history. In which case i'm predicting they fail.

― dmun, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 18:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Wheatus ranks up there with Hoobastank as the worst band name ever.

I disagree with the person who nominated Spoon though. Isn't it a reference to Can? Plus, "spoon" is a cool-sounding word if you say it a few times. And the name matches the music. The empty space created by a spoon is as important to its function as the material it's made from.

Wow, that sounds kinda pretentious, but I still think I have a point.

― Mila, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 18:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, etc.
Evanescence because no one can spell the damn thing
Switchblade Symphony
Boyzone
Modest Mouse, because I can't tell if it's an intentional pun or just a twee phrase. What's next, Nicolai Rimski Corpse?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 18:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Shooglenifty - an uptempo folk outfit.

these people actually exist.

― john clarkson, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link

I vote Hoobastank. It's honestly surreal and disturbing to think someone thought that name up and actually deemed it good enough to put on albums, flyers, posters, etc. It's bafflingly bad.

A while ago one of my friends had me download songs by this band called Septic Flesh. I can't remember what any of the songs were like but i do remember laughing for half an hour straight at the name.

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 22:00 (nineteen years ago) link

The Killers.

it would have been funny 30 years ago, but now... just childish.

― zeus, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 22:06 (nineteen years ago) link

well, someone who's actually from florida (where hoobastank is from as well), told me once that they use to be called 'whose butt stinks', and were virtually coerced to change it later. now that is certainly worse than hoobastank.

― Jena (JenaP), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 06:44 (nineteen years ago) link

any band on the cover of alternative press!

― latebloomer: HE WHOM DUELS THE DRAFGON IN ENDLESS DANCE (latebloomer), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 08:30 (nineteen years ago) link

-- dmun

Right. But he's important only passively. There's nothing cool or interesting or even funny about Franz Ferdinand. He was a hapless, unwitting catalyst of history, so therefore a lame namesake.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:11 (nineteen years ago) link

I'd also like to vote for bands with names that are so mundane that I can't fucking find them on the internet! You know, if I search "Blonde Redhead" at least I know I'm going to find Blonde Redhead. But recently a guy was telling me to check out a band called "Casino". I can't check them out! I tried!

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Hurting: A band called "The Casino" played here recently... I wonder if they're the same folks.

― i am nervous (cochere), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 18:13 (nineteen years ago) link

I just saw a poster for a band called "Sin Tax" and it made me itchy.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 21:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Nervous, was it a British band?

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 21:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Diesel Park West.
Bowling For Soup.
North and South.
Orange Orange.

And I've just remembered The Stereophonics used to perform under the name TLC. What did it stand for?
Tragic Love Company. Seriously.

http://www.pogopunx.de/lp/big_balls-v.gif
Erm, isn't that Ron and Russell from Sparks? It looks uncannily like them.

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 21:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Los Lonely Boys is easily the worst band name ever.

― Jeff Reguilon (Talent Explosion), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 22:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Hurting: No... some guys from Vermont. So I guess there's more than one Casino out there.

― i am nervous (cochere), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 22:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Mind Science of the Mind!

― Douglas (Douglas), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 22:41 (nineteen years ago) link

i've always thought the worst band names were the ones that followed some empty, bland aesthetic for the sake of it -- like, look at this kind-of-hip sounding name that has nothing to do with the music and offers a mental image of absolutely nothing. also, when you get random first names in band names = TOTAL DUD. i don't get all the hate for grind metal names and such -- i always thought these were pretty great.

Matchbox 20
Blink 182
Semisonic
Guster
Dave Matthews Band
Linkin Park
Marcy's Playground
Sum 41

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link

ten months pass...

Dr Feelgood

― adamrl (nordicskilla), Thursday, 12 January 2006 16:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Test Icicles
Artic Monkeys

― Admiral_Stevens, Thursday, 12 January 2006 17:01 (eighteen years ago) link

three months pass...

Inventory: 10 Successful Music Artists With Terrible Names

― Asthmatic Cajun (Asthmatic Cajun), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 15:52 (eighteen years ago) link

three months pass...

all of today's "metal"/metalcore(?) bands. Bullet for my Valentine? Oh please.

― Aditya (dan138zig), Sunday, 13 August 2006 11:28 (seventeen years ago) link

On that canonical list posted above, I can't get any further than 'Aggresive Crotch Display' before cracking up.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Sunday, 13 August 2006 11:43 (seventeen years ago) link

one year passes...

What could be worse than Chuck D's band Confrontation Camp? Especially considering that Griff is/was a member.

― thirdalternative, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 15:28 (sixteen years ago) link

Came across this one last night: Observers Observing Observables.

― Bimble, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 16:54 (sixteen years ago) link

I Mother Earth

― Pillbox, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 17:09 (sixteen years ago) link

^^^infintesimally better than the comparable Our Lady Peace

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 17:28 (sixteen years ago) link

There's a band whose record I like who have for some reason (something to do with The Royal Tenenbaums) call themselves "Margot & the Nuclear So-and-Sos."

― ellaguru, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 17:32 (sixteen years ago) link

Around town here there is a coffee shop boy/girl folk duo called....*drum roll*....

"PATCHOULI"

!!!!

seriously!?!?!

― RabiesAngentleman, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 17:38 (sixteen years ago) link

Vampire Weekend

Don't know if that's some kind of reference, don't care. That name just completely eats shit.

― RabiesAngentleman, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 17:42 (sixteen years ago) link

Fuck buttons

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 18:39 (sixteen years ago) link

THEIVERY CORPORATION
MORCHEEBA
hoobastank

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 18:56 (sixteen years ago) link

Now imagine the festival name all three would headline.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 18:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Bands Who(m) I Have Never Heard Note One Of, But The Name Tells Me All I Need To Know
who has the worst name out of all the 'The ....' bands?

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 18:59 (sixteen years ago) link

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