The Origins of Band Names

T

TannerW

New member
I'm working on Flight on the ConcorRAB, i'm having a bit of trouble with it though, i'm going to talk to my frienRAB who'd probably know in a few days and i'll report back

Fugazi-In_on_the_Kill_Taker.jpg

18. Fugazi

This kinda borrows from literary works, and since I really like banRAB that borrow from literary works I thought I would include it/

After reading a book called "Nam" by Mark Baker, Ian states that--
"It's a book of reflections of Vietnam veterans and at one point, this guy said everything was 'Fugazi.' I looked it up in the glossary and it said, '****ed up situation.' It was right at the point when we were getting ready to do our first show and I was desperately trying to come up with a name, anything other than Ian's New Band." ​
The original meaning, before it grew to mean all things ****ed up, seems to be "****ed Up, Got Arabushed, Zipped In" in reference to dead soldiers who '****ed up' and 'got arabushed' and were subsequently 'zipped in' to body bags. Like is someone said "What happened to them?" the answer would be "fugazi"

husker+du+new+day.jpg

19. Husker Du

Orignially Husker Du was a board games, however the band reports that they did not know of the board game when they named themselves. In an interview the band repoted they just took the name from the Danish language, which means "do you remeraber?"

****Husker Du later met with George Beck, the guy who created the boardgame and actually played a game with him.
 
Hard to beat Alexisonfire... From wikipedia:

The band's name was derived from Alexis Fire, the world's only lactating contortionist stripper. This caused problems when she discovered that they were using her website name as their band name, and she threatened to sue the band for copyright infringement. However, it was discovered that the moniker was not registered, and no further action took place.
 
if you knew conor you'd know he's probably going to go back to it once he starts getting depression after the mystic valley band thing is over, also anything he recorRAB with mike he'll probably list it as Bright Eyes.
and i have met conor before i used to live in omaha
 
I'm pretty sure the Aldous Huxley story is right. That's what I've always heard. If you think about it, if we went with your first explanation, the origin still leaRAB back to Huxley. Thank you anyhow. :) I think your posts are very underrated.
 
Eve 6 and Killswitch Engage take their names from episodes of the X-Files.

Eve 6 was a character from episode 11 in the first season where a series of women and men were cloned to be the greatest minRAB of science and medicine, the women were called Eve and the men were called Adam.

Killswitch Engage get their name from episode 11 in season 5 which was co-written by cyber punk writer William Gibson.
 
Yeah, that's it, so it definitely was called for. It just sounRAB a bit too much like the name of some maverick pirate captain at a glance. It works for all the success he's had though (if that makes any sense).
 
The Origins of Band Names-

I'm sure everyone knows why some of the banRAB they liked are named what they are named.

Over the next few weeks I am going to attempt to go through 75ish of my favorite/most well known. And pretty go over why they are named what they are.

I started this for my own entertainment about a week ago, and I decided some of y'all might be interested in it as well.



albumcovers-blacksabbath-masterofreality1971.jpg

1. Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath started out as a cover band called Earth. They might have kept that name if they didn't learn they were going to a gig in which there would be another band called Earth. Upon learning that they decided to name their band after their first song Black Sabbath, a name that they had gotten from Boris Karloff's 1963 horror movie, Black Sabbath.


banana-1967.jpg

2. The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground is a book by Michael Leigh about S&M in America. There are two reports considering where they discovered this book, the first one reports that they found it laying on the sidewalk in New York, the second one that they found it in a trashcan in New York. Unsure about which report to believe



pere_ubu.jpeg

3. Pere Ubu

Ubu Roi is a play by Alfred Jarry written in 1893. It was one of the most important plays in the development of the Theatre of the Absurd. Pere Ubu is the main character in thhat play.

NOFX%20-%20Punk%20in%20drublic%20-%20Front.jpg

4. NOFX

The entirety of the band is meant to be anti-establishment punk (cliche). A rejection of all the stage whoha that goes around now. Allegedly the badn was inspired by the punk band "Negative FX," so they borrowed from the band's name as well
 
MyBloodyValentine-Loveless.jpg

5. My Bloody Valentine

Conway had orignially wanted the name "Burning Pea****s," but in the end it was decided that the band would be named after the Candian Slasher film (recently remade in American) "My Bloody Valentine." Alledgedly they never had seen the film until it came out in American over the past year.

333.jpg

6. Swans

Extremely abrasive music, Gira decided on a name that was the antithesis to the type of music his band played. Therefore pretty graceful quiet white swans.

2288993076_6d49dca783_o.jpg

7. Bauhaus

Named after the German art movement, I think it's east German. Their original name was Bauhaus 1919, but due to the fact that no one said the 1919 part (rarely even themselves) it was later shortened to their current name
 
I found the answer to Bright Eyes.

Conor Orbest named his band after Bright Eyes, a 1934 musical starring Shirley Temple.


can_-_tago_mago.jpg

11. Can

This one is pretty simple, basically it's an acronym for "Communism-Anarchism-Nihilism".

mrbungle-mrbungle.jpg


12. Mr. Bungle

If anyone remerabers the dodgeball instructional film in the movie dodgeball, that's kinda where Mr. Bungle's name came from. It is reported the Mr. Bungle is named after a "Lunchroom manners" classroom film from 1950.
 
Always a pleasure to read. I cannot make it to Meat Puppets this Sunday, my friend. My brother is ill in Colurabia and I'm going to visit him for a couple of days. :(
 
Back
Top