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Top 10 band names from song names
Submitted by elle on July 8, 2008.If there's any one question most bands tend to dislike it's how they got their band name. A band will most likely answer with, "Well, this one night we were drunk..." or something similarly dissatisfying and anti-climatic, which is I avoid the question during interviews.
While listening to emo pioneer Cap'n Jazz's completely encompassing Analphabetapolothology, it occurred to me that two groups of budding musicians lifted their names from track titles: We are Scientists and Scary Kids Scaring Kids.
Then I realized there are many bands who have taken this route to naming, including many from the Northwest:
- Radiohead took the space out of a Talking Heads' track.
- Army of Me was originally a Bjork song.
- Charlotte Sometimes was a song by the Cure before she was a singer touring with the Warped Tour.
- Death Cab for Cutie was a song by the Bonzo Dog Band that played on a Beatles' movie.
- Pretty Girls Make Graves was inspired by the Smiths.
- Shake Some Action! is a Flamin' Groovies tune.
- Stars of Track and Field was originally a song by Belle and Sebastian.
- And Eric's Trip (reuniting this weekend for SP20 for the first time in a decade!) was originally a Sonic Youth track.
Some of these bands seemed to be inspired beyond just the band name and show influences to their naming bands, while other don't. What do you think -- do most of these bands show influences of the song from whence their names came?
What other bands can you think up to join this list?
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imaginary dana said on July 8, 2008:
I'm pretty sure they did, actually. What else could Menomena possibly be??
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Porkchop Sandwiches! said on July 8, 2008:
Ladytron.... a very, very far out song (and video) by Roxy Music.
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Justin Koeppen said on July 8, 2008:
There's some electropop girl band called Uh Huh Her which is taken from the name of the PJ Harvey album, does that count?
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saundrah said on July 8, 2008:
The only ones I can think of are the 'Cocteau Twins' from a Simple Minds song... and 'Sisters of Mercy' from a Leonard Cohen song. And now you know what I was listening to in the eighties...
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chops said on July 8, 2008:
the rolling stones. (from muddy waters, not bob dylan...)
negativland (from NEU!)
blonde redhead (from DNA)
love battery (from the buzzcocks...could be wrong about this one though. green river weren't no CCR cover band, either...)
Old 97s (johnny cash)
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John in Ballard said on July 8, 2008:
Well now you got me wondering just where exactly "Menomena" came from, so I tried to look it up and found this paragraph on Wikipedia:
"The name "Menomena" was chosen for "the way it rolls off the tongue, sexually, or something" [3] and has no specific meaning, although it is often assumed to refer to the Piero Umiliani song "Mah Nà Mah Nà", a staple of The Muppet Show. A recent audioclip from SpotDJ had Brent sarcastically stating that the band name was a portmanteau of the words "Men" and "Phenomena"."
So I don't know, maybe a 1/2 point for that?
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imaginary liz said on July 8, 2008:
There's one of my favorites from 1993: Throw that Beat in the Garbagecan (from a B-52s song) ---- you can see the influence (and aren't they cute!?!?!):
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andrea jean said on July 9, 2008:
Isn't there a band called Seether? I always think of the Veruca Salt song when I hear about them.
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rick said on July 9, 2008:
Okay, this is cheating a little, but "Math and Physics Club" pretty obviously came from The Breakfast Club, right?
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saundrah said on July 9, 2008:
@Rick That's right... but most people under say..30 years old, don't get it. :)
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elle said on July 9, 2008:
Okay to make this all cohesive with the editorial title of this post, my vote for the best band names swiped from song names would be (in random order):
Radiohead
We are Scientists
Blonde Redhead
Ladytron
Death Cab for Cutie
Math and Physics Club
Pretty Girls Make Graves
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Ryan said on July 10, 2008:
There's also the Japanese band "Seagulls Screaming Kiss her, Kiss Her". An XTC Song. Maybe lost on the under 30 crowd.
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Reviews
John in Ballard said on July 8, 2008:
How about sparkly indie pop websites that get their name (or something very close to it) from a song?
The only thing I can come up with right now is Menomena since whenever I hear that name I see muppets singing it. Menomena, do do, do do do.....menomena do do, do do do.
I'm pretty sure they didn't take their name from that though.