Indie Band Names
 

I know its a running gag that indie bands are pretensious but does anyone else get so turned off by band names that you can't bring yourself to listen?

Their either something like "...and you will know us by the trail of the dead" which I don't think is that bad, to names of bland you'd think they were the title of pearl jams songs.

Am I crazy or has the whole indie world over thought their names with some self-righteous jab at everything they think is laconic?

I think indie gets too much crap for bad band names and I think other genres are just as guilty. I don't know why everyone picks on indie for it, I mean we have My Chemical Romance, Bullet For My Valentine, Matchbox 20, Mr. Mister, Goo Goo Dolls, Enuff Z'nuff, etc. Bad band names are common in every genre, people need to stop picking on indie for it just because the !!!'s get popular. Actually I'd say the worst genre for this is really that whole mtvmo scene because it's very rare they even have a good band name.

I try not to judge bands before listening to them especially because some bands with horrid band names are actually really good, take My Bloody Valentine for instance.

I don't see a correlation with indie band names and pretentious band names.

I think he's saying unnecessarily long/random band names are considered pretentious which is true - as to whether they actually are pretentious, well, probably not as often as they're considered pretentious. 'Pretentious' isn't a word I like to use very often, because it is abused when people assume too much. E.g. I wouldn't wager that every indie band with a long name is being pretentious. Some are just having fun or conforming to others who have done that.

Also, there's the whole prog is pretentious thing where a prog band is pretentious for having long songs and being technically skilled. Rubbish. If a prog band wants to write a long song, I don't see how that makes them pretentious... it's merely harks back to classical structures. It's their choice, but people assume that prog bands think they're superior to other musicians for having long songs.

And obviously jazz musicians are being pretentious when they use unusual scales... no, they just like to use those scales because they find them musically interesting.

People often use the word when something doesn't fit their standards or they don't know the motive behind something and assume pretentiousness. Sure in some cases, a band is being pretentious... e.g. there are a lot of jazz snobs/elitists who deserve to be called pretentious, but often there's nothing pretentious at all.

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Anyway, that was just my horribly jumbled rant on that topic and now follows my on topic part of my post.

I'm not put off by bands with bad names but it is slightly annoying because people assume too much. My Bloody Valentine is a great example... people assume they're emo. Death could be seen as a generic band due to a 'generic' death metal band name when they're anything but, and their name isn't generic because they were around at the start... in their time, that bandname wouldn't have been generic. Destroyer 666 is another good band with a shite name. People assume Eagles of Death Metal are a death metal band.

It took me awhile to think of the real offenders here, but the one that I always thought was beyond toleration was “The Division of Laura Lee” and for multiple reasons really

A band full of men used a woman’s name for their band. Are you trying to be ultra feminist or funny? I don’t get the need, and a division? Is this like a “her face could launch a thousand ships” type thing? Whenever a band seems to uselessly gender question for no real purpose other than to “shock people” it just makes me think that their either 13, stupid, or have nothing to do with their damn time. To me, if you don’t have anything that means more to you than shocking people, you’re music is probably boring.

I stayed away from the band THE 80'S MATCHBOX B-LINE DISASTER because I just connected them with the awful MATCHBOX 20. Happily I put my prejudice aside and found a great band.

Indie certainly isn't the only genre with bad band names - take a look at metal. Now, there are just plain pathetic d&d character names out there used by bands.

If you think band names are bad
:
Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D (1991)

And yes, it is a film!

I credit Porcupine Tree with the worst name for a great band. They're not indie, but they deserve mentioning.

I am in a blues/folk band called; The Moans of the Dead Men Who Are Buried in the Earth and Feel Our Footsteps

Or simply, "The Moans" as we are known locally. We are definitely pretentious.

a lot of bands just use a long name, with out-of-the-ordinary comparisons and strange visuals to try to sound poetic and artistic. it may be an overcompensation for their lack of creativity. But granted that this is not only limited to indie bands. But when a band goes mainstream and gets signed to a big label, I'm sure that the label tells them if their name is stupidly long and makes them change it....dirty sell-outs.

i love the names for indie/folk bands because they aren't like anybody else. album titles i think are the same way especially with Modest Mouse "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank" although that album is amazing. I think the titles give more on about what the album would be like too. in some ways.

Yeah but how do you measure their creativity? The Beatles commissioned a renowned artist to design the white album cover - have you seen the white album cover? Is that creative? You have to be careful with that statement, boyo.

well ill say that most are creative. but the white album cover was also unique which is what i was getting at with indie names being so long but it suits who they are. The Beatles did have a unique but amazing sound which is what the album cover could reflect. Either way my opinion could mean anything. psh.

I was wondering this myself (sorry to bump a year old thread)...
I've come to the conclusion that the indi musicians, growing up in our generation, figure that a really long, obscure phrase for a band name ensures that when people google them, you get to their myspace.

Think about it, if I were to name a band "The Wasps", how many results would google pull up for that? A ton.

Now if my name was "One story in Cherryville", I'd get for or five google pages dedicated to me.

I can't believe I didn't write it at the time, but the name thats always bothered me is "Division of Laura Lee." I've never heard of them much after their arrival but everything about them pissed me off, especially the name.

I really don't think anyone would name their band based on google accessibility.. but I can see your point. I think it's more a case of making sure the name is something that's memorable.

I agree with you completley. Indie artists are bullied for making the same mistakes with naming their band as pop, rock, etc. artsists b/c indie is kind of the loner kid on the music scene, the only one with a real soul and meaning so they stand out. i honestly dont think that a bands name should really define anything about them, or even the titles of their songs. all it should really be about is the meaning and lyrics of a song and the bands music playing abillites. that way, sell out artist like green day (who have made millions of dollars by playing 3 riffs over and over in every song) would be the outcasts while all the real musicans could get the recognition they deserve without the fear of selling out and losing their soul in this dog eat dog business.

I was a little put off listening to The Brian Jonestown Massacre because of their name. Got over it though.

lolwut


you're talking about indie, right?




nah, just kidding, but there's other genres that can posess those qualities as well, you know. and with band names, i don't really care about how sh*tty a band's name is, and believe me, i've heard some sh*tastic ones, i'll give them a listen.

I tend to ignore any bands that have names with Z's instead of S's.

to think that being 'indie' today is akin to being an outsider is comparable to thinking being 'alternative' in 1996 was still underground.

There isn't much rhyme or reason to it, but some band names just strike a chord of unreasonable dislike in me.

I don't think I will ever listen to the Butthole Surfers.

you're missing out on some crazy stuff then^


with Butthole Surfers, i mean. :D

Probably. I can only hope that someone slips me a mistagged copy of their albums and I can listen without being blinded by hate. Like a musical roofie.

you could label them as BH Surfers, that's what the media dubbed them cause of their name.

They felt the need to censor butthole? heh....

yeah, haha

Best band name is Anal C\unt.

Actually that name bother me Jester. Haha, I like unique long name. It's got character. Sure it's a pain in the ass to say sometimes, but I think it just spices it up a bit. I rather have a really unique sounding band name than a name like "The Lightnings" or some generic stuff like that.

Hmmm...I've thought about that, but the alternative explosion in the early 90's was much more far reaching. If you look at the charts, it's still the post-grunge/alternative dinosaurs that rule. Think about the biggest rock bands in the world.

For example, I found a list of the best selling albums of the year so far, and if we are to filter out the hip-hop and pop....

Coldplay: formed 1998
Kid Rock: breakout album 1998
AC/DC: formed 1973
Metallica: formed 1981

That's not to say being "indie" is equivelant to outsider...I don't think it ever has.

And think about the last few HUGE rock bands constantly played on the radio: Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nickelback, Creed, Linkin Park...this is the equivalent of Ratt, Motley Crue, and Poison owning the charts in 1996...which as we know was not the case...instead it was a bunch of alterna-posers, an amount of which isn't nearly enough to warrant any comparisons to the early 90's explosion.

Then again, Radiohead is arguably more popular now than when they released OK Computer, and the local Boston station WBCN who's been rehashing the same alterna-hits/post grunge shite the last 10 years just went out of business, so who knows.

And thank god for that one. You can only hear RHCP and Pearl Jam on repeat so much before your head explodes.

So true!

I thought I was one of the few that got super tired of RHCP's "catchy" songs. Every time the singer tries to rap I can't help but laugh at how bad it is. Don't even get me started on what happens when they try to be emotional...

I'm all for creativeness, but trying to introduce someone to WHY? can prove to be difficult sometimes.

I can't stand the name Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, but the music is alright.

Just out of curiosity, what is it that makes "Black Moth Super Rainbow" a bad band name but at the same time "Neutral Milk Hotel" a good one? I love both of those bands, but I haven't the slightest idea where NMH got their name from... And to tell you the truth, I can't think how many times I've mentioned them before to people that haven't heard of them only to get the response "That's a dumb name." And no one has mentioned Mew yet; while they have a 3 letter band name their new album is called No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World is Grey I'm Sorry They Washed Away. That's pretty bad. Then, there's Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, whose name isn't necessarily bad for an acoustic ska punk sounding band that plays loud acoustic music. But they have a song entitled "They Provide the Paint for the Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint on the Insides of Your Eyelids." Both of those are pretty damn pretentious if you ask me... absolutely unnecessarily long.

You stole mine! You're a bastard.

There's a band called "We Were Promised Jetpacks". That's one I have trouble appreciating.

I quite like Black Moth Super Rainbow as a name. Obviously there isn't supposed to be a deep hidden meaning to it, it's a load of cool words which sound good next to each other which works with the music they make. Neutral Milk Hotel i'm less of a fan of but that's to be expected with throwing words together, can't please everyone.

what's in a name?

modest mouse
built to spill
red red meat

terrible names. great music.

but are they any worse than beatles? pink floyd? u2? zz top? all silly!

Flowers for the Man Who Shot Your Cousin
Jackie-O Mother****er
Hurray For The Riff-Raff
I could get into a ton of terrible band names for folk bands.