Band names...what were they thinking?

[PotatoSolution]

I know that the terrific prog-metal band 3 (of "The Ghost You Gave To Me", a great album) were considering changing their name, because nobody could find them on Amazon or Google or Facebook.

[Lebofsky]

For a while I was in this band called Three Piece Combo (http://threepiececombo.bandcamp.com).

The whole point was to seem generic. All three of us would set up at the front of the stage (including drums). There was no singing or addressing the audience, so we never needed monitors (since our amps were behind us). And we would play this ridiculous odd time post rock arty garage trio stuff. It was cool, but really really really hard to promote (given the music, and the name, and the wordless stage show). Oh well, lesson learned.

- Matt

[arise_shine]

Seriously, why didn't all those 60s/70s bands think about internet search engine useability when naming themselves?

[WytchCrypt]

Marillion probably got off to a bad start with the Tolkien reference.

Marillion was originally called Silmarillion

[DGuitarist]

Silly Marillion. What a bunch of Genesissies!

[Harbottle]

Marillion was originally called Silmarillion

Yes, that'll be the Tolkien reference I mentiond?!

[PeterG]

Yes, and one of the greatest names for one of the finest bands ever - IMHO.

Totally agree.

It is among my list of favorite band names, along with other unforgettable names, such as: like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Poisoned Electrick Head, Electric Light Orchestra, Night Flight Orchestra, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Blur Oyster Cult.

[PeterG]

Seriously, why didn't all those 60s/70s bands think about internet search engine useability when naming themselves?

Pre-internt you obviously never used a microfiche in a library or used a music library card index or searched for something in a newpaper archive.

[Finch Platte]

'Proto Kaw' always makes me wince.

[GuitarGeek]

I know that the terrific prog-metal band 3 (of "The Ghost You Gave To Me", a great album) were considering changing their name, because nobody could find them on Amazon or Google or Facebook.

Hell, I'd have changed the name, just off the fact that it's the same as a certain ELP related project that most people don't seem to like.

[GuitarGeek]

Pre-internt you obviously never used a microfiche in a library or used a music library card index or searched for something in a newpaper archive.

How the hell hard can it be to look something up in the card catalog?! I mean you just look it up alphabetically, right? At least, that's the way it worked at our library.

(as a side note, I remember when I was about 8 or 9, going to the librarian and asking if they had any Police records, and she asked "You mean recordings of police radio?" and I said, "No, the rock group The Police.". )

When it became a pain in the ass was when they got rid of the card catalog and replaced it with a computer system, basically a prototypical search engine. This was back in the 80's, and the thing was perpetually crashing. You'd have to get the librarian to log the computer back into the system. At first you still had the actual physical card catalog, in case things got particularly wonky with the computer database. But after they ditched the card catalog, and let's say the entire database (not just the local access point) went down, it was a bitch finding anything in the library, unless you knew exactly where it was.

[GuitarGeek]

Back in the days before Google, having an easy-to-remember and commonplace name was an advantage. You got free publicity on every soap poster. You got people saying your name in the course of everyday speech. You could cut-and-paste magazine ads for your press kit.

Google screwed all that

Actually, Brian Lane gave a very good explanation for band names like Yes, Asia, and GTR on the Making Of GTR video: you can print the band's name big on posters and adverts. If you've got a long name like The Amazing Thunderbirds, sure it sounds great, but you have to print it small on the poster. As Lane put it, "We service the short of sight, as well as the hard of hearing".

[flowerking]

There is or was a Belgium (?) band called Now. You can add them to your list. Other bands that would be a challenge in an Internet search (without the word "band" in the query) would include Saga (do an Amazon search on Saga and see what you get), Heart, Kansas, Asia, and Renaissance.

[emperorken]

"T" is an excellent band from Germany. Check out their album from last year "Psychoanorexia". Do an Amazon search and you get 123,242 results in music.

[Joe F.]

As for Porcupine Tree, to my knowledge Steven Wilson has never revealed the inspiration for the name, beyond commenting that it was something quite trivial.

Some Porcupines climb and/or sleep in Trees.

[bob_32_116]

"Hatfield and the North" is a good example of a play on the usual band name format - <front-man> and the <band name> where the parts in brackets are actually something quite different. "Flash and the Pan" is another.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Spock's Beard has to be the dumbest name ever for a band

[rcarlberg]

Spock's Beard has to be the dumbest name ever for a band

It's up there with "Anal Cunt" but I never knew if it referred to Star Trek or the baby doctor.

[Dave (in MA)]

I've never even heard the band, but I thought it was pretty obvious that it was from the Mirror, Mirror episode of ST.

[Dave (in MA)]

"Hatfield and the North" is a good example of a play on the usual band name format - <front-man> and the <band name> where the parts in brackets are actually something quite different. "Flash and the Pan" is another.

Http://www.allmusic.com/artist/someo...51/discography

[bob_32_116]

Spock's Beard has to be the dumbest name ever for a band

I'm not mad keen on the band, but I don't mind the name. It makes sense only if you have seen one particular episode of Star Trek.

[GuitarGeek]

Spock's Beard has to be the dumbest name ever for a band

I still think they should have called themselves Uhura's Midriff.

I remember the one and only time Spock's Beard played in Cleveland, back in 1999, and my boss asked me who I was going to see in concert. When I said the band's name, he laughed and said "What was that? Spot's Beer?!".

It helps to have a band name where you don't have carefully enunciate each syllable when saying the band to someone who doesn't know the group.

[Trane]

Band names...what were they thinking?
It has always fascinated me how certain bands gave themselves names made up of very common everyday words or phrases that were impossible to search for anywhere before the internet and are now just as impossible to search for on the internet. How can the fantasy of a creative unit, such as a musical band, not come up with a more unique imaginative name.

for example:
Them
Can
X
ABC
Take That
Yes
Neu
Man
Ace
Boy
M

Surprisingly though, searches on "The The" and "The Band" deliver the bands' homepages at the top of the first page.

Given the era theses bands were born in (except for "M"), scandalously as it might seem, they certainly didn't think of doing a Google search... So sue them...

[Trane]

There is or was a Belgium (?) band called Now. You can add them to your list. Other bands that would be a challenge in an Internet search (without the word "band" in the query) would include Saga (do an Amazon search on Saga and see what you get), Heart, Kansas, Asia, and Renaissance.

However, a certain band Placebo might have done a web search to see that there was a Belgian band callet that some 30 years before...

[Trane]

It's up there with "Anal Cunt" but I never knew if it referred to Star Trek or the baby doctor.

Not that Butthole Surfer or Fucling emos are that much better either...