Music Monday: The Strangest Names for a Band

Blogging, humor, music, rankings 2 Minutes

I can thank the wonderful blogger Jen at Bossybabe for the idea of this post.

Jen had left a comment on a recent post of mine that looked at brand names, noting that how some bands take an ordinary word and use it in a different way. She used the examples of KORN and Coldplay.

So that got me thinking of odd band names, and I guess I am not the first person to have such a thought.

When I typed “strangest band names” in Google, there were over 1,000,000 responses.

After combing carefully through all one million, here is my list of the strangest names for a band, in no particular order. This first group comes from an online post:

  • Camper Van Beethoven
  • Congratulations on Your Decision to Become a Pilot
  • Let’s Eat Grandma (purposely leaving out a comma)
  • Let’s Get Out Of This Terrible Sandwich Shop
  • Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head
  • Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis
  • Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
  • Toad the Wet Sprocket
  • Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (ABWH) (reminds me of the law firm on the Three Stooges: Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.
  • Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

It took a while to find a song to include with this post, since I wanted to choose a song from one of these bands. I made the mistake of going in the order I have listed above (which is the order they appeared in the two sources I used) and I was getting nervous because nothing really caught my attention. The songs from ABWH are OK, but they were a bit long.

Fortunately, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (now known as Jr. Jr.) came through with the song Gone, which I found quite good.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. was formed in late 2009 in Detroit, Michigan, by members Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott. The band also includes drummer Mike Higgins. The band initially began as a basement recording project with few intentions of reaching the public. On July 15, 2015, the band announced that they had renamed themselves to JR JR. According to ESPN The Magazine, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a fan. The band emailed him to assure him they were not making fun of him and sent him a few samples of their music. (Wikipedia)

Sources:

*image from Wikipedia

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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84 thoughts on “Music Monday: The Strangest Names for a Band”

  2. We may have a new Jeopardy category—Odd Music Group Names. I remember going with my parents to visit two of my brothers who were attending college at the same school—St. John’s University (not the one in New York but a small school in Minnesota.) I noticed that several of the roommates were calling my brother Tom by the name of Mott. This was a new one for us, so we asked where it originated. Tom spelled backward is Mot. One of the guys was a Mott the Hoople fan and gave my brother that nickname, and it stuck (at least when he was in college.)

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    1. I agree that most band names are unusual to start with. and having a strange name may help you get publicity at the start, but unless you back it up with some good music, the band probably won’t get too far…

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  4. I always enjoy following you down the rabbit hole. I do agree with Salsa, it does seem the stranger the better. For any newly forming groups out there, let me offer this as a name for your band, “Cork Rats”. Geoff can explain the origins.

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  5. i love learning unusual band names. Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis might be a challenge to put on a bar coaster and would people recall it easily? i’m guessing it’s developed a nickname over time? living in the detroit area – dale e jr jr is on my radar and i love the name

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  6. I’ve no idea who Dale Earnhardt Jr is but his namesakes make catchy music and the video is fun. ABWH were four former members of the hugely successful prog rock band Yes, so it stands to reason that their songs would be long! They later morphed into an expanded 8 piece line up of a reformed Yes.

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      1. That explains it. I don’t think I’ve ever watched that, or if it is even broadcast here. Watching cars going round and round isn’t my idea of fun 😊

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  7. I can’t pronounce Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis and I’d never learn how to spell it. (Well, I probably could if I tried, but I’d never bother.) If they thought they were being cute or memorable, they lost me as a fan just by the fact that I don’t have the energy to try to look them up.

    Jr. Jr.’s song is great. Glad you included the video.

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  8. Haha thanks for the shoutout! You did quite a bit of research of this (listening to all the songs lol)!

    I don’t recognize any of the bands you listed lol and some of them are strangely very specific LOL…

    If I think of anymore mainstream band names I’ll be back to share 😉

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  12. Lol these are hilariously horrible! Have you heard of the metal band that plays music revolving around Ned Flanders from the Simpsons? They’re called Okilly Dokilly and their existence always makes me laugh 😂

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  13. On my personal blog, I once posted about the worst song I ever heard.

    It was by the Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band, which I think comes quite high asd strange names go. Think Urban Spaceman, back in the Sixties.

    The song, however, was called Canyone of Your Mind, and actually contained the lyric “I will wander through your brain” and “ventricles of your heart”. How poetic!

    I think the chap might also get the best comb-over award, too.

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  17. Jim, thanks so much for doing the heavy lifting in narrowing down the one million responses about strangest band names. Now I will have time for an extra cup of coffee in the morning. I hope nobody uses “Big Sky Buckeye” for a band name. Some things are better left alone.

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