March 7, 2018 • 34 mins
What band was named as a tribute to their high school gym coach? Why did The Earwigs change their name to Alice Cooper (it might have something to do with a Ouji Board)? And would Chubby Checker have been as popular if he'd taken the name Chubby Chesspiece? Setting aside the quality of the music (KISS), Will and Mango explore some of the funniest, quirkiest and greatest band names in music history.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, Mango, what's that? Will? So I know we're
both pretty good at celebrating each other's accomplishments. But I
do have to admit there's one thing you have on
your resume that I've honestly always been a little jealous of.
You have a band named after you, Mango. I mean,
that's a bit of a stretch. I don't think it's
a stretch at all, all right, So, so our listeners
(00:21):
will know, when we were in college, Mango was playing
the keyboards in a band that a few of our
closest friends had started. Well, this also happened to be
around the time we were trying to start Mental Floss,
and Mango realized there just weren't enough hours in the day. So,
fortunately for all future fans of Mental Floss and even
part time genius, Mango decided to keep working on our
new venture, and he dropped out of the band. Now,
(00:44):
this was also around the time that the band was
just starting to get a few more gigs. And I
mean some of their shows we're getting I don't know,
what would you say, Mango, like tens of people on
the audience. It was at least ten. It was impressive,
but they needed to settle on a name, so they
decided to simultaneously honor and throw a little bit of
a friendly jab at Mango by calling the group Minus Mango. Well,
(01:07):
I'm not your honors the right term for that. Well,
either way, the band ran with it, and they had
a short but fun run. And I've even heard the
band inspired some songs like I think it was meat
loafs I would do anything for love and shares believe
if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I mean, there's only one
problem with that theory, Will and and actually there's several
problems with that, the main one being that it's not true,
(01:29):
but the other being that both those songs came out
well before the band formed. Well, I just think that's
what makes it so impressive. I mean, that is really remarkable.
But anyway, we're not here to talk about Minus Mango today.
We're here to talk about the origins of some other
band names and maybe even create a little hall of
fame of great and terrible band names. So let's get started.
(01:51):
Ya Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
(02:13):
I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my
good friend Manu shot Ticketer and on the other side
of that soundproof glass rocking a T shirt for his
favorite mash up cover band, Mago. I don't know if
you'd heard of this one before. I had not. It's
called Beatallica anyway, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil
and and you know, Beatles songs covered in the style
of Metallica. It's not something you'd expect to work, but
(02:36):
Tristan played me a few tracks earlier and I've honestly
got to say I really kind of dug it. Yeah,
I mean, the way they blended Blackbird with Fade to
Black is pretty masterful. That My favorite probably still all
you Need is Blood. I mean, it really says it all,
don't you say. Anyway, as funny or clever as cover
band names and song titles can be, the stories behind
(02:58):
them are usually not all that interesting. I mean, by definition,
they're pulled from or at least made in reference to
existing works by other artists, and all the origin stories
for the names of original bands tend to be a
lot more interesting. Even that's not a sure thing. I mean,
take the Beatles, for example. They've definitely earned their place
in the rock and roll hall of Fame. But in
(03:19):
the band name hall of Fame, I really don't think
they belonged there. I mean, they took the name of
an insect and kind of turned it into this obvious
pun on musical beats, and so it doesn't tell you
anything about the group or the kind of music they play,
and honestly, worst of all, there's no hidden meaning or
interesting story behind it at all. That's right. So for
today's show, we're gonna set aside the artists and their
(03:41):
work and really focus instead on what they chose to
call themselves. Even bad band names are on the table,
just as long as the stories behind them are strange,
you're interesting. Yeah, And I thought we could do this
like we did a while back in that episode where
we tried to assemble our own version of Mount Rushmore,
And of course it was so much fun to hear
from all the listeners with ideas of what other presidents
(04:02):
we should include on Mount Rushmore and why. So we're
kind of doing the same thing here. We'll each pitch
some of the best band name origins that we had,
you know, come across while researching and kind of gradually
fill out our Hall of Fame, and you know, The
one thing we noticed while preparing for this episode is
how many band names fall into similar categories, whether that's
band's name for literary works or band's name for TV shows.
(04:25):
So we'll try to limit our picks to one per
category so that we end up with a pretty good
mix of origins. So alright, Mano, I'm gonna leave it
up to you. Where do you think we should start?
So I was thinking about this, and I think we
should start with band names inspired by history, because those were,
you know, some of the most interesting to me and
also some of the hardest to choose from. So a
(04:45):
few are pretty well known at this point. I mean,
you think about like Franz Ferdinand, which takes its name
from the archduke who's assassination led to World War One,
Or there were lots of other ones I knew that
are taking from history, Like do you know that you
two was actually named after a spy plane of currently
you Two's were used to monitor the Soviets in the
nineteen fifties. You know, I've heard of this term before,
(05:05):
but I actually didn't. I didn't realize that, but I
guess it makes sense though A lot of You two
songs contain references the political and historical events, and actually
I was just thinking about one the other day. Is
isn't Sunday Bloody Sunday about the guerrilla warfare in Northern Ireland?
It is? Actually have you watched that Alan Partridge episode
where Steve Coogan's like a total buffoon and he's talking
(05:27):
about this inspiration for the song and he's like, it's
just so relatable, like when you're in line at Tesco's
and you just think Sunday Bloody Sunday. Maybe that actually
is the origin. I'm not sure. That's pretty good, but well,
what's funny to be though, is that the band really
didn't choose YouTube to make any sort of political statement,
(05:48):
Like they went with it because it sounded ambiguous and
also I guess inclusive, like you know the phrase YouTube.
And also it was just more interesting than their earlier names,
like they started out as Feedback in nineteen of me
six before switching to the Hype and then you two
within the spand of two years. It's funny because I
found another band that couldn't seem to settle on a
name until they stumbled upon an historical one. So you
(06:11):
remember jeth Row Toll right. Well, they had a hit
with that song Aqua Lung in the early seventies, and
apparently Jethro Toll was a real person, just not a
member of the band. He was actually this English agricultural
pioneer who played this pretty pivotal role in bringing about
the British agricultural revolution in the early eighteenth century. And
so his biggest claim to fame was the invention of
(06:33):
a horse drawn seed drill too easily, so seeds in
orderly Rose, which really laid the groundwork for modern agriculture.
That's just so rock and roll. I know, you said,
the bend just happened upon that name. Yeah. So, in
the band's early days, they had this habit of making
up a new name for every single gig because their
(06:53):
performances were so spotty and most places didn't book them
a second time. So after about seriously, like four do
you something name changes, the group finally hit on this
unexpected winner with their homage to an eighteenth century agronomist.
You know that's the way it goes. That's pretty incredible. Well,
but agricultural roots aside, My favorite band name with an
(07:14):
historical origin probably has to be Food Fighters. So this
is strange, right, because I consider myself something of a
history buff. I actually won Mr. Zippi's History Award in
Depth grade. But I have no idea what part of
history that could possibly come from, like we're the Food Fighters,
Genghis Kans Elite Bodyguards or something not even close. It
actually comes from the tail end of World War Two,
(07:35):
and this is when the Allied pilots began reporting some
sightings of these mysterious German aircraft and they really couldn't
be identified, and so the pilots took to calling these
UFOs food Fighters. And when frontman Dave Grohl came across
the nickname he was reading a book about UFOs, he
actually just decided it was perfect for his new band.
So did he ever elaborate on what made it sound
(07:57):
so perfect to him? Well, Girl actually courted the entire
first Food Fighters album all by himself, but he kind
of wanted everybody to think it was the work of
a proper group, and for whatever reason, he thought a
World War two term for UFOs would lead people to
assume there was more than just one man behind this music.
That's pretty funny reasoning. So you know, I read this
(08:20):
history article of Nirvana, where the guys would always apparently
remind Dave Grohld that he wasn't in the first iteration
of the band. So, I mean, it's kind of like
telling Ringo he wasn't an original Beatle, just over and
over and write. Feel awful for him, but you know why,
food fighters like he could have chosen any word that
was a plural noun. Well, you know, girl apparently came
(08:42):
to a similar conclusion because later he said in an interview,
he said, um, had I actually considered this to be
a career, I probably would have called it something else
because it's the stupidest effing band name in the world.
So I almost kind of want to add it to
our list just for that reason. But really, if we're
gonna narrow it down to a single band per category,
(09:02):
I think we have to give this to the Decembers. Okay,
So I know their songs tend to be very literary
and sometimes recount or maybe pull from historical events. And
I do remember a little bit about the Decembers from
a Russian history class I took years and years ago.
But I think I need a little bit of a refresher, right,
So the historical Decembers, whose spelling actually is different from
(09:25):
the month in the band because it doesn't actually have
a third e in it. They were this group of
Russian revolutionaries who lent almost a failed uprising in the
December of eight and so the group was composed mostly
of these young Russian officers and also members of the
upper classes who they wanted to reform the autocratic government
into more of a liberal system. And they actually took
(09:46):
advantage of the chaos surrounding the death of one's are
and the ascension of another to stage rebellion. But because
it had been so poorly organized, their revolution was quickly
put to an end, and their hope of overturning an
oppressive system has really only lived on with martyrd December
is now serving almost as a source of inspiration for
new generations of Russian rebels. So is that actually where
(10:07):
the band name comes from. Yeah, so that's the thing
it does, and it doesn't. So, according to the band's frontman,
Colin Malloy, the names partly derived from the Russian freedom
fighters and partly from the month of December itself. I mean,
it feels like you might be cheating a little on
this one man, It's it's only a half reference to history.
So so why do you feel like it deserves a
spot on our list Because this is the only historical
(10:29):
band name we've mentioned where the reference wasn't chosen at random.
So with the December Is there's actually this real thematic
connection between the band's name and its music. And as
Colin Milloy puts it, quote, I like to think that
the drama behind the month of December, there's a group
of people who that is their month, and they're sort
of stuck in this month. And I think that sort
(10:49):
of speaks to the songs and the characters and the
songs sort of marginalized, sort of on the outskirts, all
living in the coldest month. That is pretty interesting. But actually,
didn't you say the real Decembers were from the mobility.
It kind of doesn't sound like they were marginalized people
living on the outskirts as he was describing. Yeah, so
they were definitely a minority in terms of openly opposing
(11:10):
the system that ruled them, and once their rebellion was
sort of stifled, the Decembrist became well and truly marginalized.
Most of the surviving members were sent off to remote
work camps in Siberia, where their descendants still eke out
a living even though they brought education and culture with
them to that land. Well all right, well, it's not
the cheeriest historical connection, but but you're right, it certainly
(11:30):
seems like one of the deepest. And because of that,
I agree, and I'll give it to you. The Decembrist
deserve the first spot in our band name Hall of Fame,
Ding Ding Ding, So so they probably don't know it,
but that's a huge honor. And since it took us
a while to decide on that first entry, I actually
have a category that we can probably knock out pretty fast,
and that's best band name acronym that isn't actually an acronym.
(11:54):
And remember r M is disqualified from this one because
it really is an acronym and it stands for rabid
eye movement. Apparently Michael Stipe just cribbed it from the
dictionary after pointing to the word at random. Yeah, probably
the laziest way to come up with a band name,
but you do hear that happening a lot. Well, I
guess my pick for this one would be kiss. I
would think, you know, everybody's heard the rumors that the
(12:15):
name secretly stands for something sinister. I remember hearing as
a kid that it stood for things like kids in
Satan's service. But you know, according to Gene Simmons, the
name doesn't stand for anything and was simply just this,
like this idle suggestion from one band member to another.
And it was it was Paul Stanley that came up
with this, and he's actually gone on record that he
chose the name Kiss because of quote just sounded dangerous
(12:39):
and sexy at the same time. I mean, I guess
you can't argue with the results, or I I guess
you can actually, but I'm sure some people found them
sexy and others dangerous. I think my sister would be
included in that category. I know I've told you this before,
but my sister is a few years older than I am,
So when I was little, I would sneak into her
(12:59):
room and us into her music. But i'd also, of
course go through all of her stuff. And one of
the things I remember finding was this shoe box, and
it was full of these Kiss trading cards because we're
hilarious to look at it. I really wish she still
had these and that's pretty amazing. But you know, for
my money, the best bot acronym band name is still wasp. Oh.
(13:20):
I remember them. So they were a heavy metal band
and back in there was this seven I guess this
was the eighties, right, And I can't believe that's not
actually an acronym. And they even put a period between
each of the letters. I know, I mean, I guess
it's from the era where you'd put gratuitous like oom
lots and nonsense and names like wingdings and whatever. But
supposedly it was just because not many other bands had
(13:40):
done it at that time, and they hoped it would
make them stand out and get people curious about the band.
But just like kiss, rumors world that the acronym stood
for all sorts of naughty stuff, like we are sexual perverts,
we are Satan's preachers, we all smoked pot. But my, my,
my favorite red herring of that lot is an answer
one of the band members gave when he was doing
(14:02):
an interview and he said, you know, they asked what
does WASP stand for? He said, we ain't sure. Pal oh,
I like that. That's a pretty good ones there, all right,
So the periods were just a marketing technique. But what
about the name itself? I mean, does it stand for anything?
Or like why wasp? I I guess one of the
band members saw a wasp one night and thought it
might make for a cool band name. All right, Well,
(14:25):
I guess you kind of stacked the deck with this category,
but I'm still going to give you this one as
well for wasps, so we will add them to the
list here, which is awesome because I'm two for two
and uh, I don't think you have any points on
the board, right, No, but don't don't get too cocky.
We still got a bunch of origins to get to
and I really doubt you're gonna be able to top
this next one. But before I hit you with it,
(14:46):
let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
Genius and we're talking about the weird stories behind famous
band names. Alright, Mango. So now our Hall of Fame
(15:06):
needs to be the best story for a band name
taken from a TV show or a movie. It can
be either one, and I actually think I've got the
perfect contender. Now, if first I thought about fallout Boy,
you know, because I'm always thinking about Fallout Boy, or
maybe but you know, they've been this nameless band until
they pulled the audience at their second show and someone
in the crowd shouted out the name of Radioactive Man,
(15:29):
superhero sidekick from the Simpsons, and it actually just sort
of stuck. That's amazing, that's where it comes from. Yeah,
it's a pretty good story. So but but actually then
I thought I'd go with something a little more obscure,
and that's what led me to the Bloodhound Gang. Do
you remember the blood Hud Gang? Yeah? I mean I
wish I didn't, because they had that annoying song bad Touch,
(15:49):
and the video of it was just them in monkey
costumes running around town and I guess doing weird, dirty
things to everyone in sight. I don't know, it was
just art mango. I don't know why you don't want
to remember that. Well, there is something interesting I found
out about that when you talk about them running around
doing weird and dirty things to everything in the video,
And honestly, that's that the Bloodhound Gang was actually a
lot more wholesome than you might think, or or at
(16:12):
least their name was. And that's because the band took
it from this recurring sketch that was on the old
three to one Contact show from PBS and the eighties.
I know you were a big fan as a kid.
The sketch was all about this group of dorky kids
called the Bloodhound Gang, and so they'd get together and
try to solve these crimes using math puzzles, and that's
where they got the name. That's pretty funny that, you know,
(16:34):
such a raunchy band would take their name from kids program.
But uh, you know, even though three to one Contact
magazine was actually a huge influence on me and mental
plus A. Seriously, I'm I'm still not sure I want
those guys in our Hall of Fame. Wow. I guess
that the video did a number on you. But all right,
I do agree with you. No Bloodhound Gang allowed, so
we gotta come up with another one. So what sort
(16:57):
of slemed on entry do you have for TV and movies? Well,
that would be a little band I like to call
exclamation Point, exclamation Point, exclamation point, or or as fans
have wisely decided to call them, chick Chick Chick of course.
So they're this post punk funk group out of Sacramento,
and they actually took their unusual name from the nineteen
(17:17):
eighties South African comedy The Gods Must Be Crazy. You
remember this movie, right, Yeah, that's crazy. So for listeners
who haven't seen it, it's about this remote African tribe
that lives in peace until they find a coke bottle
that falls out of an airplane and they all start
fighting over it. And you know, it's a funny movie.
But I have to make I don't know what it
has to do with those three exclamation points. Well, in
(17:38):
the movie, The Bushman's Shocean Language was subtitled as a
series of exclamation points, and the band liked this idea
of using that to refer to a different kind of sound,
you know, one that's hard to categorize, And I guess
that's how they viewed their own music now, because the
bush language sometimes sounds a lot like clicking sounds. I
guess you know, the most common pronunciation is chick, chick, chick.
(18:00):
But according to the band, the intention was for people
to use any three repetitive sounds and they could just
choose them, so you could call the band bam bam bam,
or pal pal pal, and you know, you technically still
be talking about the same band. I can give you
other examples that's right. All right, Well, I I think
you've sold me on Chick Chick Chicken. That's gonna get
my vote. But I have a feeling this next category
(18:23):
is going to be a bit more hotly contested, and
it's the best band name for somebody who isn't in
the band. Oh yeah, there's a bunch of good examples
for this, but actually, for instance, you you you know
Alice Cooper right, Well, the band was originally called the Earwigs,
but after playing around with a Quiji board, it put
him in touch with a ghost name Alice Cooper, so
they decided to switch to that instead. So I love
(18:45):
that wegi board story. But you know what's weird is
that I I didn't even know Alice Cooper was a band,
Like I thought it was just the one guy. Well
not at first. There was the guy that ended up
taking the name, and it was the front man. His
real name was Vincent Fernier. But after he split off
from band, he went solo and he actually ended up
just taking the name Alice with him. Well, I mean
that is pretty cool, but you know, I prefer bands
(19:07):
named after real people, thank you very much. And that's
why my pick for this category is Pink Floyd. No way,
is that them a real person? Yeah, it's actually the
name of two real people. So you know, one of
the band's founding members, the legendary Sid Barrett, came up
with idea for combining the names of two of his
favorite blues musicians, and that's Pink Anderson and Floyd Counsel.
(19:28):
Oh wow, I had no idea about that, all right,
but that does mean if I'm not mistaken that Anderson
Counsel would still be on the table then right, definitely.
So for any nameless bands out there, here's the answer
you've been looking for, all right. Well, I have to
give it to you. Pink Floyd is a two for
with that double homage and and that is tough to beat.
But I have one I've been saving, and I think
(19:50):
I want to give the edge to, you know, to
my Alabama brothers, Leonard SKINNERD. I mean, aren't they from Florida?
Details details name also mean in terms of fake sounding
names like Leonard SKINNERD like no real name has that
many wise, and know many how many times I've written it,
I don't know how many times I've actually written it,
but I never can seem to get it right. But
(20:12):
you might have a point because you know, while the
band did take their name and honor of their real
life gym teacher and basketball coach, they also tweaked it
a little to sound a little bit more interesting. So
the real guy's name was Leonard Skinner, and after the
band made him their namesake, Skinner reconnected with his old
pupils and actually even m seed one of their shows.
(20:32):
But really, though, the band might have been better off
just sticking with Leonard Skinner, because you know, their name
was just so hard to remember how to spell, and
the misspelled version they went on was just so phonetically
confusing that even their self titled debut album, it had
this little pronunciation. Guy. I don't know if you've seen
this before, but on the cover of the album to
help people know how to pronounce it, you know, just
(20:52):
to be safe. That's ridiculous. Okay, so I I guess
you're two for two. I'm gonna give that one to you.
But this next category I think is all mind because
I found the all time best band name inspired by
another artist, and it belongs to none other than the
man who taught the world to do the twist. Mr
Chubby Checker. Oh wow, So who inspired Chubby Checker's name.
(21:12):
So apparently it's a riff on the name of fellow
musician and near contemporary Fats Domino. Uh yeah, But the
first person to ever call Ernest Evans by the name
Chubby Checker was actually Dick Clark's wife, and they met
when Chubby appeared on Dick Clark's American Bands in nineteen
sixty and during the recording, Chubby launched into this impression
of Fats Domino, And afterwards he told Mrs Clark that
(21:34):
his friends actually called him Chubby, and she smiled and
said as in Checker, and he just kind of liked
it so much that he used as a stage name
from then on. You know, this is one of those that,
in hindsight you think that Fats Domino and Chubby Checker,
it seems obvious, but actually had never made that connection before.
Al Right, so I will concede this one. Chubby Checker
(21:54):
should have a spot in the band Name Hall of Fame. Well,
I am glad you're on board, because I really like
that one, and it just kind of lines up perfectly
with an article I read about the science of choosing
the perfect band name. Oh, I definitely want to hear
more about this, but first let's take a quick break,
(22:22):
all right, Mango, So it's time to spill it. What
is the secret to coming up with a truly top
shelf band name? Well, if we've shown anything today, it's
that memorable band names come from all different places, you know,
summer homages to real life events and people. Others are
nonsense words or appealing phrases crib from media or other musicians.
And some names come in sudden flashes of inspiration. I mean,
(22:44):
others just seem to be whatever drummer happened to be
looking at at the time. And there's really no one
fixed approach that works. But there actually do seem to
be some linguistic patterns that crop up among the best
band names. Alright, So what do you mean by patterns? So,
just on a basic level, most compelling band names have
something unusual about them. So you know, you think about
like the grateful Dead or the Flaming Lips, and those
(23:07):
are just these unexpected word combinations that you find together
and when you hear them, they kind of grab your attention.
But there's also this other factor that's more cultural than
linguistic and what's that. So this might sound a little strange,
but it comes down to the way people connect words
and names that belong to a certain category. So for example,
like think about something the naming patterns for cars, right,
(23:28):
two big ones that might come up are fast moving animals.
You've got things like the Jaguar, the Mustang, even the viper,
and also astronomical figures, so like tourists or mercury, Nova, Saturn, Subaru. Like,
at this point, we're kind of so used to these
recurring patterns and car names that any words that fit
into that genre like that brings true to us, is
(23:50):
a good name for a car? That's yeah, that's true definitely,
But so are you're saying that the same kind of
thing happens with band names. Totally, But this is something
I recognized on my own. It's actually the theory of
this linguist named chi Lu. And one important thing she
points out in her research is that these cultural associations
that we create for categories of names are always changing
over time. So here's actually a quote from her article
(24:13):
in j Store where she lays out some of these
generational patterns of music. She writes, quote, short names beginning
with the and a common noun is an obvious pattern
from the mid twentieth century, got the Beatles, the monkeys,
the animals, the Kanks, and that's seen a revival in
recent times. The heavy metal genre is one of the
classes with more obvious linguistic patterns, usually involving death, so
(24:36):
Megadeth's Layer of course, and other perils such as dangerous animals,
white snake weapons, guns and roses, iron maiden, or sometimes
drugs and unhealthy substances poison. All Right, so I guess
it does make sense. Like when you were talking about
Chubby Checker before, it lines up pretty well with this
idea of these these naming patterns. Obviously, in this case,
(24:57):
it was picking a name that wasn't too far off
from somebody else's, you know, Fats Domino in this case.
And so you kind of found that ultimate shortcut to
making a recognizable band name, right, And I mean that
seems to be like the cardinal rule of rock and roll,
where the music is always derivative, right, Like it's always
pulling from the blues. So why shouldn't the naming conventions
be derivative as well? Just copy the other guys? Yeah,
(25:18):
it's a good point and it does seem to work
all right. Well, I wanted to come back to some
of these other names, but I'm not sure if you
experienced this, but in doing the research, there were definitely
a ton of fun band name origins that they kind
of don't fit into a particular category. I feel like
we should take a little bit of time to just
throw out a few wild card entries for our band
name Hall of Fame. Yeah, I love that, it's perfect.
(25:38):
So I've actually been dying to talk about Dexis Midnight Runners,
and I don't think there's any other way I could
work them in. Yeah, it sounds like kind of a
tough sell, so I have to admit, who are they exactly?
So you might remember them as the British band that
gave us the eighties hit song come On Eileen, No,
I definitely don't remember them as that. I mean, of
course I remember the song, but I couldn't have told
(25:58):
you sung it well either way. Their naming situation is
basically the exact opposite of what happened with the Bloodhound Gangs.
So instead of being like a raunchy band with an
innocent name, the Dexis Midnight Runners were I guess, like
a squeaky clean band with a highly suspect name. That
sounds pretty funny, but I think you're gonna have to
walk me through because I honestly have no clue what
(26:19):
a Dexi's Midnight Runners. Okay, So the band openly admitted
that the dexis part of their name comes from a
you know, a stimulant called dexadrine and this was popular
among soul music fans in Northern England during the seventies,
and the Midnight Runners part that refers to the users
who used the drug as a way to dance all
night long. Wow. So so, but you said these guys
(26:41):
were like a squeaky clean band totally. So they were
completely sober and they didn't even have alcohol at any
of their shows. Oh wow, that's pretty bizarre, But that's great.
All right. Well, I think my wild card pick is
an oldie but a goody, and that would be the
one and only led Zeppelin. You can kind of think
of this as the Yankee Doodle Award for our Hall
of Fame name because you know, just like in that song,
(27:02):
the name led Zeppelin has its origins and something that
was originally intended as an insult. So the story goes
that The Who's Keith Moon was actually invited to drum
for this new London band, but ended up being so
unimpressed with the other members and he mockingly predicted that
they would quote go down like a lead balloon. So
then John entwhistle basis for The Who went even further
(27:25):
than that, and he remarked that the new band would
be such a colossal failure that it would be more
like a led Zeppelin, which is pretty harsh but also
kind of clever. Yeah, it was, but maybe as clever
as that. When the insult made its way back to
Jimmy Page and his manager, they actually thought it was
so funny that they decided to make it the official
band name, though only after dropping the A from lead,
(27:48):
and the whole reason was to, you know, to keep
Americans from mispronouncing it as Lead Zeppelin. So I don't
know what I should be impressed by how much they
cared about preserving like that lead balloon joke at all costs,
or I guess insulted by how little they thought of
American intelligence. I don't know. I sort of think it
was a smart call. I mean you remember the pronunciation
guide I mentioned about Leonard Skinner, Right, Yeah, of course,
(28:11):
And I guess I understand that desire to make sure
your name comes across as intended, because the name of
band goes with can have this major impact on a
musician's career. Didn't bring everything from their radio exposure to
merchandise design to you know, what kind of people will
actually listen to the songs? And even after the music
stops and the spotlight shifts to someone else, a good
(28:32):
name can still keep a band afloat in the cultural site, guys,
so long as there's an interesting story about where it
came from. Oh yeah, I mean, I think you're absolutely right.
I was actually this close to talk about Hoodie and
the Blowfish today and Mango, it's two thousand eighteen. Well,
you haven't missed your opportunity yet. It's time for the
fact off, and there's still a few empty spots left
to talk about band names. All right, we'll dust off
(28:54):
your Blowfish. Hootie, you're coming in, so I'm gonna start
his off. And I love it when bands named themselves
after songs from other bands as somewhat of a tribute,
and that's actually how radio Head got their name. When
they first formed in the mid eighties, they were known
(29:14):
as on a Friday, which was the day that they
got together to practice. But then five or six years later,
when they signed with E. M. I, they actually changed
their name to Radiohead as a tribute to the Talking
Heads and the song Radiohead. You know, something similar actually
happened with the Rolling Stones. So Jagger and Richards first
formed the band back in the early sixties, and at
that point they were called the Blue Boys. The story
(29:37):
goes that during an interview with this jazz focused newspaper,
guitarist Brian Jones spotted this Muddy Waters record. It was
just sitting there on the floor where he was doing
the interview, and it made him think about that song
Rolling Stone from the same album, and that's where they
got the name. That's really cool. So, you know, having
played an a band in high school or several bands
in high school, I love stories of groups that you know,
(29:59):
met his kids and kept performing together. And another one
of those was a group that came together in the
nineties out of Cleveland. They were just in junior high
school when they started rapping together and one day Anthony
Crazy Bone Henderson had this minor crash on his moped,
and in somewhat of an act of solidarity, the group
all supported bandages and they started calling themselves the band
Aid Boys, And while that name didn't stick, we now
(30:22):
know them as Bone Thugs and Harmony. You know, I
also think it's fun when bands don't seem to actually
remember their origin, or at least they're competing stories for origins.
And one of these where I saw so many different
stories on this was Pearl Jam, and so I won't
share all of them. But there have been some claims
that the band name was inspired by Eddie Vetter's great
grandmother Pearl, who apparently made this famous peyote jam. I
(30:44):
don't know if this is true enough. And I thought
that was pretty funny, and then it ranges to the
much less interesting. You know, one of them that they
just liked the word pearl and then they added jam
to it because that's what a group of musicians do.
So I think I'm gonna stick with the great grandmother story.
It just seems so much more fun to believe. Yeah,
I like that a lot. Well, I know we're not
really focusing on cover bands, but there's one that's kind
(31:05):
of a cover band but also kind of a weirdly
inspired band called Austrian Death Machine, and apparently they sing
entirely in the style of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all their
songs are from some of his famous one liners. So
you know, like it's not a tumor. You can actually
find on the band's first album, Total Brutal, which is right,
that's actually the first album. Oh, just the first album. Wow,
(31:27):
this band is something else. I would imagine that's one
of those shows that you're like, this is gonna be
so hilarious, and for the first five minutes it's so hilarious,
and then it's just torture from that point on. Alright, MANO,
I don't want to disappoint anybody, because we promised to
include Hootie and the Blowfish, and I'm here to deliver.
I'm not sure that we actually did promise, but we
said Hoodie and the Blowfish. We did. We promised Hootie.
(31:50):
But you know, I think most people assume that the frontman,
Darius Rucker, was Hoodie and that his supporting band members
were The Blowfish, but it actually turns out the he's
kind of both or at least both names came from
people that Darius went to school with. So one was
this kid they called Hoodie because I guess he kind
of looked like an owl. And there was a separate
(32:11):
classmate that had these puffed up cheeks and was nicknamed Blowfish.
So I'm not sure why they decided to combine these two,
and I kind of want to see pictures of these
guys because it's just would make for an interesting story.
But it seemed to work. And I've actually got an
equally important fact because just recently a friend reminded me
that in our high school yearbook there was a photo
(32:33):
of me playing basketball in a game, and for some reason,
when I was dribbling, I would do this thing where
I blow out my cheeks like a blowfish, you know,
kind of like Jordan's tongue, but much less cool and
much less effective, of course, But when you weren't dunking,
when I wasn't dunking, that's what I was doing. And anyway,
I was doing that in this photo, and the capture
under it said Willie and the Blowfish. So how about that, Mango?
(32:57):
Pretty good? Well, I feel like you deserved today's trophy
just based on that story alone. Thank you very much,
and thank you guys for listening. I know we must
have left out so many great origin stories of band names,
so please let us hear those from. You can always
email us part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com.
You can also call us on our seven fact hotline
one eight four four pt Genius, or hit us up
(33:20):
on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening.
Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several
(33:41):
brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even
begin to understand. Christa McNeil does the editing thing. Noel
Brown made the theme song and does the mixy mixy
sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gabe
Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the research
army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and
Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
(34:01):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Do we do?
We forget Jason. Jason who
Guess what, Mango, what's that? Will? So I know we're
both pretty good at celebrating each other's accomplishments. But I
do have to admit there's one thing you have on
your resume that I've honestly always been a little jealous of.
You have a band named after you, Mango. I mean,
that's a bit of a stretch. I don't think it's
a stretch at all, all right, So, so our listeners
(00:21):
will know, when we were in college, Mango was playing
the keyboards in a band that a few of our
closest friends had started. Well, this also happened to be
around the time we were trying to start Mental Floss,
and Mango realized there just weren't enough hours in the day. So,
fortunately for all future fans of Mental Floss and even
part time genius, Mango decided to keep working on our
new venture, and he dropped out of the band. Now,
(00:44):
this was also around the time that the band was
just starting to get a few more gigs. And I
mean some of their shows we're getting I don't know,
what would you say, Mango, like tens of people on
the audience. It was at least ten. It was impressive,
but they needed to settle on a name, so they
decided to simultaneously honor and throw a little bit of
a friendly jab at Mango by calling the group Minus Mango. Well,
(01:07):
I'm not your honors the right term for that. Well,
either way, the band ran with it, and they had
a short but fun run. And I've even heard the
band inspired some songs like I think it was meat
loafs I would do anything for love and shares believe
if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I mean, there's only one
problem with that theory, Will and and actually there's several
problems with that, the main one being that it's not true,
(01:29):
but the other being that both those songs came out
well before the band formed. Well, I just think that's
what makes it so impressive. I mean, that is really remarkable.
But anyway, we're not here to talk about Minus Mango today.
We're here to talk about the origins of some other
band names and maybe even create a little hall of
fame of great and terrible band names. So let's get started.
(01:51):
Ya Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
(02:13):
I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my
good friend Manu shot Ticketer and on the other side
of that soundproof glass rocking a T shirt for his
favorite mash up cover band, Mago. I don't know if
you'd heard of this one before. I had not. It's
called Beatallica anyway, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil
and and you know, Beatles songs covered in the style
of Metallica. It's not something you'd expect to work, but
(02:36):
Tristan played me a few tracks earlier and I've honestly
got to say I really kind of dug it. Yeah,
I mean, the way they blended Blackbird with Fade to
Black is pretty masterful. That My favorite probably still all
you Need is Blood. I mean, it really says it all,
don't you say. Anyway, as funny or clever as cover
band names and song titles can be, the stories behind
(02:58):
them are usually not all that interesting. I mean, by definition,
they're pulled from or at least made in reference to
existing works by other artists, and all the origin stories
for the names of original bands tend to be a
lot more interesting. Even that's not a sure thing. I mean,
take the Beatles, for example. They've definitely earned their place
in the rock and roll hall of Fame. But in
(03:19):
the band name hall of Fame, I really don't think
they belonged there. I mean, they took the name of
an insect and kind of turned it into this obvious
pun on musical beats, and so it doesn't tell you
anything about the group or the kind of music they play,
and honestly, worst of all, there's no hidden meaning or
interesting story behind it at all. That's right. So for
today's show, we're gonna set aside the artists and their
(03:41):
work and really focus instead on what they chose to
call themselves. Even bad band names are on the table,
just as long as the stories behind them are strange,
you're interesting. Yeah, And I thought we could do this
like we did a while back in that episode where
we tried to assemble our own version of Mount Rushmore,
And of course it was so much fun to hear
from all the listeners with ideas of what other presidents
(04:02):
we should include on Mount Rushmore and why. So we're
kind of doing the same thing here. We'll each pitch
some of the best band name origins that we had,
you know, come across while researching and kind of gradually
fill out our Hall of Fame, and you know, The
one thing we noticed while preparing for this episode is
how many band names fall into similar categories, whether that's
band's name for literary works or band's name for TV shows.
(04:25):
So we'll try to limit our picks to one per
category so that we end up with a pretty good
mix of origins. So alright, Mano, I'm gonna leave it
up to you. Where do you think we should start?
So I was thinking about this, and I think we
should start with band names inspired by history, because those were,
you know, some of the most interesting to me and
also some of the hardest to choose from. So a
(04:45):
few are pretty well known at this point. I mean,
you think about like Franz Ferdinand, which takes its name
from the archduke who's assassination led to World War One,
Or there were lots of other ones I knew that
are taking from history, Like do you know that you
two was actually named after a spy plane of currently
you Two's were used to monitor the Soviets in the
nineteen fifties. You know, I've heard of this term before,
(05:05):
but I actually didn't. I didn't realize that, but I
guess it makes sense though A lot of You two
songs contain references the political and historical events, and actually
I was just thinking about one the other day. Is
isn't Sunday Bloody Sunday about the guerrilla warfare in Northern Ireland?
It is? Actually have you watched that Alan Partridge episode
where Steve Coogan's like a total buffoon and he's talking
(05:27):
about this inspiration for the song and he's like, it's
just so relatable, like when you're in line at Tesco's
and you just think Sunday Bloody Sunday. Maybe that actually
is the origin. I'm not sure. That's pretty good, but well,
what's funny to be though, is that the band really
didn't choose YouTube to make any sort of political statement,
(05:48):
Like they went with it because it sounded ambiguous and
also I guess inclusive, like you know the phrase YouTube.
And also it was just more interesting than their earlier names,
like they started out as Feedback in nineteen of me
six before switching to the Hype and then you two
within the spand of two years. It's funny because I
found another band that couldn't seem to settle on a
name until they stumbled upon an historical one. So you
(06:11):
remember jeth Row Toll right. Well, they had a hit
with that song Aqua Lung in the early seventies, and
apparently Jethro Toll was a real person, just not a
member of the band. He was actually this English agricultural
pioneer who played this pretty pivotal role in bringing about
the British agricultural revolution in the early eighteenth century. And
so his biggest claim to fame was the invention of
(06:33):
a horse drawn seed drill too easily, so seeds in
orderly Rose, which really laid the groundwork for modern agriculture.
That's just so rock and roll. I know, you said,
the bend just happened upon that name. Yeah. So, in
the band's early days, they had this habit of making
up a new name for every single gig because their
(06:53):
performances were so spotty and most places didn't book them
a second time. So after about seriously, like four do
you something name changes, the group finally hit on this
unexpected winner with their homage to an eighteenth century agronomist.
You know that's the way it goes. That's pretty incredible. Well,
but agricultural roots aside, My favorite band name with an
(07:14):
historical origin probably has to be Food Fighters. So this
is strange, right, because I consider myself something of a
history buff. I actually won Mr. Zippi's History Award in
Depth grade. But I have no idea what part of
history that could possibly come from, like we're the Food Fighters,
Genghis Kans Elite Bodyguards or something not even close. It
actually comes from the tail end of World War Two,
(07:35):
and this is when the Allied pilots began reporting some
sightings of these mysterious German aircraft and they really couldn't
be identified, and so the pilots took to calling these
UFOs food Fighters. And when frontman Dave Grohl came across
the nickname he was reading a book about UFOs, he
actually just decided it was perfect for his new band.
So did he ever elaborate on what made it sound
(07:57):
so perfect to him? Well, Girl actually courted the entire
first Food Fighters album all by himself, but he kind
of wanted everybody to think it was the work of
a proper group, and for whatever reason, he thought a
World War two term for UFOs would lead people to
assume there was more than just one man behind this music.
That's pretty funny reasoning. So you know, I read this
(08:20):
history article of Nirvana, where the guys would always apparently
remind Dave Grohld that he wasn't in the first iteration
of the band. So, I mean, it's kind of like
telling Ringo he wasn't an original Beatle, just over and
over and write. Feel awful for him, but you know why,
food fighters like he could have chosen any word that
was a plural noun. Well, you know, girl apparently came
(08:42):
to a similar conclusion because later he said in an interview,
he said, um, had I actually considered this to be
a career, I probably would have called it something else
because it's the stupidest effing band name in the world.
So I almost kind of want to add it to
our list just for that reason. But really, if we're
gonna narrow it down to a single band per category,
(09:02):
I think we have to give this to the Decembers. Okay,
So I know their songs tend to be very literary
and sometimes recount or maybe pull from historical events. And
I do remember a little bit about the Decembers from
a Russian history class I took years and years ago.
But I think I need a little bit of a refresher, right,
So the historical Decembers, whose spelling actually is different from
(09:25):
the month in the band because it doesn't actually have
a third e in it. They were this group of
Russian revolutionaries who lent almost a failed uprising in the
December of eight and so the group was composed mostly
of these young Russian officers and also members of the
upper classes who they wanted to reform the autocratic government
into more of a liberal system. And they actually took
(09:46):
advantage of the chaos surrounding the death of one's are
and the ascension of another to stage rebellion. But because
it had been so poorly organized, their revolution was quickly
put to an end, and their hope of overturning an
oppressive system has really only lived on with martyrd December
is now serving almost as a source of inspiration for
new generations of Russian rebels. So is that actually where
(10:07):
the band name comes from. Yeah, so that's the thing
it does, and it doesn't. So, according to the band's frontman,
Colin Malloy, the names partly derived from the Russian freedom
fighters and partly from the month of December itself. I mean,
it feels like you might be cheating a little on
this one man, It's it's only a half reference to history.
So so why do you feel like it deserves a
spot on our list Because this is the only historical
(10:29):
band name we've mentioned where the reference wasn't chosen at random.
So with the December Is there's actually this real thematic
connection between the band's name and its music. And as
Colin Milloy puts it, quote, I like to think that
the drama behind the month of December, there's a group
of people who that is their month, and they're sort
of stuck in this month. And I think that sort
(10:49):
of speaks to the songs and the characters and the
songs sort of marginalized, sort of on the outskirts, all
living in the coldest month. That is pretty interesting. But actually,
didn't you say the real Decembers were from the mobility.
It kind of doesn't sound like they were marginalized people
living on the outskirts as he was describing. Yeah, so
they were definitely a minority in terms of openly opposing
(11:10):
the system that ruled them, and once their rebellion was
sort of stifled, the Decembrist became well and truly marginalized.
Most of the surviving members were sent off to remote
work camps in Siberia, where their descendants still eke out
a living even though they brought education and culture with
them to that land. Well all right, well, it's not
the cheeriest historical connection, but but you're right, it certainly
(11:30):
seems like one of the deepest. And because of that,
I agree, and I'll give it to you. The Decembrist
deserve the first spot in our band name Hall of Fame,
Ding Ding Ding, So so they probably don't know it,
but that's a huge honor. And since it took us
a while to decide on that first entry, I actually
have a category that we can probably knock out pretty fast,
and that's best band name acronym that isn't actually an acronym.
(11:54):
And remember r M is disqualified from this one because
it really is an acronym and it stands for rabid
eye movement. Apparently Michael Stipe just cribbed it from the
dictionary after pointing to the word at random. Yeah, probably
the laziest way to come up with a band name,
but you do hear that happening a lot. Well, I
guess my pick for this one would be kiss. I
would think, you know, everybody's heard the rumors that the
(12:15):
name secretly stands for something sinister. I remember hearing as
a kid that it stood for things like kids in
Satan's service. But you know, according to Gene Simmons, the
name doesn't stand for anything and was simply just this,
like this idle suggestion from one band member to another.
And it was it was Paul Stanley that came up
with this, and he's actually gone on record that he
chose the name Kiss because of quote just sounded dangerous
(12:39):
and sexy at the same time. I mean, I guess
you can't argue with the results, or I I guess
you can actually, but I'm sure some people found them
sexy and others dangerous. I think my sister would be
included in that category. I know I've told you this before,
but my sister is a few years older than I am,
So when I was little, I would sneak into her
(12:59):
room and us into her music. But i'd also, of
course go through all of her stuff. And one of
the things I remember finding was this shoe box, and
it was full of these Kiss trading cards because we're
hilarious to look at it. I really wish she still
had these and that's pretty amazing. But you know, for
my money, the best bot acronym band name is still wasp. Oh.
(13:20):
I remember them. So they were a heavy metal band
and back in there was this seven I guess this
was the eighties, right, And I can't believe that's not
actually an acronym. And they even put a period between
each of the letters. I know, I mean, I guess
it's from the era where you'd put gratuitous like oom
lots and nonsense and names like wingdings and whatever. But
supposedly it was just because not many other bands had
(13:40):
done it at that time, and they hoped it would
make them stand out and get people curious about the band.
But just like kiss, rumors world that the acronym stood
for all sorts of naughty stuff, like we are sexual perverts,
we are Satan's preachers, we all smoked pot. But my, my,
my favorite red herring of that lot is an answer
one of the band members gave when he was doing
(14:02):
an interview and he said, you know, they asked what
does WASP stand for? He said, we ain't sure. Pal oh,
I like that. That's a pretty good ones there, all right,
So the periods were just a marketing technique. But what
about the name itself? I mean, does it stand for anything?
Or like why wasp? I I guess one of the
band members saw a wasp one night and thought it
might make for a cool band name. All right, Well,
(14:25):
I guess you kind of stacked the deck with this category,
but I'm still going to give you this one as
well for wasps, so we will add them to the
list here, which is awesome because I'm two for two
and uh, I don't think you have any points on
the board, right, No, but don't don't get too cocky.
We still got a bunch of origins to get to
and I really doubt you're gonna be able to top
this next one. But before I hit you with it,
(14:46):
let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
Genius and we're talking about the weird stories behind famous
band names. Alright, Mango. So now our Hall of Fame
(15:06):
needs to be the best story for a band name
taken from a TV show or a movie. It can
be either one, and I actually think I've got the
perfect contender. Now, if first I thought about fallout Boy,
you know, because I'm always thinking about Fallout Boy, or
maybe but you know, they've been this nameless band until
they pulled the audience at their second show and someone
in the crowd shouted out the name of Radioactive Man,
(15:29):
superhero sidekick from the Simpsons, and it actually just sort
of stuck. That's amazing, that's where it comes from. Yeah,
it's a pretty good story. So but but actually then
I thought I'd go with something a little more obscure,
and that's what led me to the Bloodhound Gang. Do
you remember the blood Hud Gang? Yeah? I mean I
wish I didn't, because they had that annoying song bad Touch,
(15:49):
and the video of it was just them in monkey
costumes running around town and I guess doing weird, dirty
things to everyone in sight. I don't know, it was
just art mango. I don't know why you don't want
to remember that. Well, there is something interesting I found
out about that when you talk about them running around
doing weird and dirty things to everything in the video,
And honestly, that's that the Bloodhound Gang was actually a
lot more wholesome than you might think, or or at
(16:12):
least their name was. And that's because the band took
it from this recurring sketch that was on the old
three to one Contact show from PBS and the eighties.
I know you were a big fan as a kid.
The sketch was all about this group of dorky kids
called the Bloodhound Gang, and so they'd get together and
try to solve these crimes using math puzzles, and that's
where they got the name. That's pretty funny that, you know,
(16:34):
such a raunchy band would take their name from kids program.
But uh, you know, even though three to one Contact
magazine was actually a huge influence on me and mental
plus A. Seriously, I'm I'm still not sure I want
those guys in our Hall of Fame. Wow. I guess
that the video did a number on you. But all right,
I do agree with you. No Bloodhound Gang allowed, so
we gotta come up with another one. So what sort
(16:57):
of slemed on entry do you have for TV and movies? Well,
that would be a little band I like to call
exclamation Point, exclamation Point, exclamation point, or or as fans
have wisely decided to call them, chick Chick Chick of course.
So they're this post punk funk group out of Sacramento,
and they actually took their unusual name from the nineteen
(17:17):
eighties South African comedy The Gods Must Be Crazy. You
remember this movie, right, Yeah, that's crazy. So for listeners
who haven't seen it, it's about this remote African tribe
that lives in peace until they find a coke bottle
that falls out of an airplane and they all start
fighting over it. And you know, it's a funny movie.
But I have to make I don't know what it
has to do with those three exclamation points. Well, in
(17:38):
the movie, The Bushman's Shocean Language was subtitled as a
series of exclamation points, and the band liked this idea
of using that to refer to a different kind of sound,
you know, one that's hard to categorize, And I guess
that's how they viewed their own music now, because the
bush language sometimes sounds a lot like clicking sounds. I
guess you know, the most common pronunciation is chick, chick, chick.
(18:00):
But according to the band, the intention was for people
to use any three repetitive sounds and they could just
choose them, so you could call the band bam bam bam,
or pal pal pal, and you know, you technically still
be talking about the same band. I can give you
other examples that's right. All right, Well, I I think
you've sold me on Chick Chick Chicken. That's gonna get
my vote. But I have a feeling this next category
(18:23):
is going to be a bit more hotly contested, and
it's the best band name for somebody who isn't in
the band. Oh yeah, there's a bunch of good examples
for this, but actually, for instance, you you you know
Alice Cooper right, Well, the band was originally called the Earwigs,
but after playing around with a Quiji board, it put
him in touch with a ghost name Alice Cooper, so
they decided to switch to that instead. So I love
(18:45):
that wegi board story. But you know what's weird is
that I I didn't even know Alice Cooper was a band,
Like I thought it was just the one guy. Well
not at first. There was the guy that ended up
taking the name, and it was the front man. His
real name was Vincent Fernier. But after he split off
from band, he went solo and he actually ended up
just taking the name Alice with him. Well, I mean
that is pretty cool, but you know, I prefer bands
(19:07):
named after real people, thank you very much. And that's
why my pick for this category is Pink Floyd. No way,
is that them a real person? Yeah, it's actually the
name of two real people. So you know, one of
the band's founding members, the legendary Sid Barrett, came up
with idea for combining the names of two of his
favorite blues musicians, and that's Pink Anderson and Floyd Counsel.
(19:28):
Oh wow, I had no idea about that, all right,
but that does mean if I'm not mistaken that Anderson
Counsel would still be on the table then right, definitely.
So for any nameless bands out there, here's the answer
you've been looking for, all right. Well, I have to
give it to you. Pink Floyd is a two for
with that double homage and and that is tough to beat.
But I have one I've been saving, and I think
(19:50):
I want to give the edge to, you know, to
my Alabama brothers, Leonard SKINNERD. I mean, aren't they from Florida?
Details details name also mean in terms of fake sounding
names like Leonard SKINNERD like no real name has that
many wise, and know many how many times I've written it,
I don't know how many times I've actually written it,
but I never can seem to get it right. But
(20:12):
you might have a point because you know, while the
band did take their name and honor of their real
life gym teacher and basketball coach, they also tweaked it
a little to sound a little bit more interesting. So
the real guy's name was Leonard Skinner, and after the
band made him their namesake, Skinner reconnected with his old
pupils and actually even m seed one of their shows.
(20:32):
But really, though, the band might have been better off
just sticking with Leonard Skinner, because you know, their name
was just so hard to remember how to spell, and
the misspelled version they went on was just so phonetically
confusing that even their self titled debut album, it had
this little pronunciation. Guy. I don't know if you've seen
this before, but on the cover of the album to
help people know how to pronounce it, you know, just
(20:52):
to be safe. That's ridiculous. Okay, so I I guess
you're two for two. I'm gonna give that one to you.
But this next category I think is all mind because
I found the all time best band name inspired by
another artist, and it belongs to none other than the
man who taught the world to do the twist. Mr
Chubby Checker. Oh wow, So who inspired Chubby Checker's name.
(21:12):
So apparently it's a riff on the name of fellow
musician and near contemporary Fats Domino. Uh yeah, But the
first person to ever call Ernest Evans by the name
Chubby Checker was actually Dick Clark's wife, and they met
when Chubby appeared on Dick Clark's American Bands in nineteen
sixty and during the recording, Chubby launched into this impression
of Fats Domino, And afterwards he told Mrs Clark that
(21:34):
his friends actually called him Chubby, and she smiled and
said as in Checker, and he just kind of liked
it so much that he used as a stage name
from then on. You know, this is one of those that,
in hindsight you think that Fats Domino and Chubby Checker,
it seems obvious, but actually had never made that connection before.
Al Right, so I will concede this one. Chubby Checker
(21:54):
should have a spot in the band Name Hall of Fame. Well,
I am glad you're on board, because I really like
that one, and it just kind of lines up perfectly
with an article I read about the science of choosing
the perfect band name. Oh, I definitely want to hear
more about this, but first let's take a quick break,
(22:22):
all right, Mango, So it's time to spill it. What
is the secret to coming up with a truly top
shelf band name? Well, if we've shown anything today, it's
that memorable band names come from all different places, you know,
summer homages to real life events and people. Others are
nonsense words or appealing phrases crib from media or other musicians.
And some names come in sudden flashes of inspiration. I mean,
(22:44):
others just seem to be whatever drummer happened to be
looking at at the time. And there's really no one
fixed approach that works. But there actually do seem to
be some linguistic patterns that crop up among the best
band names. Alright, So what do you mean by patterns? So,
just on a basic level, most compelling band names have
something unusual about them. So you know, you think about
like the grateful Dead or the Flaming Lips, and those
(23:07):
are just these unexpected word combinations that you find together
and when you hear them, they kind of grab your attention.
But there's also this other factor that's more cultural than
linguistic and what's that. So this might sound a little strange,
but it comes down to the way people connect words
and names that belong to a certain category. So for example,
like think about something the naming patterns for cars, right,
(23:28):
two big ones that might come up are fast moving animals.
You've got things like the Jaguar, the Mustang, even the viper,
and also astronomical figures, so like tourists or mercury, Nova, Saturn, Subaru. Like,
at this point, we're kind of so used to these
recurring patterns and car names that any words that fit
into that genre like that brings true to us, is
(23:50):
a good name for a car? That's yeah, that's true definitely,
But so are you're saying that the same kind of
thing happens with band names. Totally, But this is something
I recognized on my own. It's actually the theory of
this linguist named chi Lu. And one important thing she
points out in her research is that these cultural associations
that we create for categories of names are always changing
over time. So here's actually a quote from her article
(24:13):
in j Store where she lays out some of these
generational patterns of music. She writes, quote, short names beginning
with the and a common noun is an obvious pattern
from the mid twentieth century, got the Beatles, the monkeys,
the animals, the Kanks, and that's seen a revival in
recent times. The heavy metal genre is one of the
classes with more obvious linguistic patterns, usually involving death, so
(24:36):
Megadeth's Layer of course, and other perils such as dangerous animals,
white snake weapons, guns and roses, iron maiden, or sometimes
drugs and unhealthy substances poison. All Right, so I guess
it does make sense. Like when you were talking about
Chubby Checker before, it lines up pretty well with this
idea of these these naming patterns. Obviously, in this case,
(24:57):
it was picking a name that wasn't too far off
from somebody else's, you know, Fats Domino in this case.
And so you kind of found that ultimate shortcut to
making a recognizable band name, right, And I mean that
seems to be like the cardinal rule of rock and roll,
where the music is always derivative, right, Like it's always
pulling from the blues. So why shouldn't the naming conventions
be derivative as well? Just copy the other guys? Yeah,
(25:18):
it's a good point and it does seem to work
all right. Well, I wanted to come back to some
of these other names, but I'm not sure if you
experienced this, but in doing the research, there were definitely
a ton of fun band name origins that they kind
of don't fit into a particular category. I feel like
we should take a little bit of time to just
throw out a few wild card entries for our band
name Hall of Fame. Yeah, I love that, it's perfect.
(25:38):
So I've actually been dying to talk about Dexis Midnight Runners,
and I don't think there's any other way I could
work them in. Yeah, it sounds like kind of a
tough sell, so I have to admit, who are they exactly?
So you might remember them as the British band that
gave us the eighties hit song come On Eileen, No,
I definitely don't remember them as that. I mean, of
course I remember the song, but I couldn't have told
(25:58):
you sung it well either way. Their naming situation is
basically the exact opposite of what happened with the Bloodhound Gangs.
So instead of being like a raunchy band with an
innocent name, the Dexis Midnight Runners were I guess, like
a squeaky clean band with a highly suspect name. That
sounds pretty funny, but I think you're gonna have to
walk me through because I honestly have no clue what
(26:19):
a Dexi's Midnight Runners. Okay, So the band openly admitted
that the dexis part of their name comes from a
you know, a stimulant called dexadrine and this was popular
among soul music fans in Northern England during the seventies,
and the Midnight Runners part that refers to the users
who used the drug as a way to dance all
night long. Wow. So so, but you said these guys
(26:41):
were like a squeaky clean band totally. So they were
completely sober and they didn't even have alcohol at any
of their shows. Oh wow, that's pretty bizarre, But that's great.
All right. Well, I think my wild card pick is
an oldie but a goody, and that would be the
one and only led Zeppelin. You can kind of think
of this as the Yankee Doodle Award for our Hall
of Fame name because you know, just like in that song,
(27:02):
the name led Zeppelin has its origins and something that
was originally intended as an insult. So the story goes
that The Who's Keith Moon was actually invited to drum
for this new London band, but ended up being so
unimpressed with the other members and he mockingly predicted that
they would quote go down like a lead balloon. So
then John entwhistle basis for The Who went even further
(27:25):
than that, and he remarked that the new band would
be such a colossal failure that it would be more
like a led Zeppelin, which is pretty harsh but also
kind of clever. Yeah, it was, but maybe as clever
as that. When the insult made its way back to
Jimmy Page and his manager, they actually thought it was
so funny that they decided to make it the official
band name, though only after dropping the A from lead,
(27:48):
and the whole reason was to, you know, to keep
Americans from mispronouncing it as Lead Zeppelin. So I don't
know what I should be impressed by how much they
cared about preserving like that lead balloon joke at all costs,
or I guess insulted by how little they thought of
American intelligence. I don't know. I sort of think it
was a smart call. I mean you remember the pronunciation
guide I mentioned about Leonard Skinner, Right, Yeah, of course,
(28:11):
And I guess I understand that desire to make sure
your name comes across as intended, because the name of
band goes with can have this major impact on a
musician's career. Didn't bring everything from their radio exposure to
merchandise design to you know, what kind of people will
actually listen to the songs? And even after the music
stops and the spotlight shifts to someone else, a good
(28:32):
name can still keep a band afloat in the cultural site, guys,
so long as there's an interesting story about where it
came from. Oh yeah, I mean, I think you're absolutely right.
I was actually this close to talk about Hoodie and
the Blowfish today and Mango, it's two thousand eighteen. Well,
you haven't missed your opportunity yet. It's time for the
fact off, and there's still a few empty spots left
to talk about band names. All right, we'll dust off
(28:54):
your Blowfish. Hootie, you're coming in, so I'm gonna start
his off. And I love it when bands named themselves
after songs from other bands as somewhat of a tribute,
and that's actually how radio Head got their name. When
they first formed in the mid eighties, they were known
(29:14):
as on a Friday, which was the day that they
got together to practice. But then five or six years later,
when they signed with E. M. I, they actually changed
their name to Radiohead as a tribute to the Talking
Heads and the song Radiohead. You know, something similar actually
happened with the Rolling Stones. So Jagger and Richards first
formed the band back in the early sixties, and at
that point they were called the Blue Boys. The story
(29:37):
goes that during an interview with this jazz focused newspaper,
guitarist Brian Jones spotted this Muddy Waters record. It was
just sitting there on the floor where he was doing
the interview, and it made him think about that song
Rolling Stone from the same album, and that's where they
got the name. That's really cool. So, you know, having
played an a band in high school or several bands
in high school, I love stories of groups that you know,
(29:59):
met his kids and kept performing together. And another one
of those was a group that came together in the
nineties out of Cleveland. They were just in junior high
school when they started rapping together and one day Anthony
Crazy Bone Henderson had this minor crash on his moped,
and in somewhat of an act of solidarity, the group
all supported bandages and they started calling themselves the band
Aid Boys, And while that name didn't stick, we now
(30:22):
know them as Bone Thugs and Harmony. You know, I
also think it's fun when bands don't seem to actually
remember their origin, or at least they're competing stories for origins.
And one of these where I saw so many different
stories on this was Pearl Jam, and so I won't
share all of them. But there have been some claims
that the band name was inspired by Eddie Vetter's great
grandmother Pearl, who apparently made this famous peyote jam. I
(30:44):
don't know if this is true enough. And I thought
that was pretty funny, and then it ranges to the
much less interesting. You know, one of them that they
just liked the word pearl and then they added jam
to it because that's what a group of musicians do.
So I think I'm gonna stick with the great grandmother story.
It just seems so much more fun to believe. Yeah,
I like that a lot. Well, I know we're not
really focusing on cover bands, but there's one that's kind
(31:05):
of a cover band but also kind of a weirdly
inspired band called Austrian Death Machine, and apparently they sing
entirely in the style of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all their
songs are from some of his famous one liners. So
you know, like it's not a tumor. You can actually
find on the band's first album, Total Brutal, which is right,
that's actually the first album. Oh, just the first album. Wow,
(31:27):
this band is something else. I would imagine that's one
of those shows that you're like, this is gonna be
so hilarious, and for the first five minutes it's so hilarious,
and then it's just torture from that point on. Alright, MANO,
I don't want to disappoint anybody, because we promised to
include Hootie and the Blowfish, and I'm here to deliver.
I'm not sure that we actually did promise, but we
said Hoodie and the Blowfish. We did. We promised Hootie.
(31:50):
But you know, I think most people assume that the frontman,
Darius Rucker, was Hoodie and that his supporting band members
were The Blowfish, but it actually turns out the he's
kind of both or at least both names came from
people that Darius went to school with. So one was
this kid they called Hoodie because I guess he kind
of looked like an owl. And there was a separate
(32:11):
classmate that had these puffed up cheeks and was nicknamed Blowfish.
So I'm not sure why they decided to combine these two,
and I kind of want to see pictures of these
guys because it's just would make for an interesting story.
But it seemed to work. And I've actually got an
equally important fact because just recently a friend reminded me
that in our high school yearbook there was a photo
(32:33):
of me playing basketball in a game, and for some reason,
when I was dribbling, I would do this thing where
I blow out my cheeks like a blowfish, you know,
kind of like Jordan's tongue, but much less cool and
much less effective, of course, But when you weren't dunking,
when I wasn't dunking, that's what I was doing. And anyway,
I was doing that in this photo, and the capture
under it said Willie and the Blowfish. So how about that, Mango?
(32:57):
Pretty good? Well, I feel like you deserved today's trophy
just based on that story alone. Thank you very much,
and thank you guys for listening. I know we must
have left out so many great origin stories of band names,
so please let us hear those from. You can always
email us part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com.
You can also call us on our seven fact hotline
one eight four four pt Genius, or hit us up
(33:20):
on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening.
Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production
of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several
(33:41):
brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even
begin to understand. Christa McNeil does the editing thing. Noel
Brown made the theme song and does the mixy mixy
sound thing. Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gabe
Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the research
army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and
Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
(34:01):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
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