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What is the best band name you've ever heard? (Original Post) milestogo Sep 5 OP
Ozric Tentacles Ferrets are Cool Sep 5 #1
Mao St. Helen (saw it in a poster). Adolf and the Violent Mood Swings underpants Sep 5 #2
"Adolf and the Violent Mood Swings"? NT mahatmakanejeeves Sep 5 #3
hmmmm...no music? quaint Sep 5 #19
Callaway golf clubs at140 Sep 5 #4
It's a Beautiful Day WheelWalker Sep 5 #5
Dead Sea Squirrels NoRethugFriends Sep 5 #6
Local band called The Swinging Johnsons. Midnight Writer Sep 5 #7
Fat Chance Bmoboy Sep 5 #8
Three Dog Night Ritabert Sep 5 #9
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard dweller Sep 5 #10
Rush Intractable Sep 5 #11
Missing ZDU Sep 5 #12
Fats Mallard and the Decoys yonder Sep 5 #13
Dusty Chaps Kali Sep 5 #14
The Beatles, 4 times, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, cksmithy Sep 5 #15
Stinky And The Right Guards, Pontius Pilate And The Nail Drivers Floyd R. Turbo Sep 5 #16
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy WestMichRad Sep 5 #17
The Band Emile Sep 5 #18
The Cramps. Harker Sep 5 #20
That hurts. milestogo Sep 5 #24
Jif and the Choosy Mothers Timeflyer Sep 5 #21
The Petit Wazoo Orchestra JoseBalow Sep 5 #22
The two that I wanted to use for this one band. OldBaldy1701E Sep 5 #23
"Batteries Not Included" ProfessorGAC Sep 5 #25
I vote for "Free Beer" DBoon Sep 5 #46
Steely Dan ClimateHawk Sep 5 #26
Hah, I didn't know that! MLAA Sep 5 #52
It's a funny reference ClimateHawk Sep 6 #60
Added Naked Lunch to my reading list! MLAA Sep 6 #62
Good luck! ClimateHawk Sep 7 #67
Toad the wet sprocket because of how they claimed to make the name JT45242 Sep 5 #27
Comes from Monty Python IcyPeas Sep 6 #61
The Electric Prunes surfered Sep 5 #28
Dropkick Murphys. Don't know their music but the name is different. Srkdqltr Sep 5 #29
I was scrolling through the replies to see if Dropkick Murphys got a mention True Dough Sep 5 #43
Sixteen Horsepower displacedvermoter Sep 5 #30
Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band strongermessage Sep 5 #31
Buzzcocks Glorious bastard Sep 5 #32
Dread Zeppelin C_U_L8R Sep 5 #33
That was awesome. callous taoboy Sep 5 #37
Shonen Knife neeksgeek Sep 5 #34
PROPAGANDHI Wiz Imp Sep 5 #35
13th Floor Elevators callous taoboy Sep 5 #36
Savage Grace multigraincracker Sep 5 #38
Was in a local band called "Oedipus and the Mothers" IggleDuer Sep 5 #39
Creedence Clearwater Revival Mike Nelson Sep 5 #40
the eternal garage band Skittles Sep 6 #64
We Were Promised Jetpacks think4yourself Sep 5 #41
I remember that name! electric_blue68 Sep 5 #50
Smashing Pumpkins catbyte Sep 5 #42
Thomas Lauderdale meets Satan's Pilgrims Thunderbeast Sep 5 #44
That was different! TFP! OAITW r.2.0 Sep 5 #54
The Dickies. Producers of the classic punk rock album "Stukas Over Disneyland". Borogove Sep 5 #45
Ah, 'Bowlin' with Bedrock Barney' Oeditpus Rex Sep 5 #48
Ugly Kid Joe. Aristus Sep 5 #47
The Rutles Oeditpus Rex Sep 5 #49
Pirate Song! OAITW r.2.0 Sep 5 #55
Oreo Meatwagon IA8IT Sep 5 #51
Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks Botany Sep 5 #53
REO Speedwagon Prof. P.E. Name Sep 5 #56
I have a pic of old old REO Speed Wagon Firetruck somewhere IA8IT Sep 6 #63
'The Joint Chiefs of Shaft' ..a hardcore funk band LudwigPastorius Sep 5 #57
Running With Scissors KitFox Sep 6 #58
Posted for my DW - she saw the Beatles at the Sam Houston Coliseum 1965 walkingman Sep 6 #59
Squirrel Nut Zippers yellowdogintexas Sep 6 #65
Brian Jonestown Massacre n/t darkstar Sep 6 #66
Skunk Baxters first band "Ultimate Spinach" justaprogressive Sep 7 #68
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen Morbius Sep 7 #69
Disco Tex and His Sexolettes. Iggo Sep 7 #70
This message was self-deleted by its author VGNonly Sep 8 #71

underpants

(192,920 posts)
2. Mao St. Helen (saw it in a poster). Adolf and the Violent Mood Swings
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 11:48 AM
Sep 5

Camper van Beethoven- good band. Dave Lowery pre-Cracker

?si=OzMP8E2ZF5knBDGz

Midnight Writer

(24,701 posts)
7. Local band called The Swinging Johnsons.
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 12:03 PM
Sep 5

Nobody in the band is named Johnson.

Yeah, I know. I'm juvenile.

cksmithy

(395 posts)
15. The Beatles, 4 times, The Rolling Stones, The Doors,
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 01:44 PM
Sep 5

Jimi Hendrix, Tina Turner & Ike doing Proud Mary, Country Joe McDonald, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, and so many more. I know I have the ticket stub in a box some where in the attic, that I will never see again.

OldBaldy1701E

(9,036 posts)
23. The two that I wanted to use for this one band.
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 06:12 PM
Sep 5

They were suggested by a friend. The one that I wanted the most was 'Buddha and the Crippled Christian Band'. I pushed hard for it.

The next one was 'Tokken'. (Long 'O' sound)

ProfessorGAC

(74,411 posts)
25. "Batteries Not Included"
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 06:58 PM
Sep 5

They played the same circuit we did. In the 80s & 90s. Don't know they lasted through the millennium like we did.
I was jealous of their name. I stopped seeing their name in the 2 Chicago Music mags.
A band that were personal friends of my wife and me were "Shuddup & Drive". Always liked that too, but we were biased by friendship.
I always thought the ultimate band name was "Free Beer" but I figured bar owners would hate it, because it might cause a riot.

DBoon

(24,282 posts)
46. I vote for "Free Beer"
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 09:04 PM
Sep 5

I think the ads always said "Band named Free Beer" and emphasized cocktails were the usual price

ClimateHawk

(360 posts)
60. It's a funny reference
Sat Sep 6, 2025, 02:57 AM
Sep 6

It’s from the William Burroughs novel “Naked Lunch”.

“With the core band recruited, Donald and Walter need a name for their group. Since both of them were avid readers of 1950's "Beat" literature, they decided to name the band "Steely Dan" after a dildo in William Burroughs' "Naked Lunch."”

https://web.archive.org/web/20111227080833/http://steelydan.com/faq.html

JT45242

(3,624 posts)
27. Toad the wet sprocket because of how they claimed to make the name
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 07:03 PM
Sep 5

4 band members wrote down words and they pulled them randomly in order to name the band.

The assumption was always that the drummer wrote "the" because it was the only word they could spell correctly.

IcyPeas

(24,213 posts)
61. Comes from Monty Python
Sat Sep 6, 2025, 06:35 AM
Sep 6

Toad the Wet Sprocket takes its name from a Monty Python comedy sketch called "Rock Notes",[2][3] in which a journalist delivers a nonsensical music news report:

Rex Stardust, lead electric triangle with Toad the Wet Sprocket, has had to have an elbow removed following their recent successful worldwide tour of Finland. Flamboyant ambidextrous Rex apparently fell off the back of a motorcycle. "Fell off the back of a motorcyclist, most likely," quipped ace drummer Jumbo McClooney on hearing of the accident. Plans are already afoot for a major tour of Iceland.[4]


There was also an extended skit about the fictional Toad the Wet Sprocket on one of Idle's later shows, Rutland Weekend Television (Season 1, Episode 4, "Rutland Weekend Whistle Test&quot . RWT musician and regular cast member Neil Innes, ex-Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and "The Seventh Python", played keyboards with the fictional band.[5]

As their first gig approached, the band still had not chosen a name. The members facetiously adopted "Toad the Wet Sprocket" because they thought it would be "hilarious". Vocalist Glen Phillips later called it "a joke that went on too long" and, according to their website, "it was probably meant to be temporary at the time."[2][6] The name had been used once before, by a short-lived British blues band of the late 1970s that had appeared on the 1980 Metal for Muthas compilation, although the earlier band had long since split up when Philips and company formed their band.

Eric Idle, the sketch's original performer, reflected on the band's name in a 1999 performance:

I once wrote a sketch about rock musicians, and I was trying to think of a name that would be so silly nobody would ever use it, or dream it could ever be used. So I wrote the words "Toad the Wet Sprocket." And a few years later, I was driving along the freeway in LA, and a song came on the radio, and the DJ said, "that was by Toad the Wet Sprocket," and I nearly drove off the freeway.[7]

Toad the Wet Sprocket - Wikipedia https://share.google/ZuzHt4uKgCtMl7phO

True Dough

(24,388 posts)
43. I was scrolling through the replies to see if Dropkick Murphys got a mention
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 08:23 PM
Sep 5

Sure enough...

Glorious bastard

(37 posts)
32. Buzzcocks
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 07:31 PM
Sep 5

Last edited Fri Sep 5, 2025, 08:28 PM - Edit history (1)

If one doesn’t know this is slang for a battery operated dildo, the name keeps you guessing. And if one does, the self-deprecation in the band name is very punk.

Thunderbeast

(3,695 posts)
44. Thomas Lauderdale meets Satan's Pilgrims
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 08:23 PM
Sep 5

Must hear their version of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".

?si=7QoTiDhrl2jpsnP5

Aristus

(70,852 posts)
47. Ugly Kid Joe.
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 09:48 PM
Sep 5

They were a struggling band that was struggling most with what to call themselves. They landed a gig opening for a group called Pretty Boy Floyd, and decided on the spot to call themselves Ugly Kid Joe.

They had a hit with “I Hate Everything About You”, and a pretty good cover of Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s In The Cradle”.

IA8IT

(6,258 posts)
51. Oreo Meatwagon
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 10:21 PM
Sep 5
https://www.oreomeatwagon.com/music

A few of the songs that we perform:

Hungry Like the Wolf -Duran,Duran

867-5309 - Tommy Tutone

All The Small Things - Blink 182

Chickenfried - Zac Brown Band,

Life Is A Highway - Tom Cochrane

Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry

Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show

Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams What I Got - Sublime

What I Like About You - The Romantics

Sugar, Were Going Down - Fall Out Boy

Hard To Handle - Black Crowes

Jessie’s Girl - Rick Springfield

Don’t Stop Believing - Journey

Banditos - The Refreshments

Nothing But A Good Time - Poison

Sugar - Maroon 5

Fishing In The Dark - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

The Middle - Jimmy Eat World

Dirt On My Boots - Jon Pardi

Boys of Summer - The Ataris

If You Could Only See - Tonic

Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi

Times Like These - Foo Fighters

Grundy County Auction - John Michael Montgomery

Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne



https://www.oreomeatwagon.com/about

LudwigPastorius

(13,385 posts)
57. 'The Joint Chiefs of Shaft' ..a hardcore funk band
Fri Sep 5, 2025, 11:42 PM
Sep 5

Also, 'Hairy Chronic, Jr.' ...a trippy jam band

...both of whom only exist in my imagination.

walkingman

(9,827 posts)
59. Posted for my DW - she saw the Beatles at the Sam Houston Coliseum 1965
Sat Sep 6, 2025, 12:51 AM
Sep 6

her Mom got her tickets for her 15th birthday (also her little brother 12). The concert was Aug. 19, 1965 and her birthday is Aug 29th. Her little brother was so little he couldn't see them but a guy next to her put him on his shoulders for the entire concert.

Response to milestogo (Original post)

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