HOW did you come up with your band's name?

[IGuitUpIGuitDown]

We're changing the band's name, and it's been sheer hell trying to find something that's:

1) Cool
2) Not already a band with that name, somewhere on the planet
3) Unlike FRAANGSNARGLESVISK* - something that people can remember!

(* no offense was intended towards any of the members of FRAANGSNARGLEVISK. You dudes rock. )

Any advice?

 

[fl00dsm0k3]

my band is called insan ran asylum and I don't remember how I came up with it

 

[Tom CT]

Low Maintenance

We never practice.

 

[AuroraTide]

Aurora Tide.. I'm from Northern Canada where there's plenty of Northern lights or aurora borealis, and now I live in Australia where there's plenty of beaches.. Hence the tide bit

 

[Jon Silberman]

The Thankful Dads. Not too shabby for a Dead band!

 

[taez555]

Just a couple ideas off the top of my head...

- Capt Internet and the Ukrainian medium Rare Burger Band.
- Fondue and the rest
- The Beetles
- Anal Retentive Cavity Search
- Foot in Yo Brass (probably more appropriate for a polka band)
- Mike and the Stands
- Show me your no face
- The Lone Stars
- John Mayer part 2

 

[bob-i]

I've been gigging for almost 50 years and I've yet to come up with a band name. It's always either been joining an existing band or someone else comes up with the name.

 

[Dexter.Sinister]

We are a trio named after a Miles Davis record with a "3" added. Folks remember us both by the name and the strong pulp/kitsch/popculture visual aesthetic.

We ran the name by the lawyer, incorporated, and then signed to a label.

 

[brickthicket]

I don't have a band right now. But my old band was Zoombrella. Mix of zoom(ers) and umbrella. It was a tossup between that and the Wahshrooms.

 

[Nevets]

Good band names are hard to come up with. Some suggestions:

Put random vowels and consonants together to form a new word
Pick a noun and an adjective randomly
Use the name of a book or poem
Grab a magnetic poetry set and randomize them, see if anything jumps out
If all else fails name your band after the bass player

 

[loudboy]

My favorite of all the bands I've been in, was a fake name, created by a friend who was a pro video shooter.

They were always humping roadcases thru airports and being asked what band they were with.

On a shoot at a dog track down south, they were chatting with a guy who worked there and he was relating a story about how "You shoulda been here last week - we had ourselves a five dog pileup."

From then on, when asked, they played with "5 Dog Pileup" and I stole the name for my band.

 

[rhinocaster]

My advice would be to put everyone in the band on the spot...

It's just too easy for a member or two to come up with all of the ideas only to have the rest of the band shoot them down without offering anything themselves.

In my current band we each submitted two names and voted for two names. This was a requirement. The names that had the most votes became the starting point for a discussion about accepting one of those names or creating a name at least on one of those names.

It forced a brainstorming session that had a common starting point for everyone....in 2 hours we had our name. Sugarbone Delux.

Maybe not the best name ever but it's unique enough to work and everyone liked it because they felt that they had contributed to it even if they normally would have had no place to start.

 

[Gasp100]

I left the option of re-naming my last band to the other people in the band. I had come up with a number of suggestions and nothing took and I had a hand in everything else, so I figured let them run with it...
What they came up with was so unappealing it's one of the main reasons I quit and created my own project / band. I let my wife name the new project

 

[thedroid]

Just keep your ears open for little turns of phrase or words that you like. Write them down. It may take weeks. When you've got a couple of dozen, start crossing off the ones you like the least. Get it down to five. Practice answering the question "What's your band's name?" with each of the five. Whichever one makes you flinch the least, that's it.

Don't forget to google check that it's not taken.

And remember that, no matter what it is, some people will think it's dumb. Because it is. All band names are.

 

[towtruk7]

Lay out a newspaper and randomly point to five words. Take the best two or three that sound good together.

 

[Che_Guitarra]

Drugs, solitude, a picture of a unicorn flying through a rainbow, and a pen and paper.

 

[chucke99]

My band had just formed (this was in 1985) and we were looking for a name. Our lead singer, Phil, came in to practice one night, and said he had just come from the wake of one of his dad's best friends, named Earl. At the casket, his dad noticed that Earl was still wearing a wrist watch, and the thought of that watch continuing to tick long after Earl was in the ground creeped him out, so he took the watch off the body. He gave it to Phil and Phil showed it to us then.

That's when I said, "There's the name of our band: Earl's Watch." We all loved it, and spent a lot of time explaining the name to people after that.

http://www.45cat.com/record/241242

 

[StonieSlagg]

This Song For Mariners…

I picked a line from Whitman.

http://www.bartleby.com/142/3.html

 

[armadillo66]

I worked our project names in accordance with some of the graphic art I have access to for our logos/gig posters, etc. I have an agreement with a very good artist for my Disgruntled Gnome logo and it is adaptable for our needs.
Disgruntled Gnome Production Group - handle our bookings and promo stuff
our bands
Gnometown Heros Band, our collective of area musicians we utilize to do these specific off the cuff performances. our big one this year will be a Grateful Dead show this summer in July, last year we did a Steampunk Show that went over really good.
Muy Blastido, side project with an entirely different setlist style and different percussion, Muy Blastido is more irreverent material, fancier instrumental work on jazz fusion oriented format.
Rust Bucket - my original roots blues and red dirt project
Mindzeye, my daughter's project
Liv Stat band and Foster The Pritchett, my son in law Grant's band and duo with his drummer which has become very in demand booking, they are dang good.

We all help each other with gear and side man duties, my daughter and I do songwriting together.



its cheesy but I utilize it however I need to when convenient, but for some shows we do posters this simple

 

[towtruk7]

Drugs, solitude, a picture of a unicorn flying through a rainbow, and a pen and paper.

Now that's more of an album than a band - The unicorn and rainbow are the background and the title is Drugs, Solitude, and a Pen and Paper.