who was in a band with an embarrassing name?

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I guess a fair number of you are in bands, and a fair number more (like me) tried it but then realised they were better at listening to this music stuff than making it.

So tell us about your schoolroom/bedroom band (even if it was just you).

Mine was called Pink Flob. Punk took a couple of years to reach Devon, England, but we caught on quick. ish.

... and if anyone on board was in the Scottish Polis Inspectors (Whitley Bay, c1980) I still have your c90 album!

― jon, Thursday, 5 September 2002 06:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in a band called Molester Piggot.
Actually, that's not an embarassing name - it's ace. And it wasn't a school band either - I was 26 at the time.
We'd previously toyed with Bun, Teenrock, Apron, Stupid Bitch and Benson And The Hedges before we settled on the above.

― Microkomputer (Microkomputer), Thursday, 5 September 2002 07:56 (twenty-three years ago)

The Flying Paxo Twins

It was a brief spark. Perhaps it might have been better if it were briefer, one gig and people thought we were doing a comedy act.

― tigerclawskank, Thursday, 5 September 2002 09:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Bonde Equipe

Holly Hobby

― flowerdie, Thursday, 5 September 2002 09:39 (twenty-three years ago)

my 'band' (well, we had a couple of practices) owns this thread.

"the diarrhea of anne frank"

we were the best.

― geeta (geeta), Thursday, 5 September 2002 09:43 (twenty-three years ago)

can't really compete with the previous entry, but i was once in a band called 'the bad breath of moses's butcher'. we sucked (but laughed plenty).

― angelo (angelo), Thursday, 5 September 2002 10:24 (twenty-three years ago)

STF - Sharon Tate's Foetus. We wanted to be the Meatmen and we sucked.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 5 September 2002 11:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Briefly in a "hardcore" band in high school in the early-to-mid-80's originally called L.B.E., which charmingly stood for Lead Bullet Enema, until good taste and judgement prevailed, and we changed our name (for our only ever performance at a party) to the Bernard Goetz Choir.

― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 5 September 2002 11:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Lovebeast and the Mammoth Experience
7 Brigade 7

― stevo (stevo), Thursday, 5 September 2002 11:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in a band that entered the MTV Beach House Party Band contest as a joke and was named one of the 32 Worst Bands In America by SPIN magazine, the first of two times (to my knowledge) they had the Do You Suck? contest. The Headless Babies' greatest hits included "Spanish People In My Amp", "I Wanna Ride Mr. Rogers", and "Crabs". Actually, we were fucking great for being 15, 16 years old.

― Chris Ott, Thursday, 5 September 2002 12:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in a two-person combo called Dolores Delvecchio. (She was Barbarino's never-seen hot girlfriend.) They were really confused at the bar when, instead of a beautiful Italian woman, two shlubs got up on stage: me on vocals, Robert Moritz (now Parade Magazine's "Gadget Guy") on electric flying-V ukelele. (I'm not kidding.)

Two songs: "Fuck Sting" (got to rhyme "phallus" with "Branford Marsalis") and "The Ballad of the Portland Trailblazers." Let's just say the Greenwich Village indie crowd was not down with country songs about underachieving NBA teams that aren't the Knicks.

― Matt C., Thursday, 5 September 2002 13:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, Moritz was on loan from his regular project back then, a speed-metal ukulele combo called Uke Till U Puke. Which might be one of the worst names ever but might also be the best. They smashed their ukes at the end of every performance and then had to build new ones. Utterly ace.

― Matt C., Thursday, 5 September 2002 13:07 (twenty-three years ago)

My one-man project was Creation Principle...I cringe, now.

Other great band names from my hometown: Beat Faggots (meant like Beat Poetry, but people kept reading it like it was a command) and W.F.S. (which stood for We Fuck Sluts).

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 5 September 2002 13:28 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in:
Viscid Lemon
then
Kangaroo Joey & the Sea Oats (which evolved into the Cretins)
then
Jilted Pilgrim.
I am currently in the much-anticipated Beefcake Dub Sound System (not a dub group).

― Nick A., Thursday, 5 September 2002 14:28 (twenty-three years ago)

hehe I was forced into a Cali-style pop-punk combo at my school. we were called "business up fron, party backstage" after the mullet hairstyle. I was in a punk band called the "motherfuckers" which is more cliche than anything else. we never played any clubs, so don;t get us confused with anyone else!

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Thursday, 5 September 2002 14:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Liquid Tractor House
Better Than Better Than Ezra

― Rahul Kamath (Rahul Kamath), Thursday, 5 September 2002 15:20 (twenty-three years ago)

In high school I had a band called Big Nifty Manhole...

― g, Thursday, 5 September 2002 15:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Sean Carruthers: those were awesome band names.

― g, Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

at college, we called ourselves BIG PIT. the band didn't do much but it was fun writing songs and disturbing the neighbours. the big pit disco is dead dj offshoot launched a number of pretty popular south wales projects. all hail big pit. (possible retrospective cd release on swank records in the new year)

― dbini, Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Good God: and I thought joining a band called "Jounce" was bad. (I think they had previously been called "Thwart," which is more competitive in here, but I wasn't around back then.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Johnny DA & The Rockabilly Hamsters. We played our high school talent show, got gonged, and immediately split up.

― mike a, Thursday, 5 September 2002 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in a band called Scurvy, which is bad enough. But for a brief period of time (like about 60 seconds), we were called Oedipus & The Motherfuckers. I still suggest the latter to anyone looking for a bandname, but there seem to be no takers.

I was also briefly in another band called Herd. But finding out we shared a name with Peter Frampton's old band was so much of a drag we silently split up.

― paul cox, Thursday, 5 September 2002 17:29 (twenty-three years ago)

ObUpdate: If I recall correctly, W.F.S. went on to become Simple Simon and the Rhymin' Piemen.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 5 September 2002 18:56 (twenty-three years ago)

hey did anyone on ILM evah see JACK LORD'S HAIR, that was my favourite bandname in MaxRock'n'Roll back in the day.

(geeta u r00l)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 5 September 2002 20:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Old band names: Beats Dissonance. Wencherous Murde. Fax. Sloppy Bog & The Urinals.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 5 September 2002 21:03 (twenty-three years ago)

a few being bandied about before we settled on fatty arbuckle:

-retardo montalban
-the diary of anne frankenstein
-OIblivion
-amanskattaeat (christian ska band).
-cournuut (i can't do uuuumlauts, but there was one over every vowel.)
-the marriage of maria braun-eye (ah, film school.)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 5 September 2002 21:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Jack Lord's Hair were an average emo band from Pennsylvania who (I believe) broke up in the mid 90's. Funny name though. I think it got them a good bit of attention.

― Mark M, Thursday, 5 September 2002 23:39 (twenty-three years ago)

better name = STEVE GARVEY'S HAIR, a devo coverband that lost the 1990 UCSB battle of the bad bands to ZION, a jewish death metal band ("Gimme Back My Foreskin").

― gygax!, Thursday, 5 September 2002 23:52 (twenty-three years ago)

What's with the Anne Frank fixation people?! I expect Anne Frankenfurter to be coming up soon... Being an artsy tart, my band was called Sisley. Hardly embarrassing, but way pretentious. I loved it.

― Simon, Thursday, 5 September 2002 23:56 (twenty-three years ago)

"the urinals" is such a dunedin nupunk band name. i had a pretty appalling bandname in high school. we were a bunch of girls singing a capella and we fancied ourselves as the female boyz II men (ugggh) we were called One II Many.

― di smith (lucylurex), Friday, 6 September 2002 00:21 (twenty-three years ago)

My high school metal band was Carpe Noctem, which was pretty awesome at the time.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 6 September 2002 02:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Just as a matter of internet record, if I ever somehow happen to start up a band (like by accident or something), naming it 'The Camel Toads' is still a very real possibilty.

― Kim, Friday, 6 September 2002 02:52 (twenty-three years ago)

...or maybe just go with 'possibilty', hey...

― Kim, Friday, 6 September 2002 02:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I was in a school band called Permanent Coma - that fair rocked. Got chucked out before they did a gig tho. If I remember rightly, we also toyed with Defec-8, Fornic-8 and Beer Cr-8 in a "wry" (read, 'stoopid') nod to daft chart hardcore stars Altern-8.

All this, and we covered Cure songs, and sampled the opening bars of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, sped it up ludicrously and mixed it with the opening riff from Electronic's Get The Message, adding lyrics nicked out of the Sunday Express...oh flippin' dear.

Uni band was called Aniseed. Not embarrassing at all, I don't think. Sorry, this isn't much help is it?

― Charlie, Friday, 6 September 2002 04:02 (twenty-three years ago)

First band I was in was D.U.I. After that, none of the other bands could keep it together long enough to even have a name.

Then came The Roswell Incident.

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Friday, 6 September 2002 05:09 (twenty-three years ago)

The Roswell Incident? Well, it's probably still better than Beer Cr-8...

Hey Chris, yr on 22, right?

― Charlie, Friday, 6 September 2002 05:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I just couldn't resist! Kind of off-topic since I wasn't in their band, but the Embarrassment had an embarrassing name. Oh, Jesus that's horrible. I was trying to use that as an introduction to a question about the Embarrassment but I think I'll just start a thread. lol You'll notice I posted the answer anyway! My brother is in a band called Gluon. Maybe that can justify my response! LOL

― Erin Caruthers (maneki neko), Friday, 6 September 2002 05:43 (twenty-three years ago)

hahahahahahaha plonk. *falls off seat*

keep it up! keep it up!

My favourites so far 'the diarrheoa of Anne Frank; and 'Jilted Pilgrim' Quite why that makes me laugh so much, I have no idea.

But in the meantime this thread has Changed My Life (TM). Here's the story:

The whole thread made me think of a band name I made up one drunk/stoned evening with an American friend at the University of Sussex, UK, c1980. We decided the Prefab Messiahs was the best name for a band EVER. No idea who said it first.

I didn't contribute it to the thread as, as far as I was concerend, the band never existed.

But I did wonder what happened to that overseas student, stuck his name into Google, and found him. Got an email this morning.

It turns out several years later, he formed the Prefab Messiahs, and they featured in the US indie scene a bit, touring and releasing.

So thanks to this board I now know that my life has placed a tiny teardrop of content in the great wide river of history they call popular music, and I can die content. Bye everyone! and Thank You!

― jon, Friday, 6 September 2002 08:42 (twenty-three years ago)

"Vegetation Information" - Which started OK as experimental instrumental stuff but quickly degenerated into semi jam band material. Our following was pretty crunchy.

― Dave Beckhouse, Friday, 6 September 2002 21:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Pistol Whippin' and The Piranha II's (great band, gag-inducing name)
Zeppelin and the Stones (wonderfully subversive name, irredeemably terrible band)
Mynah Threat (because we were just parrotting the sound. when we got a female back-up singer, we became Punkwood Mac)

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Friday, 6 September 2002 23:22 (twenty-three years ago)

my partner "hung out" with "scab union" at school

― george gosset (gegoss), Friday, 6 September 2002 23:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Almost forgot: I helped found a punk band called Blood Pudding the week before I went off to college. (I think my name in the band was "Fido McAllister" or something.) We never even picked up a guitar; that's how punk we were.

The band continued--their most "famous" song was "A Fistful of Mayonnaise"--but they've now "evolved" into a country-rootsy-bluesy group called The Range Pigs that plays Portland a lot and has a CD coming out. Yeah. Rock.

― Matt C., Saturday, 7 September 2002 10:52 (twenty-three years ago)

oh, and since guy was our drummer, "jon paul george and guy" was briefly mooted in rip it up

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 7 September 2002 11:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I will now hold auditions. I will now reform Zeppelin and the Stones if only to see their name on a marquee one last time.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Saturday, 7 September 2002 13:42 (twenty-three years ago)

i was in the hollisters (yes, twee as fuck), then in the dirty boots, who went on to become the frankenbooties.
also a short period in patrullero mancuso (patrolman mancuso), and now i have a band called solution (or =solution=), which i think it's pretty cool.

― joan vich (joan vich), Sunday, 8 September 2002 15:24 (twenty-three years ago)

i was thinking of calling my new band Man to Lamb, but it was already taken...

― g (graysonlane), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 18:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Charlie, what are you doing here?

I think every band I've ever been in has had an embarrassing name. Starting right at the beginning, with a dodgy Goth Jesus and Mary Chain wannabe band called Exquisite Agony. Ugh. I'm guilty of pretention far more than punk stupidity. Think I actually got as far as playing a gig as "Her Uncertain Smile". Yuck.

Most incomprehensible name ever = Johnny Chan and the New Dynasty Six. None of us were Chinese, and there were only four of us. Go figure.

― kate, Tuesday, 10 September 2002 18:29 (twenty-three years ago)

my band is called the tom cruise missile.

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 18:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Di owns this thread.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 21:32 (twenty-three years ago)

i was in a 5-piece called "incommunicado". i thought it was a fairly pretentious name at the time, but unfortunatly we live in a democracy...

― Slump Man (Slump Man), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 21:43 (twenty-three years ago)

I like 'Dodgy Goth Jesus'

― Kim (Kim), Tuesday, 10 September 2002 22:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Some friends of mine had a really awful punk band called A.S.P. which stood for 'Anti Society Police', the logic of which could be mused for hours. Or maybe not.

The most embarrsing name which I was part of was in 1987, and the name was 'TWO-SY', aka 'The Way Out Second Years'. We had a great logo...

We 'rapped' in a clumsy 'License To Ill' style over drum beats made on a £1.99 Mastertronic drum machine programme on the C64 called MicroRhythm, unfortunately no tapes remain, and no one was witness to any live performances. What a shame.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 03:29 (twenty-three years ago)

We were called The Pasta Partners, me on drums and vocals and my friend Chris on guitar and, er, screaming. We played Frogs and Wesley Willis covers, as well as a speed metal version of The Magnetic Fields' "Deep Sea Diving Suit."

Later changed our name to The Sixpack Lesbians, but nothing really came of it.

― OCP, Wednesday, 11 September 2002 03:37 (twenty-three years ago)

i was in a band called hootie and the blowfish. uhh, how could a band with a name like that succeed where the diarrhea of anne frank failed?

― brian badword (badwords), Wednesday, 11 September 2002 06:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe I should reform at least one of those bands so I can storm the Billboard charts with a remake of "The Ballad of Charles Bronson Pinchot"

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Thursday, 12 September 2002 11:32 (twenty-three years ago)

di,
there was actually a really good L.A. (i think) punk band from late 70's / early 80's called the urinals. they have three cool songs (i can only remember the name of one: "i'm a bug") on a compilation called "year of the rat", which also features crime and other good stuff. zarakov might have it.

― cameron, Thursday, 12 September 2002 13:49 (twenty-three years ago)

The band I was in hadn't decided on a name until we came to doing our first (and last) performance. For some reason we didn't want a name that might imply any particular genre/sound - maybe because we didn't have one worth describing - so having considered scintillating titles such as 'Dictionary' or 'The Ladders' we ended up calling ourselves 'The Football Team'.
When we arrived they had put up crayoned posters around the place:
PLAYING TONITE - THE FOOTBALL TEAM, complete with a cartoon Stanley Matthews type player about to cross the ball.
The horror, the horror...

― Ray M (rdmanston), Thursday, 12 September 2002 15:22 (twenty-three years ago)

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