Silliest band name ever?

[RShack]

Somebody else has a thread going about a band called "Modest Mouse". Well, semi-old-fart that I am, I never heard of these people. I certainly have no basis for commenting on what they do.

However, I have been paying attention to music for more than 40 years, and this is one of the silliest bad name I have ever heard. "Modest Mouse"? Are you kidding me? As opposed to what? "Arrogant Mouse"? "Egotistical Mouse"? "Fathead Mouse"? If you're a frigging little mouse, what else are you gonna be besides "modest". (Unless you're somehow "Mighty", but that's already taken.)

Are there band names that are more silly than "Modest Mouse"?

[The Wedge]

Tons and tons. Especially since I'm pretty sure there is an expression "modest as a mouse." Among other similar expressions.

But how about a local band, who found their way on to that Next Great Band or whatever the heck it's called. Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad. Far sillier, far far sillier.

[Danielos38]

Easy.

Panic! At the Disco

They stink, and their band name stinks.

[DuffMan]

Easy.

Panic! At the Disco

They stink, and their band name stinks.

Here's a few.

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Squirrel Nut Zippers

Dave Matthews Band

[Danielos38]

Here's a few.

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Squirrel Nut Zippers

Dave Matthews Band

What's wrong with Dave Matthews Band? Sure, it's as generic as it gets, but there's plenty of band names that are "sillier" than that.

[bobmc]

Butthole Surfers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butthole_Surfers)

[NewMarketSean]

Les Breastfeeders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Breastfeeders)

[Mad Mark]

An old favorite of mine...the Dead Milkmen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_milkmen)

[scOtt]

I'm gonna go old school on this...

1910 Fruitgum Company
Electric Prunes
Question Mark and the Mysterians
The Troggs
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Iron Butterfly

These psychedelia jokes just write themselves.... :p

[McLovin]

It doesn't get any sillier than 'The The'.

[Zanetheo'sfan]

Here's a few.

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Squirrel Nut Zippers

Dave Matthews Band

I'm pretty sure that's a type of candy.

[sakata_catching]

Modest Mouse strikes me as fairly innocuous, as a name and as a band.

Boeing Duveen & the Beautiful Soup
Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel
When People Were Shorter and Lived Near The Water

... are three of the more ridiculous band names I can think of right now. I might check in with more.

[The Wedge]

And Toad the Wet Sprocket a Monty Python reference.

True silly names are just bizarre and completely esoteric. They're the result of the band being completely random.

[RShack]

Butthole Surfers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butthole_Surfers)
Well, I was just asking about silly. Now we're into tasteless.
When it comes to tasteless, I think The Dead Kennedy's pretty much take the cake.
Other folks are posting names that aren't so much silly or tasteless as they are downright bizzare. So, we're wandering a bit here.
But that's fine. I think it's a good thing to broaden our horizons ;-)

[ledzepp8]

Yeah it would have to be Godspeed You Black Emperor.

[Elbren]

Limp Bizkit

I don't know how I'm supposed to believe that you're "hardcore" or "bad ass" when you can't spell and your name starts with LIMP.

[Boy Howdy]

Awful Waffle

[PaulFolk]

Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives.

[bgfield]

Look no further than many death metal and grindcore bands. The names of most of these bands probably wouldn't even make it past the profanity filter. One that comes to mind though is Dying Fetus, who are actually from Maryland!

[MurphDogg]

Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives.

I have never heard of them but as a kid, I always thought Factory-to-Dealer Incentives would be a great name for a band along with Member FDIC.

[paz8]

Somebody else has a thread going about a band called "Modest Mouse". Well, semi-old-fart that I am, I never heard of these people. I certainly have no basis for commenting on what they do.

However, I have been paying attention to music for more than 40 years, and this is one of the silliest bad name I have ever heard. "Modest Mouse"? Are you kidding me? As opposed to what? "Arrogant Mouse"? "Egotistical Mouse"? "Fathead Mouse"? If you're a frigging little mouse, what else are you gonna be besides "modest". (Unless you're somehow "Mighty", but that's already taken.)

Are there band names that are more silly than "Modest Mouse"?

I don't know too much about Modest Mouse,nor do I really listen to them, but i believe their name is a reference to composer Modest Mussorgsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modest_Mussorgsky) who the band cites as an influence to their music.

Mussorgsky is perhaps most famous for his piece "Pictures at an Exhibition", which interestingly enough was preformed in the 70's by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer

[Gurgi]

The Petshop Boys. I actually really liked the band but the name is silly.

Gene Simmons has said a great key to success of bands is the name. He suggest keeping it short and sweet. And strong.

Kiss, Nirvana, Chicago, Boston, AC/DC, Metallica, Queen. These are the type names he suggest.

A great way to think about it is. If your band becomes a success would you be embarrassed by the name in 20 years?

The Monkees is short but doesnt pass the 20 year embarrassment test.

[RShack]

A great way to think about it is. If your band becomes a success would you be embarrassed by the name in 20 years?

The Monkees is short but doesnt pass the 20 year embarrassment test.
Well, to be fair, they never had any choice in the matter. They were hired individually to be a TV show for NBC. Along the way, they made some records.

p.s. Monkee trivia: Michael Nesmith's mother invented "Liquid Paper" (which used to be an important product).

[DrungoHazewood]

To me the line between silly and really cool is kind of blurry, but these might fall somewhere near that line:

Afghan Whigs
Father Bingo and the Legion of Decency
The Flaming Lips
The Jesus Lizard
MC 900 Ft. Jesus
Les Claypool's Fabulous Frog Brigade
Love Spit Love
They Can Never Take Our Crow (my brother's noise band)

[sakata_catching]

Sniff 'n' the Tears ("Driver's Seat") is an historically bad and silly band name.

The 90s saw a thankfully short-lived gimmick of mishmashing proper names of lame rock acts with jokey/tasteless puns, a la:

REO Speed Dealer
John Cougar Concentration Camp

Lawsuits predictably ensued and this trend quickly and mercifully wandered off to die.

The fine folks at the Onion were good enough to list some of the worst band names of 2006 (http://www.avclub.com/content/node/57488), some of which are silly, some of which are just bad and some of which are freakin' hilarious. I'll allow you to sort them out, though this might not be considered work-safe. (Well, well, well: the proper name mishmash is back [Guns-n-Rosa Parks])

[DREKTUNES]

But how about a local band, who found their way on to that Next Great Band or whatever the heck it's called. Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad. Far sillier, far far sillier.

So, my band was getting ready to play a show at a local collective a few months ago, and we were sitting around talking to one of the guys who helps run the place. He was telling us about this show his band was on, where they were flown out to Vegas and put up in a great hotel, how they had a wonderful time, jumped around like idiots, and promptly got cut.

Guess what band?

And, out of personal experience, the band I joined almost 10 years ago (where I met my wife btw) was called Wild Monkey Sex. One of my first acts as the new guy was to change the damn name.

Refresh my memory - is Death Cab For Cutie also a Python reference?

[Hank Scorpio]

Hamster Headquarters.

Ohhhh, how about "The Chimp Militia."

[Lucky Jim]

So, my band was getting ready to play a show at a local collective a few months ago, and we were sitting around talking to one of the guys who helps run the place. He was telling us about this show his band was on, where they were flown out to Vegas and put up in a great hotel, how they had a wonderful time, jumped around like idiots, and promptly got cut.

Guess what band?

And, out of personal experience, the band I joined almost 10 years ago (where I met my wife btw) was called Wild Monkey Sex. One of my first acts as the new guy was to change the damn name.

Refresh my memory - is Death Cab For Cutie also a Python reference?


"Death Cab for Cutie" is a song composed by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes and performed by Stanshall and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It was included on their 1967 album Gorilla.

Unlike most comedy/satirical performers, who write songs that parody other well-known songs, the Bonzo band wrote original material that parodied musical styles.

Stanshall intended "Death Cab For Cutie" as a send-up of Elvis Presley, and he performed it as such. Like many early rock songs, most notably Teen Angel, it tells a story of youthful angst. It's the story of "Cutie" who goes out on the town against her lover's wishes. "Last night Cutie caught a cab, uhuh-huh..." She is killed when the taxicab she is in runs a red light and crashes. Stanshall, as lead singer, details Cutie's doomed journey to the sound of a honky-tonk piano, while the Bonzo chorus warns: "Baby, don't do it..." Stanshall repeats the refrain in true Presley hip-wriggling style: "Someone's going to make you pay your fare."

The song is better known than most other Bonzo Dog efforts, since it was featured in the Beatles' experimental film Magical Mystery Tour. Performed on stage by Bonzos with Vivian in gold lamé at the Raymond Revue Bar in London, it was the lyrical accompaniment for a striptease act: Jan Carson ogled by John Lennon and George Harrison.

The band can also be seen playing the song in a 1967 episode of Do Not Adjust Your Set, which is now available on DVD.

Alex Chilton of Big Star covered the song live on WLYX Memphis in 1975. This bootleg is easily found on P2P servers.


I'll nominate Working For A Nuclear-Free City for the list.

[DREKTUNES]

"Death Cab for Cutie" is a song composed by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes and performed by Stanshall and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It was included on their 1967 album Gorilla.

Do I get a half point for the Innes connection?


In the mid-1970s, Innes became closely associated with the TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, and played a major role in performing and writing songs and sketches for the final series in 1974 (after John Cleese had left). He wrote a squib of a song called "George III" (sung by a pastiche black American girl group) which appears in the episode "The Golden Age Of Ballooning". He also wrote the song "Where Does A Dream Begin?" (included in the episode "Anything Goes: The Light Entertainment War") and he co-wrote the "Most Awful Family In Britain" sketch in the last episode, "Party Political Broadcast". He is one of only two non-Pythons to ever be credited writers for the TV series, the other one being Douglas Adams (who co-wrote another sketch in "Party Political Broadcast".

Innes wrote the songs for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and appeared in the film as a head-bashing monk, the serf crushed by the giant wooden rabbit, and the leader of Sir Robin's minstrels. He also had a small role in Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky, and performed with the Pythons on stage, including at their legendary Hollywood Bowl concert. Because of these long-standing connections, Innes is often referred to as "the Seventh Python".

He appeared on stage with the Pythons in New York City in 1975, performing the Bob Dylanesque song "Rain on a Tin Roof" (complete with harmonica) on the album Monty Python Live at City Center. He was introduced as Raymond Scum. After his introduction he told the audience "I've suffered for my music. Now it's your turn." In 1982 he traveled to the States with the Pythons again, appearing in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. He performed the songs "How Sweet to Be an Idiot" and "I'm the Urban Spaceman."

And for the Rutles. Best Beatle-alike ever. Ouch!

[Bibliomaniac]

OK, here goes:

All real bands, mostly very good ones (if, like me, you like very strange music):

Alien Sex Fiend
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Danger, Quinton, There's A Dog Behind You!
Drums And Tuba
The Entire Sioux Nation
A Flock Of Seagulls
Gaye Bykers On Acid
God Is LSD
Mentallo And The Fixer [name taken from a couple of Marvel Comics villains]
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult [name from Life article on the Manson family, complete with misspelling of the word "cult"]
The Oil Tasters
Pop Will Eat Itself
Rip Rig And Panic [name taken from a jazz album by Rahsaan Roland Kirk]
Sex Gang Children
Sheep On Drugs
Suddenly, Tammy!
They Might Be Giants

[ChrisAF79]

I'll have to go with "!!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%21%21%21)". Mind-numbingly stupid and silly.

[orangedive]

What about "The Moldy Peaches"? They had a really great debut album, but I haven't heard anything about them since.

[Lucky Jim]

What about "The Moldy Peaches"? They had a really great debut album, but I haven't heard anything about them since.

They're on hiatus. But featured (with solo stuff by Kimya Dawson, too) on the Juno soundtrack.

I think The Walkmen is a terrible name for a band. But not silly.

[ELC]

Strange, I've thought the Walkmen was a great band name.

Anyway, the worst name ever is Red House Painters. Porcupine Tree is pretty terrible as well.

[Leitch]

What about The Bloobity Blah Blah Wonk Wonks?

I think I want to start a band called "Saying Cusses is Power"

[Jimbo81]

Don't forget the Smashing Pumpkins!

[SJA]

Let me add:
Any band that intentionally misspells it's name
Oingo Boingo
A-Ha
Porno for Pyros
Goo Goo Dolls
Hoobastank
Hootie and the Blowfish
Chumbawumba
Enuff Z'nuff
and the best for last...Kajagoogoo

[furryburres]

The Butthole Surfers

[bobmc]

The Butthole Surfers

Already covered (page 1, #6) but good answer! :cool:

[OrangeJerseys]

Blink 182.

[CrimsonTribe]

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

[DrungoHazewood]

Let me add:
Any band that intentionally misspells it's name


A corollary to this is any band that adds umlauts over letters that shouldn't have them just to look cool. I'm looking right at you, Mötley Crüe.

[Tony-OH]

"Yes"......

How in the world did they decide on such a short, generic name like that?

[bobmc]

"Yes"......

How in the world did they decide on such a short, generic name like that?

Who? ;)

Maybe they were mimicking...

[Tony-OH]

Who? ;)

Maybe they were mimicking...

It's too bad there weren't bands called, What, Where, and of course..Why. They could have gone on the four-W's tour.

[MChance]

I like how 'Jimmy Eat World' came up with their name ..

"The name Jimmy Eat World does not refer to Jim Adkins. Tom Linton's younger siblings, Ed and Jimmy fought constantly when they were younger. Jimmy, who was stronger and overweight, would usually win. Ed, at 8-years-old, as revenge, drew with crayons a picture of Jimmy shoving the entire world into his gaping mouth with the caption, 'Jimmy eat world.' The picture, and by extension the band name, may have been inspired by an episode of the cartoon show Tiny Toon Adventures, where the regulars put on a student film festival. Dizzy Devil's film, 'Dizzy Eat World', was a 5 second piece drawn crudely in crayon where Dizzy's gaping maw engulfed the Earth. The piece met with deafening silence from the toon audience."

:) Good stuff, good stuff!

[Why Not?]

The Presidents of the United States of America

[bigbiegoesdown]

I'll have to go with "!!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%21%21%21)". Mind-numbingly stupid and silly.

Yeah, great band, but I often think their relative lack of success has to do with the fact that nobody can understand their name {how does !!! = chk chk chk??)

I'd also add The Silver Jews and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to this list. On a side note, my friend's fictional band too: W.E.B. and Dubois. What a great bad name.

[Bibliomaniac]

Since my last post on this topic, I've thought of a few more:

Again, all real bands:

The Anti-Nowhere League
Archers of Loaf
Blonde Redhead
Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers (absolutely no relation to The Red Hot Chili Peppers - this was a British band back in the seventies)
Die Cheerleader
Echo and the Bunnymen
Egg
The Fourskins (double meaning - you can't say foreskin on British TV/radio [can you "say" it here, I wonder?] but also it was a skinhead band with four members, hence "Four Skins")
Front Line Assembly
Gang of Four
Hatfield and the North
Inspiral Carpets
Matching Mole
Punishment of Luxury
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
Southern Culture on the Skids

[Mu'ayyidSaafir]

How about Margot and the Nuclear So-and-so's?

[BAM]

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band

...who quite often teamed up with one of the silliest songwriters I've ever heard... Frank Zappa.