Making Up Bands

What's in a name? I remember a few years ago, trying to come up with a name for this blog. It was mine, so the “MCF's” part was obvious, but “MCF's” what? I am a Nexus of Improbability, and that's as good a way to put my unlikely luck as anything. I also liked the format of a possessive name followed by “something of something”, a format I picked up from an old message board belonging to FawnDoo(who got married over the holidays, so be sure to stop in to say “congratulations and get back to writing”).

Coming up with a name for a band is probably just as daunting as naming a blog. A name can have meaning, personal or otherwise, or it can be some random phrase that just sounds cool. Earlier today B13 let me check out some tracks from the group Skinny Puppy. Don't let the cute name fool you if you had never heard of them before either; their sound is reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails, and according to B13 they actually influenced Trent Reznor. It's also great when a band's name works just as well as an acronym as it does written out. Big “N”, little “i”, and another big “N” have become a definitive symbol for the group.

So of course when Rey returned to the world of blogging more than one sentence at a time, in my current mindset I pulled forth something trivial from a serious and well-written topic. In a rant against the frustration of stereotyping, he used the phrase “Antiquated Taxidermy of Individuals”, which I joked would make an awesome name for a band.

I wonder how often that happens, though. A group is sitting around, brainstorming a name, and then someone says something random, or reads something off the side of a box. In modern music, a name doesn't have to be as obvious and descriptive as Metallica, especially since the good names like that are already taken. I have a cousin that used to be in a group known as “The Corpse Grinders”; I'm 93% sure that it wasn't a literal name. So in that spirit, for no reason beyond entertainment, I'm going to look at items in my room and on various blogs, and compile a list of imaginary band names. Most will be ridiculous, and many will infringe on copyrights but who knows? I might just find one cool enough to design a logo for. An actual group of musicians, instruments, and groupies are all things I can worry about later.

Crinkle Art

Bitter Brew

Boiling Mad

Star Bird

Interlocking Picture Puzzle (IPP)

Drunken Haze

Piglet Bloodlust

Temporal Satisfaction

Mr. Bad Fast Food

Computer Purgatory

Wretched Refuse

Total Gross

Action Set

Bakugaiden

De Tres Resistants

Mentally-Challenged Citizens

Junior League Dribbling

Tax on the Stupid

Fully Interlocking

35 Movies to Beat MCF

The Supplements

Matter & Spirit

Total Fat(or Total Phat for a hip-hop group)

Einstein’s Tongue

What do you think? I'm kind of partial to “Piglet Bloodlust” and “Einstein's Tongue” myself. Would any of these make a good name for a band and, perhaps more importantly, have I inadvertently hit on any that are already taken?

Feel free to make up some names of your own...