Learn more@WhatsApp.com okay, let me tell the story again. In 2007, a couple of listeners asked if I would do another ongoing history episode on the origins of band names. I'd done a few in the past, but it was certainly time to update things. This time, though, I was struck with a thought. What do you call the study of the names musical groups choose? Rock music had been around for more than 50 years at that point, so someone must have come up with a term, right? The study of word origins is called etymology. If you're looking at place names and where they came from, then you're into something called toponymy or topomonastics. We kinda get close with the word for the study of personal names. That's called onomastics or anthropominy. If we look at just surnames, that's called patronymics. But much to my surprise, there was no term for how a band got their name, which struck me as very, very wrong and a giant oversight in the field of linguistics. So seeking a solution to this language problem, I called up some academics specializing in linguistics. I also called some branding experts across North America, and they put their heads together and returned with a suggestion. Bandaminology. And since then, I've been on a mission to use this word as much as possible. I want it to catch on so that someday it will end up in the Oxford English Dictionary. So far though, the OED people won't take my calls. So the only way to make this happen is to keep pushing bendeminology up into the public. Remember it, use it, tell your friends about it. And to help things along, here's another semi academic program on bandiminology to follow up on the last show on this topic, which was in 2017. This is 60 more band name origins in 60 minutes. This is the ongoing History of New Music podcast with Alan Cross. Hello again, I'm Alan Cross, and this episode is directed at people who need to understand how their favorite bands got their names. And this is called say it with Me Again. Bandominology. My goal is to make this word a genuine thing in the English language so that whenever I type it, there's no need for a squiggly red line underneath it, because it is a legitimate term used by millions all over the globe. Not there yet, but this program is another step in that direction. If you've ever been in a band, you'll know how torturous it is to find a name. It has to be new and never used before, lest there be confusion and trademark lawsuits. It has to somehow connect with your sound and your attitude and your image. In other words, it has to be on brand. The name has to be catchy and memorable without being cheesy or dumb. Unless that, of course, is the point. It has to lend itself to graphic design, logos and merch. And most difficult of all, it has everyone in the band has to agree that this is definitely the right name for our little ensemble. It's easy to get depressed. All the best names are Already taken. Black Sabbath is awesome. Motorhead is brilliant. Metallica is perfect. Black Flag, Wow, Slayer, Joy Division and New Order. Fantastic names. But There are almost 200,000 words currently in common in the English language with another 47,000 obsolete words. And that could still be used if you include things like medical and scientific terms, tactical jargon and words borrowed from other languages. There could be up to a million words to choose from in English to combine and come up with a band name. And we've got the Internet and AI to help us now. Just search for band name generator and a bunch of sites will pop up. Okay, here. Here's one. Let's. Okay, two items to describe what I'm doing. Okay, let's go with Indy and rock. The name of the lead singer. That would be me. A place that has special significance. Okay, I'm in Toronto, so I'll go with Toronto. A singular noun. Guitar. A plural noun. Drums. Very. Ending in ing. A word ending in ing. Let's go with Pounding. My fake band is very aggressive. A day, month or season. Autumn. An animal. Okay. Elephants. A group of people. Pilots. Why not? A color. Electric blue. A number greater than 1. 19. That was my jersey. Number. Minor. Hockey. And finally a part of the body. Let's mess things up. Let's just put in feet. Okay, submit. And the number one generated name is 19 Times Rock. It also suggested they might be indie elephants. Pounding Twins. How about this one? Albert of War Feet. I think this technology needs a little work. Here's how this course of band monology will proceed. I will present you 60 band names over the course of this program and we'll divide it up into a couple of different sections. The first 20 will be a study of current popular groups. Then we'll move to some retro names, followed by some just random labels. And then we'll conclude with groups filed under what Were They Thinking? And terrible and original names. And also offensive names, which I will be very careful about. And then how about if we just end with names that are just plain dumb? Dumb on purpose, of course. All right, so let us begin. First up, Rage against the Machine. I think we can all agree that this is one of the best names in rock history. The phrase was used by Inside Out, a pre rage band featuring vocalist Zach Dilarocca. It may have been a candidate for the title of a never recorded album. Digging deeper, we learn that we can credit Kent McCard, a writer of a punk fanzine called no Answers. He wrote something about inside out in 1989 and used those particular words since Rage appeared in 1992. Convention of Wisdom says that the machine is oppressive capitalism and evil corporations that want to control society. And given Rage's political stance, that of course makes all the sense in the world. But what if that is incorrect? Zach may have been a little more literal. He once owned a 1979 Chevy van that was always breaking down. I can't tell you how many times that van broke down in 1991 when we were starting out, and how many gigs we lost because it would quit working. We called that monstrosity every name you can think of and even invented a few new words. When we finally made enough money to buy a new van to house our equipment, the. The first thing we all did was take sledgehammers and beat the crap out of that thing. So the machine that they were raging against was a 1979 Chevy van. Okay, that's. That's a stretch, but this is why we need serious bandiminologists to get to the bottom of these matters. Number two on the list, Blind Melon. Original guitarist Brad Smith's father used to describe hippies this way. He may have picked that up from a Cheech and Chong skit. A couple of stoner hippie types who had a character named Blind Melon Chitlin, which itself was a parody of a real blues musician from the 1920s named Blind Lemon Jefferson. Number three, Bush. And by this I mean Gavin Rossdale's band. When they were just getting their act together in the early 1990s, they were called Future Primitive. But just as they were getting ready to release their debut album, sixteen Stone, the director of one of their videos suggested Bush. It was shorter, easier to remember, and would look better on an album cover, and was, you know, ever so slightly cheeky in a sexual way. So Future Primitive became Bush. Except in Canada, where there had already been a Bush band back in the 1970s until that trademark issue got sorted a few years later. Bush had to legally trade under the name Bush X, but only in Canada. Number four, Fugazi. Great straight edge punk band. That name origin is a bit murky. There was a dodgy limo company in New York city in the 70s and 80s with that name. The owner was Bill Fugazi, who may have been a little mobbed up, or it might have been derived from the French word fougasse, which was a type of landmine used in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. And it's possible that it's an acronym. Fugazi could stand for effed up, got ambushed, zipped in a body bag, Number five, Mumford and Sons. This is sort of simple. The lead singer is Marcus Mumford. He liked the idea of a band evoking an old family business. And given their image and sound, you got to admit that it works. Number six, cake. They were formed in Sacramento, California, in 1991. They went with Cake not because they liked pastry, but because the name was meant to be like. When something insidiously becomes part of your life, we mean it more as something that cakes onto your shoe and it's just sort of there until you get rid of it. So something gunky that you stepped in. And number seven, Wolf Mother. Now, that's a cool one. When the band showed up to play its very first gig, they still didn't have a name. Chris Ross, the original bass player, came to the rescue. He'd been reading a Tom Robbins novel called Skinny Legs, and that novel used the word. Frontman Andrew Stockdale and original drummer Miles Heskett weren't really crazy about it. But with time running out, before they were due on stage, they said, oh, okay, we're Wolf Mother. And the name stuck.
Alan Cross (12:15)
Wolfmother, One of those bands who adopted their name at the last possible second. Moving to name number eight, we have July Talk that simple. It was the title of one of the band's early songs. A name like the yeah yeah Yeahs must have a story. Well, sort of. If you've been to New York, you've probably had someone say to you, yeah, yeah, yeah, the band is from New York. So there you go. That's number nine of our list of 60. What about garbage? They're number 10. That's an insult that backfired. When Butch Vig, Duke Erickson, and Steve Marker were putting the band together in Madison, Wisconsin, back in 1993, a friend commented that this new stuff sounded like Garbage. That turned out to be a cool suggestion because they wanted something irreverent. So mission accomplished. The name the Ataris is exactly what you think it is. Singer and guitarist Christopher Rowe had a very large collection of Atari video game cartridges. So there's number 11. Number 12 is system of a Down, which is a cool name. The story is that they were originally called Soil. Then they went with Victims of a Down, a nod to the Armenian genocide back in the 1910s, which came from a poem written by guitarist Daron Malakian. But then there was a band meeting. Bass player Chavo Odajian suggested that they might find more attention if they changed victims to System. And using System would have them closer to their idol's Slayer on the shelves in record stores. Number 13 is panic at the Disco. Some fans think that this came from the song Panic by the Smiths. But the real story is that the band had an early song called Panic, and there's a line in that song that goes, panic at the Disco sat back and took it slow. During the band's career, the exclamation point has migrated around the name, thanks to fans. Guitarist Ryan Ross said, it was never part of the name to us. People started writing it, and then it ended up in more and more things like that. So there it was. When we started doing new promo stuff for the album, we just told everyone not to use it anymore. By the time the group officially broke up, there was no more exclamation point in Panic at the Disco. It had been officially dropped. Number 14, Portugal the man is another group with weird punctuation. First, we need to understand that this name is a mix of two. A country of many people, like a band of multiple members and an individual, a specific person like each of the guys in the group. The period that we see between Portugal and the man is to separate the many from the one. I know that's a bit convoluted, but it stems from the band wanting to have a name that felt larger than life, which that's the best I can do. And from exclamation marks and periods, we move to the hyphen in blink. 182. This is number 15. The most common story is that the group was originally named Blink, but then they found out that an Irish band had dibs on that. So to keep from getting sued, they added the 182. So why 182 or 182? There are a lot of stories about that, from the number of times Tony Montana drops the F bomb in Scarface, to the number of the ship Mark Hoppus grandfather served on in World War II to what Mark believes to be his ideal weight in pounds. The most likely explanation is that during a phone call with the record label over the name dispute with the Irish group, He just pulled 182 out of the air. Or did he consider this? Tom delong attended a high school in Poway, which is a town northeast of San Diego. The school's rival was Rancho Bernardo High. When DeLong was expelled from Poway for going to a basketball game drunk, he transferred to Rancho Bernardo, which he didn't like very much. And this is where we encounter some numerology at Poway 182 was code for F, Rancho Bernardo. R being the 18th letter of the Alphabet, R and 2 being the second, ergo 18 2. And this means, and Thomas talked about this, that the proper pronunciation of the band's name is not Blink 182, but Blink 18 2. You go ahead. I'm just going to keep pronouncing it wrong.
Alan Cross (32:34)
Since OMD was originally called Hitler's Underpants, let's continue with some offensive names. At least ones that I can use without getting into Trouble. At number 47, it's the all female punk band the Slits. I'll leave you to figure that one out on your own. If you can't go ask your parents. Then we have Diarrhea planet at number 48. They're a six piece garage punk band from Nashville. I don't have a story here other than the group was formed in a university Dorm Room in 2009 after plenty of beers and joints. From Canada, we have the acclaimed and extremely prolific effed up at 49. The story is that the group was deliberately formed with a bunch of guys who were guaranteed not to get along. The group originally planned to play 10 shows with no tours and then break up. Hence the deliberately offensive name. And basically it described their career strategy. Hey, if the group had a defined shelf life, who cares what they called themselves? On one hand, the plan worked brilliantly. The members of the band reportedly cannot stand each other. On the other hand, the band has made many records, toured the world playing up to 150 shows a year, opened for bands like the Foo Fighters, and won the Polaris Music Prize in 2009. The situation is definitely effed up, especially considering that the joke has gone much, much further than anyone expected. And let me just do this as an aside. In November 2008, they participated in a special concert called the Festival of F Bands. This was held in a town called and again, this is true F ing. It's in Austria. They were joined by fellow Canadians. Holy F. Oakland, California is F& Britain's F buttons. I wish I had a T shirt for that show. And at number 50, we have the Butthole Surfers. This was a mistake. When they played their first paying gig, the guy who introduced them introduced them incorrectly. They had plenty of previous names, including The Dick Clark 5,9 centimeter worm makes its Own Food, the Vodka Family Winstons and Ashtray Babyheads, Ed Asner as Gay Zip Gun, and a number of unmentionable names involving the anus of dancer Fred Astaire. But on this particular night in 1984, the stage guy confused the band. No one seems to remember what name they were trying to use that night with the title of one of their songs, which was Butthole Surfer. The gig went well, so they kept it. And against all odds they not only survived with that name, but had a couple of alt rock radio hits like this one from their 1996 major label album Electric Larryland. Ten more names to and all of them are just plain dumb. Okay, this is my list. I get to say what's dumb and what's not. Okay. At 51, we have the Scottish band Dogs Die in Hot Cars. They've had that name since 1997. Still with animals, we have the English band Pigs. Pigs. Pigs, Pigs. Pigs. Pigs. Pigs or pigs times seven for convenience. That's at number 52. They were originally just called Pigs, but kept adding Pigs. Pigs as they strive to be as obnoxious and ridiculous as possible. Good job. And if you haven't heard the band, I actually think they're quite brilliant. More animals for number 53, lubricated goat. This was an Australian noise band formed by singer stu spasm in 1986, and they're still going like pigs times seven. They were just looking for something obnoxious. At number 54, we have Paracachi Diado, Mycosis Proctitis Sarcomucosus. That's a Mexican goregrind band. Their name is a combination of various diseases and medical terms. I'd go through some song titles, but they're insanely offensive. And at number 55, one of my favorite bands of the past few years, England's Wet Leg. Brian Teasdale and Hester Chambers found the name by combining random emojis together on a keyboard. That's a cool idea. Wet Leg and Catch these fists from their 2025 album Moisturizer. Okay, let's burn through the final five songs in this episode of 60. Band name origins in 60 minutes. At 56, we have Natalie Portman's shaved head. They're from Seattle. They have no particular interest in the actor, but they did want a quirky name. They're now called bright Futures. For 57, it's the the Now. That used to be the worst band name to search for online. Because once upon a time, Google queries ignored inputs like Definite Articles. Leader Matt Johnson took a suggestion from his friend Keith when he was looking for something trendy in punk. This is in the late 70s, and in 1979, all the new bands were the bands. So what could be more trendy in punk than calling your group the The? Speaking of bands that are hard to search for online, there's the Sacramento group, whose name is three exclamation points that was inspired by the movie the Gods Must be crazy from 1980, which followed an indigenous person from Southern Africa who spoke the Julhuan language, which uses a series of mouth clicks in written form. That click is represented in English by an exclamation mark. And officially you pronounce the man's name as Chick, chick, chick. That's number 58. I think the name Test Icicles is self explanatory. Just say it fast. They were formed in London 2004 and wanted some kind of, I don't know, provocation. Well done, you. And let's keep dumb names to finish this list with San Diego's Slightly Stupid. They're a rock, reggae, ska, metal, punk band. Bradley Noel of Sublime liked them so much that they were signed to his label when the group was still in high school. The name reflects their stoner attitude and it's something that they take very, very seriously. They created a record that was pressed not into vinyl, but hash resin. It took $6,000 worth of bubble hash and they spent $1,000 to press up a couple of copies. Turns out that hash resin does not make a good medium. They did not sound good. And the experiment didn't work out well, except for one thing, because once it didn't work, you just crush it up and smoke it. And the song that they used was this one, an instrumental called Dab. I hope you got something out of this new version of 60 band name origins in 60 minutes. This is a topic that keeps on giving and we'll do it again and again in the future. And please, please use the term bandaminology. Bandaminology. Bandaminology, Bandaminology. We gotta get that accepted into the English lexicon. Meanwhile, you're also encouraged to catch up on all the ongoing history episodes available as podcasts. There are hundreds of them. We can catch up on the social media platforms. Just search for my name. I have a website, ajournalofmusicalthings.com, which is updated every day. Email can go to AllenAllencross CA and I always answer. And don't forget my other podcast, Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry, which is true crime meets music. Technical production for all this is by Rob Johnston. Talk to you next time. I'm Alan Cross.
