Artists You've Written Off/Pointedly Ignored because of their name

Why did you guys not like the name Big Thief?

I can't explain this, but the first time I heard that, I thought of some blues-leaning bar band--pretty much my least favourite thing in the world. So I still haven't investigated. I take it my ignoring and writing off is woefully off the mark.

Big Thief is the worst band name I could imagine. It simultaneously doesn't mean anything, and it lacks visual description, and it sounds like a shitty cover band, as clemenza describes. It's a combination of brief words that leads you... nowhere. So I assumed the music would do the same thing. And, to be honest, they're not my thing at all.

A search for the origin of their name led me to this NPR article’s valiant effort to create intrigue.

https://i.imgur.com/fTFDvbl.png

Adriannie would be a good band name.

Car Seat Headrest. I simply refuse to contemplate listening to a band with a 'quick, think of something' name like that.

Dry Cleaning is another one like that.

Aaahah! Big Thief is a Berklee band. That explains some of why they leave me cold. That grey competence. Wonder if they were aware of the Berklee band Big Wreck?

Headrest would be a pretty good band name. Car Seat Headrest is just clunky and awkward.

Car Seat (For Babies) would be a pretty good band name

i don't like car seat headrest, but doesn't it refer to where he would write/record his songs, in the back seat, leaning his head against the back of the frontseat headrest, so that he read the lyrics/record while looking down on his lap, or something? that'll probably get eyerolls from people but to me that's a classic lo-fi recording situation where you have no privacy, anywhere, ever, and you just have to find a spot and make it work. so...i like the name

car seat (for babies) is a better name though, lol

Meek and Lenker named the group Big Thief after an idea they learned in a songwriting workshop in Texas about “a trickster or thief that borrows from the collective conscious, and regenerates ideas and integrates them into his or her identity.”

(per stereogum article)

Well I was fine with big thief as a name before and now I hate it

The “Big” in Big Thief is what has always annoyed me. It’s just a bland and easily forgotten name. Not close to the worst mentioned on this thread, though.

yeah I agree with Paul's post above, Big Thief isn't offensive or annoying it's just a bad name that to me recalls prog bands like Big Big Train and Pineapple Thief, which they don't sound anything like. Black Country, New Road is another one of those, like what, if anything, does that mean?

Counting Crows.

xp The problem seems to be that you know too many bands, lol

Grimes

Black Country, New Road is another one of those, like what, if anything, does that mean?

Supposedly it's a road in the West Midlands ... and a shit name for a band.

looks like a shit road too tbh

https://i2-prod.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article18729192.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/1_KA_BEM060820_BCNRJPG.jpg

the black country area is named after all the pollution from the factories that used to be in the area btw. or the coal that was mined there or something

I'm going nuts, I wrote a post a couple of years ago summing up why Car Seat Headrest is such a bad name for a band by comparing it to a band being named after a component in a cabinet or something but I can't find it at all. What the hell?

There are several threads like this

I saw Component in a Cabinet open for Car Seat Headrest once.

xp Evan, I think this is the post.

Alfred Sisley

Component in a Cabinet I know, I know, they're openers ...

there is an inverse relationship between how good a band name is and how good the band is. no good band has ever had a good band name.

Well, that certainly isn't true.

xp Evan, I think this is the post.

― Kim Kimberly, Friday, March 11, 2022 3:51 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh god thank you, search was truly failing me or I was just failing to focus. Thanks!

hell yeah that post ruled

let's eat grandma

xps to Evan. words in quotes are unsearchable.

let's eat grandma

I'm hungry too, but can we keep this thread on-topic?

Idk I think “Rolling Stones” is a pretty great band name

any spoonerism band

like

Wevie Stonder

I was looking at the calendar for my local club today, and on back-to-back nights they are featuring bands with semi-amusing names and, I'm assuming, post-TMBG twee-ness that I never need bother trying to appreciate:
Apr 11 - Great Good Fine OK
Apr 12 - We Were Promised Jetpacks (with Weakened Friends)

My educated guess is that the members of We Were Promised Jetpacks are 65-70 years old, are all deeply involved in the Jonny Quest fan club, and buy Quisp cereal whenever it's temporarily reintroduced

And they all wear Hawaiian shirts

I know this from some other terrible band name thread: We Were Promised Jetpacks were named after a line in a Ricky Gervais podcast. What Gervais actually said in the podcast was "we were promised hovercrafts." However, the bandmates thought "jetpacks" would sound cooler.

In a similar vein there is Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. This is made even worse by the fact it's a solo artist, I don't like when solo artists give themselves stupid band-like names at the best of times.

“Funny” band names are a mistake unless your listeners are people who think the same joke is funny over and over again

weakened friends is a great band name (and band) imo

Cocaine Piss

Every single explanation behind every band name has made me hate the band name more

Ricky Gervais podcast ffs

Really hate it when bands take their names from sorta-but-not-really obscure film references, like Zuzu's Petals. "And you know where they get their name from?..." No, Einstein, feel free to enlighten me.

OK I just googled to check Ricky Gervais Podcast wasn’t the name of a band

It seems like the most durable bands have band names that have a whiff of shit to them. I'm thinking Arctic Monkeys, like, that has a whiff of bad to it, that whiff is necessary otherwise your band is just called Espers or Ida or The Vaccines and you have a couple albums and you're done

Really hate it when bands take their names from sorta-but-not-really obscure film references, like Zuzu's Petals. "And you know where they get their name from?..." No, Einstein, feel free to enlighten me.

― henry s, Sunday, March 13, 2022 12:46 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

just remembered there's a band calling themselves spirit of the beehive