The Grifters is a perfectly good band name people. Having never heard their music, I have a pretty good idea what it's going to sound like based on that name (unlike Khruangbin). If I'm also assuming that they're a middling, anodyne band, it's only because I've never heard anyone rave about them, not because they got their name from a Jim Thompson book.
― enochroot, Saturday, 17 July 2021 01:17 (three years ago) link
Thrush Hermit. OK, I’d never actually heard of them before they popped up here but I’m just treating this thread as a repository for off-putting names at this point.
― Alba, Tuesday, 20 July 2021 17:15 (three years ago) link
khruangbin...it just... i don't know. what even― maelin, Friday, July 16, 2021 4:35 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglinkNone of the band members actually speak Thai so arguably they don't know either.― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Friday, July 16, 2021 5:13 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink
...it just... i don't know. what even
― maelin, Friday, July 16, 2021 4:35 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink
None of the band members actually speak Thai so arguably they don't know either.
― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Friday, July 16, 2021 5:13 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink
When asked to play their first gig, Laura Lee, who was learning to speak Thai at the time, decided they should use her favorite Thai word "khruangbin" (Thai: เครื่องบิน; RTGS: khrueang bin), which means "aeroplane", as their name.
I don't know how far she got in her language lessons, but they definitely know the meaning. And given their influences and covers of non-Western music I think it's a fine name, just a little hard to remember. I like them a lot.
― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 20 July 2021 19:12 (three years ago) link
Hiatus Kaiyote
I see I have played some tracks by them in past, but it's just such an unappealing name
― tean mean poleand cheaseang theas means hamseak feasts (breastcrawl), Wednesday, 21 July 2021 20:14 (three years ago) link
in *the* past
steely dan
always irritated me in a way probably inextricable from my impressions of their weird/complicated/impenetrable cultural context. but i just looked up the origins of the name and fucking hell could these guys be any more not for me
― Left, Wednesday, 21 July 2021 23:28 (three years ago) link
Not a Burroughs fan?
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 22 July 2021 01:33 (three years ago) link
i don’t know enough about the beats to distinguish them stylistically but i anything even slightly adjacent is hard for me to bear (eg lou reed, patti smith) I don’t understand that version of cool whatsoever. also not a big fan of men who kill women in general
― Left, Thursday, 22 July 2021 02:09 (three years ago) link
^I'll remember that if I ever need a new reason to write off/pointedly ignore Chappaquiddick Skyline.
― Tubesocks Secure (punning display), Thursday, 22 July 2021 22:49 (three years ago) link
Wait who killed women
― xheugy eddy (D-40), Friday, 23 July 2021 02:03 (three years ago) link
Donald Fagen
― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Friday, 23 July 2021 03:19 (three years ago) link
Left seems really annoying
― clouds, Friday, 23 July 2021 04:12 (three years ago) link
Burroughs killed his wife
― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Friday, 23 July 2021 04:14 (three years ago) link
Fagen's?
― Max Ice (morrisp), Friday, 23 July 2021 04:17 (three years ago) link
So that's what Do It Again is about
― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Friday, 23 July 2021 04:26 (three years ago) link
Sometimes I try to imagine having a conversation with a person like that in real life and I shudder.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 23 July 2021 11:53 (three years ago) link
Fagen does seem like a prick, it's true
― intern at pelican brief consulting (Simon H.), Friday, 23 July 2021 12:06 (three years ago) link
Like I said, I've never actually done this, but among the off-putting names that probably marred my enjoyment of the music upon discovering it, be it only for a split-second, I could cite
AerosmithAmerican FootballArctic MonkeysThe BandBritish Sea PowerThe Flying Burrito BrothersJefferson AirplaneLynyrd SkynyrdMegadethThe Modern LoversModest MouseOf MontrealThe NationalRoxy MusicSoft MachineSonic YouthSteely DanSupertrampThin LizzyYo La Tengo
I like most of these bands btw.
― pomenitul, Friday, 23 July 2021 12:23 (three years ago) link
My friend's dad thinks Roxy Music are called Sexy Music.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 23 July 2021 12:25 (three years ago) link
Megadeth is the perfect name for Megadeth.
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Friday, 23 July 2021 12:27 (three years ago) link
Most of those are good band names. No accounting for taste I suppose.
― Soundtracked by an eco jazz mixtape. (Tom D.), Friday, 23 July 2021 12:28 (three years ago) link
puddle of muddalice in chainsstaind
― oscar bravo, Friday, 23 July 2021 13:45 (three years ago) link
i still wanna know who killed Donald Fagen's wife
― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Friday, 23 July 2021 14:06 (three years ago) link
We were promised jet packs for sure fuck those people idc if they sound like Alice Coltrane never hearing a note
― kurt schwitterz, Friday, 23 July 2021 14:17 (three years ago) link
The Modern Lovers, Roxy Music and Sonic Youth are three band names I've always thought were really good, specifically. And yeah, I'm not really into Supertramp, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy or Megadeth but they're pretty good for what they are too.
British Sea Power is a terrible name, no arguments.
― Alba, Friday, 23 July 2021 14:46 (three years ago) link
We were promised jet packs for sure fuck those people idc if they sound like Alice Coltrane never hearing a note― kurt schwitterz, Friday, July 23, 2021 10:17 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
― kurt schwitterz, Friday, July 23, 2021 10:17 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Here, let me make that worse for you:
“The name came about after we heard a Ricky Gervais podcast,” explains Palmer. “The actual quote was ‘We were promised hovercrafts’ but we thought jetpacks sounded cooler.”
― peace, man, Friday, 23 July 2021 15:19 (three years ago) link
Any band name with 'Music' in it is a no-no in my book ('The Music' are the worst offenders).
― pomenitul, Friday, 23 July 2021 15:44 (three years ago) link
Was about to lay harder into We Were Promised Jetpacks but just discovered they were another high-school band who stayed together, which seems to be the case with a lot of the worst band names. God knows what name I’d have come up with at that age.
― Alba, Friday, 23 July 2021 15:50 (three years ago) link
hope no one makes fun of my band Ricky Gervais Podcast
― ✖, Friday, 23 July 2021 15:51 (three years ago) link
a few locals that I refuse to listen to....
Dismembering the Carcass (oh neat you mashed up two famous metal bands into one)Catcher AND the Rye (not convinced they don't think that's the actual title of the book and not them being 'clevar')
― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Friday, 23 July 2021 15:54 (three years ago) link
imagining the lead singer dressed up like mike piazza and the surrounding bandmembers dressed up as bundles of grain
― ✖, Friday, 23 July 2021 15:57 (three years ago) link
honestly that would rekindle my interest
― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Friday, 23 July 2021 16:01 (three years ago) link
Carcass in the Rye would be OKDismembering the Catcher also acceptable
― Alba, Friday, 23 July 2021 16:04 (three years ago) link
catchers should always be dismembered
― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Friday, 23 July 2021 16:14 (three years ago) link
They were originally called Roxy but there was an American band with the same name.
― Wouldn't disgrace a Michael Jackson (Tom D.), Friday, 23 July 2021 16:17 (three years ago) link
Luckily they didn't end up being called Roxy England
― a cad, a bounder, a rotter, a really bad sort (Matt #2), Friday, 23 July 2021 16:20 (three years ago) link
The London RoxyRoxy UK
Oh god, we were spared well.
― Alba, Friday, 23 July 2021 16:28 (three years ago) link
Roxy Music much better than just Roxy imo
Definitely.
― Wouldn't disgrace a Michael Jackson (Tom D.), Friday, 23 July 2021 16:34 (three years ago) link
In November 1970, Bryan Ferry, who had just lost his job teaching ceramics at a girls' school for holding impromptu record-listening sessions
I'd love to have been a fly on the wall.
― Alba, Friday, 23 July 2021 16:41 (three years ago) link
Ugh my hot teddy boy teacher is making us listen to Xenakis again
― kurt schwitterz, Friday, 23 July 2021 17:00 (three years ago) link
I suspect that ceramics class was somewhat oversubscribed.
― Wouldn't disgrace a Michael Jackson (Tom D.), Friday, 23 July 2021 17:13 (three years ago) link
Beabadoobee is really the most impressively awful name I've encountered in some time. Maybe since Hoobastank?
― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch), Monday, 26 July 2021 13:35 (three years ago) link
JUST IN: Mega Bog
― tean mean poleand cheaseang theas means hamseak feasts (breastcrawl), Monday, 26 July 2021 13:55 (three years ago) link
toiletcore
― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), Monday, 26 July 2021 14:18 (three years ago) link
i actually love the name mega bog
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 26 July 2021 14:49 (three years ago) link
It's kinda cute. My cousin has a (now in her thirties) kid named Meg, and called her Megabug when she was a little one. And of course we haven't let either one of them live that down.
― henry s, Monday, 26 July 2021 15:29 (three years ago) link
"Roxy Music" is perfect for them and their sound.
I remember going to a friends' family's Christmas get-together one evening. Everyone was getting pissed and doing Playstation karaoke. It was mine and the patriarch's turn to do a song together, so we picked "Love Is The Drug". The Dad's big lunk of a son, 30 going on 17, goes up to him: "Dad! Dad! What you gonna sing?". Dad tells him: "I think we're going to go for some Roxy Music". Son: "What the fuck is that?"
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 26 July 2021 15:40 (three years ago) link
Just one of these exchanges that's stuck in my mind for years, it was more in the delivery of the conversation though
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Monday, 26 July 2021 15:41 (three years ago) link
Unfortunately to anyone in the UK, a bog is another word for a lavatory. It's even worse in Australia though where it apparently means 'the act or an instance of defecating'.
― Wouldn't disgrace a Michael Jackson (Tom D.), Monday, 26 July 2021 15:49 (three years ago) link