February 25, 2004

Origins of Band Names If you've ever been curious about this--and being Monkeys I know you are--this is the site for you.
posted by pyrrthon1 20 years ago
  • The site is fun, but kind of sloppy: FOO FIGHTERS - ...
  • Disappointingly, no mention of Godspeed You! Black Emperor which would surely be the coolest name for a band ever if it wasn't for the exclamation mark.
  • Also, no Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. (In case you're wondering, originally they were called Gorky Zygotic Mynci.They were in school, they'd just learned what 'Zygotic' meant, Mynci is the Welsh spelling of Monkey, and they couldn't spell 'Gawky'. It was only once they grew up and learned to spell that they changed it to Gorky's, so that it made some sort of sense... Or at least, that's the version I've heard. From a man in a pub.) And some strange inclusions for solo artists where the explanation is "that's their name". PJ Harvey, for example. Nonetheless, [banana - so named because it's a banana].
  • Then or course, there's not mention of Butthole Surfers.
  • languagehat: That was the page I stumbled on first. I went to the first page, but when I went to post, I grabbed the wrong link. Mea Culpa.
  • Pretty accurate for the ones I already knew... Also some good info on names of individuals, but why is Elton John under E and Englebert Humperdinck under H? Also: what, nothing for SPINAL TAP?!?
  • "SKID ROW ... originally liked the name SKIP ROPE, but Jon Bon Jovi convinced him SKID ROW would sound more professional." Thanks a lot, Jon. I, for one would have preferred Skip Rope.
  • Disappointingly, no mention of Godspeed You! Black Emperor... Taken from the name of an obscure (and apparently not very good) '60s Japanese documentary about a biker gang. There has never been any explanation for the roaming exclamation mark. Not a Godspeed geek not a Godspeed geek not a Godspeed geek not a Godspeed geek
  • Piece of trivia: Skinny Puppy has the morbid honor that Jeffrey Dahmer picked up one of his victims at one of their shows. That's interesting -- especially because this site, and this site alone, seems to be the only place this "trivia" has ever been posted on the web. That questionable information and many other minor errors (the New Order bit attributes the "new world order" phrase to Hitler, not Shakespeare; KMFDM is transcribed backwards as "Kein Mehrheit für die Mitleid," resulting in a nonsensical English translation; etc.) cause me to wonder how well-researched the rest of the band names are. The pages were still a lot of fun to poke around, though! Thanks for sharing them.
  • Jeffrey Dahmer went to a Skinny Puppy show?????
  • Thanks for that, Blaise. My knowledge of the world is now one step closer to being total.
  • Or at least, that's the version I've heard. From a man in a pub. That's who I get everything I know from too!
  • He's good, isn't he? I have never, ever known a man in a pub to be wrong. I think there's an interesting theory of epistemology to be had from this. Hume, Popper and the like can bang on as much as they want about 'inductive fallacy' this and 'unfalsifiable' that, but I find that after talking to a man in a pub for while, just about anything can be classified as Justified True Belief. And hey presto, we have knowledge! "Induction and deduction go upstairs and downstairs on the same staircase", observed Whewell, "but talking to a man in a pub means you can just sit down in a comfy chair and don't have to piss about on the stairs at all." This also allows me to reclassify my favourite pastime as 'science', which is a bonus.
  • MOBY - he is a relative of Herman Melville, who wrote MOBY DICK What? Really?
  • Yup. See? There's something interesting about him after all.
  • Embarrassing personal trivia.... I was once invited to dinner with my sister and a group of her friends. Skinny Puppy was very much the topic of conversation. Much pizza/pasta/red wine later, I loudly demanded to know, 'Why does everybody here know all about Skinny Puppy but me?!' They were apparently the guests of honor and I'd (unwittingly) been chatting and eating with them all night long. Nothing to see here, move along....
  • So...who are Skinny Puppy? I'm actually serious, I don't know them either :)
  • Got me, jb, I *still* don't know.
  • Extremely influential 80s industrial band out of Vancouver BC. Precursor of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, etc.
  • Aw, thanks goetter! It helps to have context - I tried googling them here at work (without sound) it wasn't all that informative.
  • That's a pretty fun site. The bands I closely follow(ed) like U2 and the Smashing Pumpkins seem to have their information right (or as right as possible). Lots of interesting bits though. Some sloppy, as has been mentioned, though.