December 27, 2015

The post-Christmas club listings provide very slim pickings this week, so it's time for a retrospective post. Thanks are due to Kyle Ryan at A.V. Club and to my brother and bandmate Neal Kosaly-Meyer, who shared Ryan's article "When Bundled Bowels met Gruesome Toilet: The 2015 year in band names." I had previously blogged about at least seven of the 300-plus on this list. Here's what I had to say:

Car Seat Headrest
(from January 10, 2015) Naming a band for a prosaic, unsexy object shines a spotlight on the mundane and brings it some glory. I'm also old enough to remember when car seats didn't have headrests, so there's a little nostalgia factor. I also like how this one thing has a name that's a list of three nouns (four, if you break up "head" and "rest"). 

Fit for an Autopsy
(from November 23, 2013) Not what you want to hear at your annual check-up.

Good Willsmith
(from August 12, 2012) I like the word overlap that turns the meaning in the middle from a movie into an actor.

Make Do and Mend
(from May 17, 2014) This is how I was raised and how I run my household. In rock band terms, "use more duct tape."

Mild High Club
(from May 23, 2015) The sly wordplay makes this a more accessible club for late-life beginners who dislike air travel, especially if you live in the land of legal weed.

O-Face
(from January 13, 2014) Full disclosure -- a relative is a co-founder of this group, formerly of Whidbey Island, now based in upstate New York. I like the name for its implicit raunchiness and explicit innocent silliness. (And the new EP is pretty good, too).
(Now operating under the name Doubles.)

Wizard Rifle
(from July 21, 2013) Now, that just seems unfair. Magic and firearms, too?