Saturday, March 30, 2013

March 30, 2013

Time to come in out the sun (in Seattle! In March!) and think about band names. Fortunately, the supply of creative and entertaining names is as abundant as ever.

Bite the Buffalo
Bullet Made Statues
Part of the attraction here is that these two are on the same bill, lacking only Statue Made Buffalo to complete the circle. A tough guy will bite the bullet; how much tougher the guy who will bite the buffalo? Meanwhile, bullet made statues would seem to belong to the same category of high-testosterone art as chainsaw carvings.

Deathrow Tull
For those of us who were never won over to flute-based folk rock, this couldn't be more perfect. The happy accident of homophones.

The Giraffe Dodgers
More happy homophones, this time with cheerful nonsense.

Holy Grail
They're playing on Easter. Dunno if it was on purpose, but what could be more appropriate?

Saturday, March 23, 2013

March 23, 2013

Snow and sunshine and stuff in bloom? Yep, must be spring in Seattle. If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. If you don't like the music, wait for the next band.

Bevelers
I see this one as a literary reference: "I made it on the bevel. 1. There is more surface for the nails to grip . . . 13. It makes a neater job." (From As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner)

The Echo Echo Echoes
This is the most autological band name I have seen to date. As you might expect, they use lots of reverb.

(The names that follow are not only wonderful, but all together on the same bill!)

Foxygen
This piece of wordplay brims with cheerful '70s funkiness.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra
So is it the mortals who are unknown, or the orchestra? This is an unexpected combination of words that sounds like it means something and has exactly the right rhythm.

Wampire
The spelling implies an entire accent.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

March 16, 2013

Happy St. Urho's Day, everyone! Put on your purple and green and celebrate the tongue-in-cheek patron saint of Finland. Traditionalists may wait until tomorrow and drink green beer in honor of that other saint. Lots of fun band names to choose from:

The Dirty Church Ladies
I want to be one, if I'm not already! Being a church lady drummer probably puts me pretty close.

Jar of Rain
Putting rain into any kind of small container is the kind of idealistic and hopeless project I can get behind. Now I wonder -- is this Buckets of Rain minus a member or two? Or in collaboration with Jar of Flies? Both of those have made the blog in the past, so this was an easy pick.

Meniscus
One of my favorite words. Fun to say, and it sounds like it should mean something grosser than surface tension. So nerdy.

Something in the Trees
I love the mystery here. Is it a good something or a bad something? Is it among the trees, or actually in them? Who will go check? (Also, I have it on good authority that this group includes some fraction of The Tailenders, a past Square Pig favorite).

The Story So Far
The writer in me is drawn to the implication of narrative.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

March 9, 2013

A friend's recent Facebook post converts nicely into a band name I want to see: Popeless & Sequestered. Not that there's any shortage of good names this week!

All You All
I have long been amused by the way the apparent plural "y'all" is often used as a singular and requires an additional "all" to make it plural and inclusive. This appears to be a Northern variant, subsituting gracefully for the more common "you guys." Thanks, guys.

Assembly of Dust
This almost sounds like a church. As Pastor Rich reminds us, we come from dust; but it's holy dust. Amen.

The Bog Hoppers
 "Bog" sounds like what it is: sticky and muddy and damp. "Hopper" echoes the short-o sound but adds lively action.

The Dread Crew of Oddwood
I love the old-fashioned usage of "dread" as an adjective for crew. It pairs well with the fantasy placename, Oddwood, and all those repeated ds create a thumping alliteration.

I Will Keep Your Ghost
. . . in a box under the bed? I'm always on the lookout for complete-sentence names, especially those that go to a strange or spooky place.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

March 2, 2013


Coming right up: Your Mother Should Know with Canals of Venice, Dead Bars, and Red Ribbon! Tuesday, March 5 at Comet Tavern, doors open at 8 pm, music starts at 9 pm, $6 cover. Very excited about this show. YMSK has an oddly wonderful new set -- no two songs alike -- and I'm eager to hear the other bands, two of them for the first time. As usual, seeing us in the listings sort of distracted me from my blog research, but I found five worthy names to write about:

All Get Out
Folksy idiom -- "That band was noisy as all get out!" -- or emergency order -- "All get out! The bar's on fire!"? You decide.

Bacon Grenade
If this isn't the name of a hangover breakfast, it should be. Or maybe it's the thing you toss in to distract the guard dogs.

The Blank Tapes
Nostalgia trip! There was a time in the not-so-distant past when we devoted a certain part of our budget and storage space to blank tapes. We haven't bought one in ages; even the used tapes have all been ripped or are steadily being replaced. But this band name triggered memories of a well-used recording medium that was a great convenience in its day.

Paper Rout
I hope this is not just a typo in the paper, because I really like it this way but I'm not finding any web presence. Is this where the paper bag punches back? Or where you win, but only on paper? Funny the difference one letter can make.

Pollens 
Timely, considering the season. (Apologies to all hay fever sufferers). I like this because pollen is a collective noun already and making it plural is amusing overkill. But I'm sure that botanists (and hay fever sufferers) are concerned with the variety of pollens out there.