August 24, 2013

Once upon a time, there was group of kids who occasionally got together and jammed. They sounded pretty good and talked about putting on a show or playing for a dance, but were unable to come up with a name for their band. Possibly for this reason, they never played in public. And yet, how many times have I heard someone say they were going to start a band in order to use the great name they'd thought of? (This also rarely comes to fruition). As I've said before, naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression almost on a par with writing a great lyric or riff. Trust that when the band is ready, the name will come -- or will have been waiting all the time.

The Apostrophes
The grammar nerd in me celebrates the correct use of this and all punctuation marks. I had also just selected another band name that contained an apostrophe, so there was a sense of destiny.


Bonded by Blood
Fueled by Fire
These two (on the same bill) get in for the same reason: alliteration. I also liked that both names had the same form: two-syllable verb (past tense) "by" one syllable noun. Because of this parallel form, I was ready to believe this was actually one band with a long name -- and I would have chosen it for that reason, too.


Cambrian Explosion
A reference to geologic time and events in an artifact of popular culture -- by definition fleeting -- is a sweet irony.


O'Brother
Here's that apostrophe referred to above. I like the expression of disbelief or resignation transformed into a name.