My move to St. Stephen, New Brunswick, has been a great one for me in a number of ways. One of these is that I’ve started getting back in touch with my musical side. In Winnipeg, I barely thought about music beyond just listening to the radio. However, the community here in St. Stephen is very, very musical and, as such, I’m finding myself getting back into that groove as well.
A few of us here have decided, therefore, to start a band. There’s 4 of us: Jacob Murphy, Holly (can’t remember last name, grrrrr) and Zoe Fitch (and me). It’s an interesting group, as Jacob and Zoe tend towards “happier” music, whereas Holly and I lean more towards Evanescence / Staind, etc types of music. Definitely heavier (musically and lyrically).
It’s also interesting, because all of us write songs (to varying degrees… asking the drummer to write a song is always a dangerous thing).
Right now we’ve run up against the challenge of naming the band. I’d never realized this was so hard. When I’d been (briefly) in bands before, it was basically the band leader who picked the name, and everyone cringed but nobody cared.
So far we’ve come up with, and rejected, the following names:
LUSH
Midnight Audition
Four Door Ford
Spindle
Frozen
Marmalade (not just another jam band)
Theory
Cadence
We’re having a really, really hard time at it. Part of it’s because I tend to like shorter names (many of the 1-word names above are mine), and I tend to forget about longer names (there are dozens of other names we’ve actually played with).
Is there a secret to naming a band? I’m not sure. I guess the most important thing is that the whole band likes it AND that you can grow into it. I don’t really believe that we need to make the name ‘mean’ anything, at least starting out. I want a name that we can grow into in some way.
All of us are pretty good musically (by which I mean if we were asked to play as session musicians in front of just about any crowd playing just about any kind of music we could do reasonably well).
I guess right now we’re just having a hard time finding “us”. I know we’ll get there, but does anyone have advice for making this transition easier?
Btw, once we have a name I’ll get a website up with some sample music pretty quickly. Our sound will definitely evolve, as we figure out what type of music we want to play (right now we’re calling it “Fusion Rock”, as it’s a mixture of rock, goth, jazz, folk, punk) and then find our sound. The band’s fairly distinctive anyways, having 2 female leads, but we really want to find something that goes deeper than that.
Ah well, that’s my “life update” for this week 
August 18th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
Cool beans Jer!
BTW – LUSH was the name of an English Indie/Shoe-gazing band in the 80’s (http://www.curvecomm.com/lush/index.html).
My money goes with “Cadence” but there is a band in TO that goes by that name (http://www.cadence-unplugged.com/).
So I think I’d go with “Midnight Audition”.
Anyway, that’s my 2 pence worth.
August 18th, 2005 at 3:00 pm
The BLOGheads
August 18th, 2005 at 3:35 pm
ooooh, four door ford, that’s catchy. imagine all the people listening to us in their four door fords!
August 18th, 2005 at 4:46 pm
Some excellent suggestions over at McSweeneys…
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/10MikeHampton.html
August 18th, 2005 at 6:44 pm
How about “Ensight” ????
August 18th, 2005 at 11:33 pm
Insist to Jacob that the band be called Flacid Cactus. He’ll understand.
And besides, I think Flacid Cactus is a really great name for your band.
August 19th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
forwarded here by s. vore….
coming up with names is often a big fun part, but finding the right one is a different sort of sticky wicket.
i made up the word “paradoxysm” for my own project… making up words can often help if you want to be easily googled… something we’re running into problems with in “Even So.”
you could use the baby name test, crank the PA up at practice and say, “ladies and gentlemen, (insert band name)” and whichever you feel the least revulsion about, go with.
August 20th, 2005 at 10:25 am
i always thought ‘merry olde soul’ would be a great name for a band
August 26th, 2005 at 6:01 am
Have you decided on the name yet?
If no, then how about “Cyclopes“?? Or you can look at Brainwashed’s Canonical Guide to Weird Band Names for ideas or get an idea from the Band Name Generator.
August 28th, 2005 at 11:46 pm
I love your new design. It seems a bit less businesslike, but a lot more comfortable, more airy, lighter, less dark and foreboding.
Naming a band is harder than making the music. I’ve been in several bands, and hope to start another one someday.
I suggest you use a name with two words, which will make it less likely to be already used. LUSH is already the name of a postpunk band that was pretty successful and common in USA and England, female vocals, dirgey guitar.
Use two or three words. Or even a sentence.
I love thinking up bizarre, unique band names.
REAL NAMES of bands I like:
Octopus
Dancing Cigarettes
Crispy Ambulence
Au Pairs
New Age Steppers
Caroliner
The The
Legendary Pink Dots
The Residents
The Occupants
The High
Vulgar Boatmen
Milk from Cheltenham
Desperate Bicycles
Nervous Eaters
Sham 69
The Adverts
Stinky Toys
Caravan
Spooky Tooth
Thinking Fellers Union
Renaldo and the Loaf
Soul Coughing
NAMES I HAVE USED for my bands:
Camouflage Danse
Str8 Sounds Mind Removal
Sex Destruction
Guru Zombies of North America
Oil Parades
Coffee Birds
Lava Lamps
SAMPLE NAMES you could consider:
The Evaporating Paper Clips
The Whispering Lakes
Never Wanted to Exist
Music Eaters Anonymous
The Whimsical Chairs
The What You Want To Hear
Uncertain Sounds of Twilight
…you get the idea.
Get all dreamy and imagine a CD with the name imprinted on it.
Be sure to make a big sign to prop up behind the band for all gigs and all videos, so all will see the name and not wonder, “who is this?”
September 7th, 2005 at 2:38 pm
Bands in my college have names like: The Story So Far, This Time Next Year and the Cadence. We went for a simple name: Gravity (especially as it was off the Lynx bottle!)
U gota get talented people 1st then ask around at clubs n pubs for gigs there could be a multi millionaire record dealer watching at the back! And its also good when theres a recording studio right around the corner to cut your cds. Also Influencs play an important part in the band.
Watch this space we are about to hit it big time! Wev already competed in the battle of the bands and came 5th, but i suppose that was good seeing as they were al 6th formers. And we are only 14!
September 8th, 2005 at 3:24 am
uhm.., try: 5 sheep & their cat. or; Starlight Juggler & the Pornstars… man, that Band naming genarator is funny, but kool. jamm on! and good luck.