Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango, what's that? Will? So I know we're
Speaker 1: both pretty good at celebrating each other's accomplishments. But I
Speaker 1: do have to admit there's one thing you have on
Speaker 1: your resume that I've honestly always been a little jealous of.
Speaker 1: You have a band named after you, Mango. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a bit of a stretch. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a stretch at all, all right, So, so our listeners
Speaker 1: will know, when we were in college, Mango was playing
Speaker 1: the keyboards in a band that a few of our
Speaker 1: closest friends had started. Well, this also happened to be
Speaker 1: around the time we were trying to start Mental Floss,
Speaker 1: and Mango realized there just weren't enough hours in the day. So,
Speaker 1: fortunately for all future fans of Mental Floss and even
Speaker 1: part time genius, Mango decided to keep working on our
Speaker 1: new venture, and he dropped out of the band. Now,
Speaker 1: this was also around the time that the band was
Speaker 1: just starting to get a few more gigs. And I
Speaker 1: mean some of their shows we're getting I don't know,
Speaker 1: what would you say, Mango, like tens of people on
Speaker 1: the audience. It was at least ten. It was impressive,
Speaker 1: but they needed to settle on a name, so they
Speaker 1: decided to simultaneously honor and throw a little bit of
Speaker 1: a friendly jab at Mango by calling the group Minus Mango. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not your honors the right term for that. Well,
Speaker 1: either way, the band ran with it, and they had
Speaker 1: a short but fun run. And I've even heard the
Speaker 1: band inspired some songs like I think it was meat
Speaker 1: loafs I would do anything for love and shares believe
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I mean, there's only one
Speaker 1: problem with that theory, Will and and actually there's several
Speaker 1: problems with that, the main one being that it's not true,
Speaker 1: but the other being that both those songs came out
Speaker 1: well before the band formed. Well, I just think that's
Speaker 1: what makes it so impressive. I mean, that is really remarkable.
Speaker 1: But anyway, we're not here to talk about Minus Mango today.
Speaker 1: We're here to talk about the origins of some other
Speaker 1: band names and maybe even create a little hall of
Speaker 1: fame of great and terrible band names. So let's get started.
Speaker 1: Ya Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend Manu shot Ticketer and on the other side
Speaker 1: of that soundproof glass rocking a T shirt for his
Speaker 1: favorite mash up cover band, Mago. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you'd heard of this one before. I had not. It's
Speaker 1: called Beatallica anyway, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil
Speaker 1: and and you know, Beatles songs covered in the style
Speaker 1: of Metallica. It's not something you'd expect to work, but
Speaker 1: Tristan played me a few tracks earlier and I've honestly
Speaker 1: got to say I really kind of dug it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, the way they blended Blackbird with Fade to
Speaker 1: Black is pretty masterful. That My favorite probably still all
Speaker 1: you Need is Blood. I mean, it really says it all,
Speaker 1: don't you say. Anyway, as funny or clever as cover
Speaker 1: band names and song titles can be, the stories behind
Speaker 1: them are usually not all that interesting. I mean, by definition,
Speaker 1: they're pulled from or at least made in reference to
Speaker 1: existing works by other artists, and all the origin stories
Speaker 1: for the names of original bands tend to be a
Speaker 1: lot more interesting. Even that's not a sure thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: take the Beatles, for example. They've definitely earned their place
Speaker 1: in the rock and roll hall of Fame. But in
Speaker 1: the band name hall of Fame, I really don't think
Speaker 1: they belonged there. I mean, they took the name of
Speaker 1: an insect and kind of turned it into this obvious
Speaker 1: pun on musical beats, and so it doesn't tell you
Speaker 1: anything about the group or the kind of music they play,
Speaker 1: and honestly, worst of all, there's no hidden meaning or
Speaker 1: interesting story behind it at all. That's right. So for
Speaker 1: today's show, we're gonna set aside the artists and their
Speaker 1: work and really focus instead on what they chose to
Speaker 1: call themselves. Even bad band names are on the table,
Speaker 1: just as long as the stories behind them are strange,
Speaker 1: you're interesting. Yeah, And I thought we could do this
Speaker 1: like we did a while back in that episode where
Speaker 1: we tried to assemble our own version of Mount Rushmore,
Speaker 1: And of course it was so much fun to hear
Speaker 1: from all the listeners with ideas of what other presidents
Speaker 1: we should include on Mount Rushmore and why. So we're
Speaker 1: kind of doing the same thing here. We'll each pitch
Speaker 1: some of the best band name origins that we had,
Speaker 1: you know, come across while researching and kind of gradually
Speaker 1: fill out our Hall of Fame, and you know, The
Speaker 1: one thing we noticed while preparing for this episode is
Speaker 1: how many band names fall into similar categories, whether that's
Speaker 1: band's name for literary works or band's name for TV shows.
Speaker 1: So we'll try to limit our picks to one per
Speaker 1: category so that we end up with a pretty good
Speaker 1: mix of origins. So alright, Mano, I'm gonna leave it
Speaker 1: up to you. Where do you think we should start?
Speaker 1: So I was thinking about this, and I think we
Speaker 1: should start with band names inspired by history, because those were,
Speaker 1: you know, some of the most interesting to me and
Speaker 1: also some of the hardest to choose from. So a
Speaker 1: few are pretty well known at this point. I mean,
Speaker 1: you think about like Franz Ferdinand, which takes its name
Speaker 1: from the archduke who's assassination led to World War One,
Speaker 1: Or there were lots of other ones I knew that
Speaker 1: are taking from history, Like do you know that you
Speaker 1: two was actually named after a spy plane of currently
Speaker 1: you Two's were used to monitor the Soviets in the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties. You know, I've heard of this term before,
Speaker 1: but I actually didn't. I didn't realize that, but I
Speaker 1: guess it makes sense though A lot of You two
Speaker 1: songs contain references the political and historical events, and actually
Speaker 1: I was just thinking about one the other day. Is
Speaker 1: isn't Sunday Bloody Sunday about the guerrilla warfare in Northern Ireland?
Speaker 1: It is? Actually have you watched that Alan Partridge episode
Speaker 1: where Steve Coogan's like a total buffoon and he's talking
Speaker 1: about this inspiration for the song and he's like, it's
Speaker 1: just so relatable, like when you're in line at Tesco's
Speaker 1: and you just think Sunday Bloody Sunday. Maybe that actually
Speaker 1: is the origin. I'm not sure. That's pretty good, but well,
Speaker 1: what's funny to be though, is that the band really
Speaker 1: didn't choose YouTube to make any sort of political statement,
Speaker 1: Like they went with it because it sounded ambiguous and
Speaker 1: also I guess inclusive, like you know the phrase YouTube.
Speaker 1: And also it was just more interesting than their earlier names,
Speaker 1: like they started out as Feedback in nineteen of me
Speaker 1: six before switching to the Hype and then you two
Speaker 1: within the spand of two years. It's funny because I
Speaker 1: found another band that couldn't seem to settle on a
Speaker 1: name until they stumbled upon an historical one. So you
Speaker 1: remember jeth Row Toll right. Well, they had a hit
Speaker 1: with that song Aqua Lung in the early seventies, and
Speaker 1: apparently Jethro Toll was a real person, just not a
Speaker 1: member of the band. He was actually this English agricultural
Speaker 1: pioneer who played this pretty pivotal role in bringing about
Speaker 1: the British agricultural revolution in the early eighteenth century. And
Speaker 1: so his biggest claim to fame was the invention of
Speaker 1: a horse drawn seed drill too easily, so seeds in
Speaker 1: orderly Rose, which really laid the groundwork for modern agriculture.
Speaker 1: That's just so rock and roll. I know, you said,
Speaker 1: the bend just happened upon that name. Yeah. So, in
Speaker 1: the band's early days, they had this habit of making
Speaker 1: up a new name for every single gig because their
Speaker 1: performances were so spotty and most places didn't book them
Speaker 1: a second time. So after about seriously, like four do
Speaker 1: you something name changes, the group finally hit on this
Speaker 1: unexpected winner with their homage to an eighteenth century agronomist.
Speaker 1: You know that's the way it goes. That's pretty incredible. Well,
Speaker 1: but agricultural roots aside, My favorite band name with an
Speaker 1: historical origin probably has to be Food Fighters. So this
Speaker 1: is strange, right, because I consider myself something of a
Speaker 1: history buff. I actually won Mr. Zippi's History Award in
Speaker 1: Depth grade. But I have no idea what part of
Speaker 1: history that could possibly come from, like we're the Food Fighters,
Speaker 1: Genghis Kans Elite Bodyguards or something not even close. It
Speaker 1: actually comes from the tail end of World War Two,
Speaker 1: and this is when the Allied pilots began reporting some
Speaker 1: sightings of these mysterious German aircraft and they really couldn't
Speaker 1: be identified, and so the pilots took to calling these
Speaker 1: UFOs food Fighters. And when frontman Dave Grohl came across
Speaker 1: the nickname he was reading a book about UFOs, he
Speaker 1: actually just decided it was perfect for his new band.
Speaker 1: So did he ever elaborate on what made it sound
Speaker 1: so perfect to him? Well, Girl actually courted the entire
Speaker 1: first Food Fighters album all by himself, but he kind
Speaker 1: of wanted everybody to think it was the work of
Speaker 1: a proper group, and for whatever reason, he thought a
Speaker 1: World War two term for UFOs would lead people to
Speaker 1: assume there was more than just one man behind this music.
Speaker 1: That's pretty funny reasoning. So you know, I read this
Speaker 1: history article of Nirvana, where the guys would always apparently
Speaker 1: remind Dave Grohld that he wasn't in the first iteration
Speaker 1: of the band. So, I mean, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: telling Ringo he wasn't an original Beatle, just over and
Speaker 1: over and write. Feel awful for him, but you know why,
Speaker 1: food fighters like he could have chosen any word that
Speaker 1: was a plural noun. Well, you know, girl apparently came
Speaker 1: to a similar conclusion because later he said in an interview,
Speaker 1: he said, um, had I actually considered this to be
Speaker 1: a career, I probably would have called it something else
Speaker 1: because it's the stupidest effing band name in the world.
Speaker 1: So I almost kind of want to add it to
Speaker 1: our list just for that reason. But really, if we're
Speaker 1: gonna narrow it down to a single band per category,
Speaker 1: I think we have to give this to the Decembers. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I know their songs tend to be very literary
Speaker 1: and sometimes recount or maybe pull from historical events. And
Speaker 1: I do remember a little bit about the Decembers from
Speaker 1: a Russian history class I took years and years ago.
Speaker 1: But I think I need a little bit of a refresher, right,
Speaker 1: So the historical Decembers, whose spelling actually is different from
Speaker 1: the month in the band because it doesn't actually have
Speaker 1: a third e in it. They were this group of
Speaker 1: Russian revolutionaries who lent almost a failed uprising in the
Speaker 1: December of eight and so the group was composed mostly
Speaker 1: of these young Russian officers and also members of the
Speaker 1: upper classes who they wanted to reform the autocratic government
Speaker 1: into more of a liberal system. And they actually took
Speaker 1: advantage of the chaos surrounding the death of one's are
Speaker 1: and the ascension of another to stage rebellion. But because
Speaker 1: it had been so poorly organized, their revolution was quickly
Speaker 1: put to an end, and their hope of overturning an
Speaker 1: oppressive system has really only lived on with martyrd December
Speaker 1: is now serving almost as a source of inspiration for
Speaker 1: new generations of Russian rebels. So is that actually where
Speaker 1: the band name comes from. Yeah, so that's the thing
Speaker 1: it does, and it doesn't. So, according to the band's frontman,
Speaker 1: Colin Malloy, the names partly derived from the Russian freedom
Speaker 1: fighters and partly from the month of December itself. I mean,
Speaker 1: it feels like you might be cheating a little on
Speaker 1: this one man, It's it's only a half reference to history.
Speaker 1: So so why do you feel like it deserves a
Speaker 1: spot on our list Because this is the only historical
Speaker 1: band name we've mentioned where the reference wasn't chosen at random.
Speaker 1: So with the December Is there's actually this real thematic
Speaker 1: connection between the band's name and its music. And as
Speaker 1: Colin Milloy puts it, quote, I like to think that
Speaker 1: the drama behind the month of December, there's a group
Speaker 1: of people who that is their month, and they're sort
Speaker 1: of stuck in this month. And I think that sort
Speaker 1: of speaks to the songs and the characters and the
Speaker 1: songs sort of marginalized, sort of on the outskirts, all
Speaker 1: living in the coldest month. That is pretty interesting. But actually,
Speaker 1: didn't you say the real Decembers were from the mobility.
Speaker 1: It kind of doesn't sound like they were marginalized people
Speaker 1: living on the outskirts as he was describing. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: they were definitely a minority in terms of openly opposing
Speaker 1: the system that ruled them, and once their rebellion was
Speaker 1: sort of stifled, the Decembrist became well and truly marginalized.
Speaker 1: Most of the surviving members were sent off to remote
Speaker 1: work camps in Siberia, where their descendants still eke out
Speaker 1: a living even though they brought education and culture with
Speaker 1: them to that land. Well all right, well, it's not
Speaker 1: the cheeriest historical connection, but but you're right, it certainly
Speaker 1: seems like one of the deepest. And because of that,
Speaker 1: I agree, and I'll give it to you. The Decembrist
Speaker 1: deserve the first spot in our band name Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: Ding Ding Ding, So so they probably don't know it,
Speaker 1: but that's a huge honor. And since it took us
Speaker 1: a while to decide on that first entry, I actually
Speaker 1: have a category that we can probably knock out pretty fast,
Speaker 1: and that's best band name acronym that isn't actually an acronym.
Speaker 1: And remember r M is disqualified from this one because
Speaker 1: it really is an acronym and it stands for rabid
Speaker 1: eye movement. Apparently Michael Stipe just cribbed it from the
Speaker 1: dictionary after pointing to the word at random. Yeah, probably
Speaker 1: the laziest way to come up with a band name,
Speaker 1: but you do hear that happening a lot. Well, I
Speaker 1: guess my pick for this one would be kiss. I
Speaker 1: would think, you know, everybody's heard the rumors that the
Speaker 1: name secretly stands for something sinister. I remember hearing as
Speaker 1: a kid that it stood for things like kids in
Speaker 1: Satan's service. But you know, according to Gene Simmons, the
Speaker 1: name doesn't stand for anything and was simply just this,
Speaker 1: like this idle suggestion from one band member to another.
Speaker 1: And it was it was Paul Stanley that came up
Speaker 1: with this, and he's actually gone on record that he
Speaker 1: chose the name Kiss because of quote just sounded dangerous
Speaker 1: and sexy at the same time. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: you can't argue with the results, or I I guess
Speaker 1: you can actually, but I'm sure some people found them
Speaker 1: sexy and others dangerous. I think my sister would be
Speaker 1: included in that category. I know I've told you this before,
Speaker 1: but my sister is a few years older than I am,
Speaker 1: So when I was little, I would sneak into her
Speaker 1: room and us into her music. But i'd also, of
Speaker 1: course go through all of her stuff. And one of
Speaker 1: the things I remember finding was this shoe box, and
Speaker 1: it was full of these Kiss trading cards because we're
Speaker 1: hilarious to look at it. I really wish she still
Speaker 1: had these and that's pretty amazing. But you know, for
Speaker 1: my money, the best bot acronym band name is still wasp. Oh.
Speaker 1: I remember them. So they were a heavy metal band
Speaker 1: and back in there was this seven I guess this
Speaker 1: was the eighties, right, And I can't believe that's not
Speaker 1: actually an acronym. And they even put a period between
Speaker 1: each of the letters. I know, I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: it's from the era where you'd put gratuitous like oom
Speaker 1: lots and nonsense and names like wingdings and whatever. But
Speaker 1: supposedly it was just because not many other bands had
Speaker 1: done it at that time, and they hoped it would
Speaker 1: make them stand out and get people curious about the band.
Speaker 1: But just like kiss, rumors world that the acronym stood
Speaker 1: for all sorts of naughty stuff, like we are sexual perverts,
Speaker 1: we are Satan's preachers, we all smoked pot. But my, my,
Speaker 1: my favorite red herring of that lot is an answer
Speaker 1: one of the band members gave when he was doing
Speaker 1: an interview and he said, you know, they asked what
Speaker 1: does WASP stand for? He said, we ain't sure. Pal oh,
Speaker 1: I like that. That's a pretty good ones there, all right,
Speaker 1: So the periods were just a marketing technique. But what
Speaker 1: about the name itself? I mean, does it stand for anything?
Speaker 1: Or like why wasp? I I guess one of the
Speaker 1: band members saw a wasp one night and thought it
Speaker 1: might make for a cool band name. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: I guess you kind of stacked the deck with this category,
Speaker 1: but I'm still going to give you this one as
Speaker 1: well for wasps, so we will add them to the
Speaker 1: list here, which is awesome because I'm two for two
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't think you have any points on
Speaker 1: the board, right, No, but don't don't get too cocky.
Speaker 1: We still got a bunch of origins to get to
Speaker 1: and I really doubt you're gonna be able to top
Speaker 1: this next one. But before I hit you with it,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius and we're talking about the weird stories behind famous
Speaker 1: band names. Alright, Mango. So now our Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: needs to be the best story for a band name
Speaker 1: taken from a TV show or a movie. It can
Speaker 1: be either one, and I actually think I've got the
Speaker 1: perfect contender. Now, if first I thought about fallout Boy,
Speaker 1: you know, because I'm always thinking about Fallout Boy, or
Speaker 1: maybe but you know, they've been this nameless band until
Speaker 1: they pulled the audience at their second show and someone
Speaker 1: in the crowd shouted out the name of Radioactive Man,
Speaker 1: superhero sidekick from the Simpsons, and it actually just sort
Speaker 1: of stuck. That's amazing, that's where it comes from. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a pretty good story. So but but actually then
Speaker 1: I thought I'd go with something a little more obscure,
Speaker 1: and that's what led me to the Bloodhound Gang. Do
Speaker 1: you remember the blood Hud Gang? Yeah? I mean I
Speaker 1: wish I didn't, because they had that annoying song bad Touch,
Speaker 1: and the video of it was just them in monkey
Speaker 1: costumes running around town and I guess doing weird, dirty
Speaker 1: things to everyone in sight. I don't know, it was
Speaker 1: just art mango. I don't know why you don't want
Speaker 1: to remember that. Well, there is something interesting I found
Speaker 1: out about that when you talk about them running around
Speaker 1: doing weird and dirty things to everything in the video,
Speaker 1: And honestly, that's that the Bloodhound Gang was actually a
Speaker 1: lot more wholesome than you might think, or or at
Speaker 1: least their name was. And that's because the band took
Speaker 1: it from this recurring sketch that was on the old
Speaker 1: three to one Contact show from PBS and the eighties.
Speaker 1: I know you were a big fan as a kid.
Speaker 1: The sketch was all about this group of dorky kids
Speaker 1: called the Bloodhound Gang, and so they'd get together and
Speaker 1: try to solve these crimes using math puzzles, and that's
Speaker 1: where they got the name. That's pretty funny that, you know,
Speaker 1: such a raunchy band would take their name from kids program.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, even though three to one Contact
Speaker 1: magazine was actually a huge influence on me and mental
Speaker 1: plus A. Seriously, I'm I'm still not sure I want
Speaker 1: those guys in our Hall of Fame. Wow. I guess
Speaker 1: that the video did a number on you. But all right,
Speaker 1: I do agree with you. No Bloodhound Gang allowed, so
Speaker 1: we gotta come up with another one. So what sort
Speaker 1: of slemed on entry do you have for TV and movies? Well,
Speaker 1: that would be a little band I like to call
Speaker 1: exclamation Point, exclamation Point, exclamation point, or or as fans
Speaker 1: have wisely decided to call them, chick Chick Chick of course.
Speaker 1: So they're this post punk funk group out of Sacramento,
Speaker 1: and they actually took their unusual name from the nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties South African comedy The Gods Must Be Crazy. You
Speaker 1: remember this movie, right, Yeah, that's crazy. So for listeners
Speaker 1: who haven't seen it, it's about this remote African tribe
Speaker 1: that lives in peace until they find a coke bottle
Speaker 1: that falls out of an airplane and they all start
Speaker 1: fighting over it. And you know, it's a funny movie.
Speaker 1: But I have to make I don't know what it
Speaker 1: has to do with those three exclamation points. Well, in
Speaker 1: the movie, The Bushman's Shocean Language was subtitled as a
Speaker 1: series of exclamation points, and the band liked this idea
Speaker 1: of using that to refer to a different kind of sound,
Speaker 1: you know, one that's hard to categorize, And I guess
Speaker 1: that's how they viewed their own music now, because the
Speaker 1: bush language sometimes sounds a lot like clicking sounds. I
Speaker 1: guess you know, the most common pronunciation is chick, chick, chick.
Speaker 1: But according to the band, the intention was for people
Speaker 1: to use any three repetitive sounds and they could just
Speaker 1: choose them, so you could call the band bam bam bam,
Speaker 1: or pal pal pal, and you know, you technically still
Speaker 1: be talking about the same band. I can give you
Speaker 1: other examples that's right. All right, Well, I I think
Speaker 1: you've sold me on Chick Chick Chicken. That's gonna get
Speaker 1: my vote. But I have a feeling this next category
Speaker 1: is going to be a bit more hotly contested, and
Speaker 1: it's the best band name for somebody who isn't in
Speaker 1: the band. Oh yeah, there's a bunch of good examples
Speaker 1: for this, but actually, for instance, you you you know
Speaker 1: Alice Cooper right, Well, the band was originally called the Earwigs,
Speaker 1: but after playing around with a Quiji board, it put
Speaker 1: him in touch with a ghost name Alice Cooper, so
Speaker 1: they decided to switch to that instead. So I love
Speaker 1: that wegi board story. But you know what's weird is
Speaker 1: that I I didn't even know Alice Cooper was a band,
Speaker 1: Like I thought it was just the one guy. Well
Speaker 1: not at first. There was the guy that ended up
Speaker 1: taking the name, and it was the front man. His
Speaker 1: real name was Vincent Fernier. But after he split off
Speaker 1: from band, he went solo and he actually ended up
Speaker 1: just taking the name Alice with him. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: that is pretty cool, but you know, I prefer bands
Speaker 1: named after real people, thank you very much. And that's
Speaker 1: why my pick for this category is Pink Floyd. No way,
Speaker 1: is that them a real person? Yeah, it's actually the
Speaker 1: name of two real people. So you know, one of
Speaker 1: the band's founding members, the legendary Sid Barrett, came up
Speaker 1: with idea for combining the names of two of his
Speaker 1: favorite blues musicians, and that's Pink Anderson and Floyd Counsel.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I had no idea about that, all right,
Speaker 1: but that does mean if I'm not mistaken that Anderson
Speaker 1: Counsel would still be on the table then right, definitely.
Speaker 1: So for any nameless bands out there, here's the answer
Speaker 1: you've been looking for, all right. Well, I have to
Speaker 1: give it to you. Pink Floyd is a two for
Speaker 1: with that double homage and and that is tough to beat.
Speaker 1: But I have one I've been saving, and I think
Speaker 1: I want to give the edge to, you know, to
Speaker 1: my Alabama brothers, Leonard SKINNERD. I mean, aren't they from Florida?
Speaker 1: Details details name also mean in terms of fake sounding
Speaker 1: names like Leonard SKINNERD like no real name has that
Speaker 1: many wise, and know many how many times I've written it,
Speaker 1: I don't know how many times I've actually written it,
Speaker 1: but I never can seem to get it right. But
Speaker 1: you might have a point because you know, while the
Speaker 1: band did take their name and honor of their real
Speaker 1: life gym teacher and basketball coach, they also tweaked it
Speaker 1: a little to sound a little bit more interesting. So
Speaker 1: the real guy's name was Leonard Skinner, and after the
Speaker 1: band made him their namesake, Skinner reconnected with his old
Speaker 1: pupils and actually even m seed one of their shows.
Speaker 1: But really, though, the band might have been better off
Speaker 1: just sticking with Leonard Skinner, because you know, their name
Speaker 1: was just so hard to remember how to spell, and
Speaker 1: the misspelled version they went on was just so phonetically
Speaker 1: confusing that even their self titled debut album, it had
Speaker 1: this little pronunciation. Guy. I don't know if you've seen
Speaker 1: this before, but on the cover of the album to
Speaker 1: help people know how to pronounce it, you know, just
Speaker 1: to be safe. That's ridiculous. Okay, so I I guess
Speaker 1: you're two for two. I'm gonna give that one to you.
Speaker 1: But this next category I think is all mind because
Speaker 1: I found the all time best band name inspired by
Speaker 1: another artist, and it belongs to none other than the
Speaker 1: man who taught the world to do the twist. Mr
Speaker 1: Chubby Checker. Oh wow, So who inspired Chubby Checker's name.
Speaker 1: So apparently it's a riff on the name of fellow
Speaker 1: musician and near contemporary Fats Domino. Uh yeah, But the
Speaker 1: first person to ever call Ernest Evans by the name
Speaker 1: Chubby Checker was actually Dick Clark's wife, and they met
Speaker 1: when Chubby appeared on Dick Clark's American Bands in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty and during the recording, Chubby launched into this impression
Speaker 1: of Fats Domino, And afterwards he told Mrs Clark that
Speaker 1: his friends actually called him Chubby, and she smiled and
Speaker 1: said as in Checker, and he just kind of liked
Speaker 1: it so much that he used as a stage name
Speaker 1: from then on. You know, this is one of those that,
Speaker 1: in hindsight you think that Fats Domino and Chubby Checker,
Speaker 1: it seems obvious, but actually had never made that connection before.
Speaker 1: Al Right, so I will concede this one. Chubby Checker
Speaker 1: should have a spot in the band Name Hall of Fame. Well,
Speaker 1: I am glad you're on board, because I really like
Speaker 1: that one, and it just kind of lines up perfectly
Speaker 1: with an article I read about the science of choosing
Speaker 1: the perfect band name. Oh, I definitely want to hear
Speaker 1: more about this, but first let's take a quick break,
Speaker 1: all right, Mango, So it's time to spill it. What
Speaker 1: is the secret to coming up with a truly top
Speaker 1: shelf band name? Well, if we've shown anything today, it's
Speaker 1: that memorable band names come from all different places, you know,
Speaker 1: summer homages to real life events and people. Others are
Speaker 1: nonsense words or appealing phrases crib from media or other musicians.
Speaker 1: And some names come in sudden flashes of inspiration. I mean,
Speaker 1: others just seem to be whatever drummer happened to be
Speaker 1: looking at at the time. And there's really no one
Speaker 1: fixed approach that works. But there actually do seem to
Speaker 1: be some linguistic patterns that crop up among the best
Speaker 1: band names. Alright, So what do you mean by patterns? So,
Speaker 1: just on a basic level, most compelling band names have
Speaker 1: something unusual about them. So you know, you think about
Speaker 1: like the grateful Dead or the Flaming Lips, and those
Speaker 1: are just these unexpected word combinations that you find together
Speaker 1: and when you hear them, they kind of grab your attention.
Speaker 1: But there's also this other factor that's more cultural than
Speaker 1: linguistic and what's that. So this might sound a little strange,
Speaker 1: but it comes down to the way people connect words
Speaker 1: and names that belong to a certain category. So for example,
Speaker 1: like think about something the naming patterns for cars, right,
Speaker 1: two big ones that might come up are fast moving animals.
Speaker 1: You've got things like the Jaguar, the Mustang, even the viper,
Speaker 1: and also astronomical figures, so like tourists or mercury, Nova, Saturn, Subaru. Like,
Speaker 1: at this point, we're kind of so used to these
Speaker 1: recurring patterns and car names that any words that fit
Speaker 1: into that genre like that brings true to us, is
Speaker 1: a good name for a car? That's yeah, that's true definitely,
Speaker 1: But so are you're saying that the same kind of
Speaker 1: thing happens with band names. Totally, But this is something
Speaker 1: I recognized on my own. It's actually the theory of
Speaker 1: this linguist named chi Lu. And one important thing she
Speaker 1: points out in her research is that these cultural associations
Speaker 1: that we create for categories of names are always changing
Speaker 1: over time. So here's actually a quote from her article
Speaker 1: in j Store where she lays out some of these
Speaker 1: generational patterns of music. She writes, quote, short names beginning
Speaker 1: with the and a common noun is an obvious pattern
Speaker 1: from the mid twentieth century, got the Beatles, the monkeys,
Speaker 1: the animals, the Kanks, and that's seen a revival in
Speaker 1: recent times. The heavy metal genre is one of the
Speaker 1: classes with more obvious linguistic patterns, usually involving death, so
Speaker 1: Megadeth's Layer of course, and other perils such as dangerous animals,
Speaker 1: white snake weapons, guns and roses, iron maiden, or sometimes
Speaker 1: drugs and unhealthy substances poison. All Right, so I guess
Speaker 1: it does make sense. Like when you were talking about
Speaker 1: Chubby Checker before, it lines up pretty well with this
Speaker 1: idea of these these naming patterns. Obviously, in this case,
Speaker 1: it was picking a name that wasn't too far off
Speaker 1: from somebody else's, you know, Fats Domino in this case.
Speaker 1: And so you kind of found that ultimate shortcut to
Speaker 1: making a recognizable band name, right, And I mean that
Speaker 1: seems to be like the cardinal rule of rock and roll,
Speaker 1: where the music is always derivative, right, Like it's always
Speaker 1: pulling from the blues. So why shouldn't the naming conventions
Speaker 1: be derivative as well? Just copy the other guys? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a good point and it does seem to work
Speaker 1: all right. Well, I wanted to come back to some
Speaker 1: of these other names, but I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: experienced this, but in doing the research, there were definitely
Speaker 1: a ton of fun band name origins that they kind
Speaker 1: of don't fit into a particular category. I feel like
Speaker 1: we should take a little bit of time to just
Speaker 1: throw out a few wild card entries for our band
Speaker 1: name Hall of Fame. Yeah, I love that, it's perfect.
Speaker 1: So I've actually been dying to talk about Dexis Midnight Runners,
Speaker 1: and I don't think there's any other way I could
Speaker 1: work them in. Yeah, it sounds like kind of a
Speaker 1: tough sell, so I have to admit, who are they exactly?
Speaker 1: So you might remember them as the British band that
Speaker 1: gave us the eighties hit song come On Eileen, No,
Speaker 1: I definitely don't remember them as that. I mean, of
Speaker 1: course I remember the song, but I couldn't have told
Speaker 1: you sung it well either way. Their naming situation is
Speaker 1: basically the exact opposite of what happened with the Bloodhound Gangs.
Speaker 1: So instead of being like a raunchy band with an
Speaker 1: innocent name, the Dexis Midnight Runners were I guess, like
Speaker 1: a squeaky clean band with a highly suspect name. That
Speaker 1: sounds pretty funny, but I think you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: walk me through because I honestly have no clue what
Speaker 1: a Dexi's Midnight Runners. Okay, So the band openly admitted
Speaker 1: that the dexis part of their name comes from a
Speaker 1: you know, a stimulant called dexadrine and this was popular
Speaker 1: among soul music fans in Northern England during the seventies,
Speaker 1: and the Midnight Runners part that refers to the users
Speaker 1: who used the drug as a way to dance all
Speaker 1: night long. Wow. So so, but you said these guys
Speaker 1: were like a squeaky clean band totally. So they were
Speaker 1: completely sober and they didn't even have alcohol at any
Speaker 1: of their shows. Oh wow, that's pretty bizarre, But that's great.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, I think my wild card pick is
Speaker 1: an oldie but a goody, and that would be the
Speaker 1: one and only led Zeppelin. You can kind of think
Speaker 1: of this as the Yankee Doodle Award for our Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame name because you know, just like in that song,
Speaker 1: the name led Zeppelin has its origins and something that
Speaker 1: was originally intended as an insult. So the story goes
Speaker 1: that The Who's Keith Moon was actually invited to drum
Speaker 1: for this new London band, but ended up being so
Speaker 1: unimpressed with the other members and he mockingly predicted that
Speaker 1: they would quote go down like a lead balloon. So
Speaker 1: then John entwhistle basis for The Who went even further
Speaker 1: than that, and he remarked that the new band would
Speaker 1: be such a colossal failure that it would be more
Speaker 1: like a led Zeppelin, which is pretty harsh but also
Speaker 1: kind of clever. Yeah, it was, but maybe as clever
Speaker 1: as that. When the insult made its way back to
Speaker 1: Jimmy Page and his manager, they actually thought it was
Speaker 1: so funny that they decided to make it the official
Speaker 1: band name, though only after dropping the A from lead,
Speaker 1: and the whole reason was to, you know, to keep
Speaker 1: Americans from mispronouncing it as Lead Zeppelin. So I don't
Speaker 1: know what I should be impressed by how much they
Speaker 1: cared about preserving like that lead balloon joke at all costs,
Speaker 1: or I guess insulted by how little they thought of
Speaker 1: American intelligence. I don't know. I sort of think it
Speaker 1: was a smart call. I mean you remember the pronunciation
Speaker 1: guide I mentioned about Leonard Skinner, Right, Yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: And I guess I understand that desire to make sure
Speaker 1: your name comes across as intended, because the name of
Speaker 1: band goes with can have this major impact on a
Speaker 1: musician's career. Didn't bring everything from their radio exposure to
Speaker 1: merchandise design to you know, what kind of people will
Speaker 1: actually listen to the songs? And even after the music
Speaker 1: stops and the spotlight shifts to someone else, a good
Speaker 1: name can still keep a band afloat in the cultural site, guys,
Speaker 1: so long as there's an interesting story about where it
Speaker 1: came from. Oh yeah, I mean, I think you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1: I was actually this close to talk about Hoodie and
Speaker 1: the Blowfish today and Mango, it's two thousand eighteen. Well,
Speaker 1: you haven't missed your opportunity yet. It's time for the
Speaker 1: fact off, and there's still a few empty spots left
Speaker 1: to talk about band names. All right, we'll dust off
Speaker 1: your Blowfish. Hootie, you're coming in, so I'm gonna start
Speaker 1: his off. And I love it when bands named themselves
Speaker 1: after songs from other bands as somewhat of a tribute,
Speaker 1: and that's actually how radio Head got their name. When
Speaker 1: they first formed in the mid eighties, they were known
Speaker 1: as on a Friday, which was the day that they
Speaker 1: got together to practice. But then five or six years later,
Speaker 1: when they signed with E. M. I, they actually changed
Speaker 1: their name to Radiohead as a tribute to the Talking
Speaker 1: Heads and the song Radiohead. You know, something similar actually
Speaker 1: happened with the Rolling Stones. So Jagger and Richards first
Speaker 1: formed the band back in the early sixties, and at
Speaker 1: that point they were called the Blue Boys. The story
Speaker 1: goes that during an interview with this jazz focused newspaper,
Speaker 1: guitarist Brian Jones spotted this Muddy Waters record. It was
Speaker 1: just sitting there on the floor where he was doing
Speaker 1: the interview, and it made him think about that song
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone from the same album, and that's where they
Speaker 1: got the name. That's really cool. So, you know, having
Speaker 1: played an a band in high school or several bands
Speaker 1: in high school, I love stories of groups that you know,
Speaker 1: met his kids and kept performing together. And another one
Speaker 1: of those was a group that came together in the
Speaker 1: nineties out of Cleveland. They were just in junior high
Speaker 1: school when they started rapping together and one day Anthony
Speaker 1: Crazy Bone Henderson had this minor crash on his moped,
Speaker 1: and in somewhat of an act of solidarity, the group
Speaker 1: all supported bandages and they started calling themselves the band
Speaker 1: Aid Boys, And while that name didn't stick, we now
Speaker 1: know them as Bone Thugs and Harmony. You know, I
Speaker 1: also think it's fun when bands don't seem to actually
Speaker 1: remember their origin, or at least they're competing stories for origins.
Speaker 1: And one of these where I saw so many different
Speaker 1: stories on this was Pearl Jam, and so I won't
Speaker 1: share all of them. But there have been some claims
Speaker 1: that the band name was inspired by Eddie Vetter's great
Speaker 1: grandmother Pearl, who apparently made this famous peyote jam. I
Speaker 1: don't know if this is true enough. And I thought
Speaker 1: that was pretty funny, and then it ranges to the
Speaker 1: much less interesting. You know, one of them that they
Speaker 1: just liked the word pearl and then they added jam
Speaker 1: to it because that's what a group of musicians do.
Speaker 1: So I think I'm gonna stick with the great grandmother story.
Speaker 1: It just seems so much more fun to believe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like that a lot. Well, I know we're not
Speaker 1: really focusing on cover bands, but there's one that's kind
Speaker 1: of a cover band but also kind of a weirdly
Speaker 1: inspired band called Austrian Death Machine, and apparently they sing
Speaker 1: entirely in the style of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all their
Speaker 1: songs are from some of his famous one liners. So
Speaker 1: you know, like it's not a tumor. You can actually
Speaker 1: find on the band's first album, Total Brutal, which is right,
Speaker 1: that's actually the first album. Oh, just the first album. Wow,
Speaker 1: this band is something else. I would imagine that's one
Speaker 1: of those shows that you're like, this is gonna be
Speaker 1: so hilarious, and for the first five minutes it's so hilarious,
Speaker 1: and then it's just torture from that point on. Alright, MANO,
Speaker 1: I don't want to disappoint anybody, because we promised to
Speaker 1: include Hootie and the Blowfish, and I'm here to deliver.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that we actually did promise, but we
Speaker 1: said Hoodie and the Blowfish. We did. We promised Hootie.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think most people assume that the frontman,
Speaker 1: Darius Rucker, was Hoodie and that his supporting band members
Speaker 1: were The Blowfish, but it actually turns out the he's
Speaker 1: kind of both or at least both names came from
Speaker 1: people that Darius went to school with. So one was
Speaker 1: this kid they called Hoodie because I guess he kind
Speaker 1: of looked like an owl. And there was a separate
Speaker 1: classmate that had these puffed up cheeks and was nicknamed Blowfish.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure why they decided to combine these two,
Speaker 1: and I kind of want to see pictures of these
Speaker 1: guys because it's just would make for an interesting story.
Speaker 1: But it seemed to work. And I've actually got an
Speaker 1: equally important fact because just recently a friend reminded me
Speaker 1: that in our high school yearbook there was a photo
Speaker 1: of me playing basketball in a game, and for some reason,
Speaker 1: when I was dribbling, I would do this thing where
Speaker 1: I blow out my cheeks like a blowfish, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of like Jordan's tongue, but much less cool and
Speaker 1: much less effective, of course, But when you weren't dunking,
Speaker 1: when I wasn't dunking, that's what I was doing. And anyway,
Speaker 1: I was doing that in this photo, and the capture
Speaker 1: under it said Willie and the Blowfish. So how about that, Mango?
Speaker 1: Pretty good? Well, I feel like you deserved today's trophy
Speaker 1: just based on that story alone. Thank you very much,
Speaker 1: and thank you guys for listening. I know we must
Speaker 1: have left out so many great origin stories of band names,
Speaker 1: so please let us hear those from. You can always
Speaker 1: email us part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also call us on our seven fact hotline
Speaker 1: one eight four four pt Genius, or hit us up
Speaker 1: on Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening.
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