band names that reference other bands in some way

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:09 am

paint it black!

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:32 am

Hayseed Dixie
The Tripping Billies

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:30 am

Aw man, gonna feel like a loser...

Radiohead is a Talking Heads song!

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:51 am

sisters of mercy, named after the leonard cohen song i believe.

Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 821 Location: Austin

I'm guessing that Pavement's name is a reference to the Fall, but I haven't read anything concrete.
....
...aha! Concrete!

Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 528 Location: California

"Mogwai" by Nick Drake, unless that's already been mentioned.

I realize that Nick Drake made the song and then killed himself or whatever long before Mogwai came about. It's still there. In a reverse lookup sort of way.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:44 am

Godsmack... a terrible band that is horrible and is also not good. did i mention they lack talent or originality?

they stole their name from an awesome Alice in Chains song.

Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 821 Location: Austin

the affable tumor wrote:

"Mogwai" by Nick Drake, unless that's already been mentioned.

I realize that Nick Drake made the song and then killed himself or whatever long before Mogwai came about. It's still there. In a reverse lookup sort of way.

What? You meant "long after" right? has my memory been sent through time?

Mogwai got their name from the Gremlins movies. The fuzzy things, that's the way I heard it.

Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 776 Location: Victoria

No man, Drake's been dead for a long time - since 1974.

Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 821 Location: Austin

DeathInABottle wrote:

No man, Drake's been dead for a long time - since 1974.

I knew I shouldn't have trusted the crazy memory doctor and his slow-witted nephew!

Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 528 Location: California

Information Jimmy wrote:

Mogwai got their name from the Gremlins movies. The fuzzy things, that's the way I heard it.

I heard that, too, but regardless of the truth, I am propagating this myth because it is way cooler than some fagass gremlins movie.

Because Nick Drake is totally sweet.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:02 pm

Information Jimmy wrote:

I'm guessing that Pavement's name is a reference to the Fall, but I haven't read anything concrete.
....
...aha! Concrete!

No.

Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 3741 Location: Cumming

sex machineguns.

Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 5464 Location: dino zone

Silverchair are named after a song by You Am I, who bring the awesome.

Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 528 Location: California

boo_ninny wrote:

Silverchair are named after a song by You Am I, who bring the awesome.

I'm pretty sure there's a lurking variable confounding you on this one. The Silver Chair was a CS Lewis book, one of the well-known and well-loved Narnia novels. Maybe they both shared a common inspiration?

Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 5464 Location: dino zone

Well, the song may be a Lewis reference, but I'm pretty sure Silverchair named themselves after the song, not the book.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:52 pm

Brian Jonestown Massacre

Also: Narnia = love it.

Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 974

Pretty Girls Make Graves is the name of a Smiths song.

Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Posts: 1 Location: indiana

Astro Zombies is the name of a Misfits song.

Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 600

What about Candlebox guys? Remember Candlebox? Named after a Midnight Oil song? Oh shit, remember Midnight Oil?

Joined: 13 Nov 2004 Posts: 2966 Location: Atlanta

Dude, the Midnight Oil lead singer was AWESOME!

"Let's give it baaaaack..."

Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 1442

You may be interested to learn that the lead singer from Midnight Oil enetered politics this year, running with the Australian equivalent of the Democrats.

Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 600

"We got to get rid o' the nukes, mate! Wha's that? We ain't got no nukes? Well that's ace mate! I'm a complete bleedin' success then, ain't I?"

Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 5464 Location: dino zone

Bad Brains are named after a Ramones song!

Also, Phantom Tollbooth is a children's book, and one of Rob Pollard's favourite bands!

Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 528 Location: California

"How do we dance when the earth is turning,
How do we sleep while our beds are burning?"

My immediate response as a 5-year-old or whatever upon first hearing this song: "Sleep in a water bed!"

My dad still won't let me forget it :/

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:40 pm

The Beatles name was supposedly a refference to The Crickets, as well as a pun.

Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 528 Location: California

I just heard on the radio that there's a band named 'Pepper' - I immediately thought of the Butthole Surfers song of the same name, and immediately after that thought of this thread!

Now, this raises two issues; a) Are they related at all? and b) I might have some sort of problem if an internet forum is such an quickly-formed connection to real life events in my brain!

Also, c) Where did my grammar go?!

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 3:30 am

It seems like no one else is here now and I should probably pack it in for the night soon. However:

Death Cab For Cutie named themselves after a song by The Bonzo Doodah Band.

I think The Cult had a song called "Soul Asylum" before the band was around.

Pink Floyd were named after two of Syd Barrett's favorite blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Which is good because Anderson Council would have been too generic. Amusingly, I read somewhere they also used to be called The Megadeaths, although I have no idea if Megadeth knew this when they chose their name.

Pavement aren't named after anything Fall-related to my knowledge (though it's possible because The Fall have 20 trillion albums and I own about two), but The Dresden Dolls are.

I think these kind of count in a bizarre meta-kind of way: an early lineup of The Shins used to be called Flake Music, and they actually had a song called "The Shins", which they later, um, named themselves after. Similarly, Kyuss had a song called "Queens Of The Stone Age", and Josh Homme from that band would later go on to start another band called that.

That Pepper band could have named themselves after the condiment I guess, but there's some band I've heard mentioned a few times called The Ashtray Babyheads and they totally took that from one of the Butthole Surfers' old band names. On a side note, I just finished reading Our Band Could Be Your Life a while ago, and according to that book the Butthole Surfers also used to be called The Inalienable Right To Eat Fred Astaire's poopy head. I always thought it was awesome that suddenly in 1996 all these commercial rock radio station DJs got an excuse to say "Butthole" all the time, but it would have been even better to hear "That was The Inalienable Right To Eat Fred Astaire's poopy head with 'Pepper'".

Joined: 25 Mar 2005 Posts: 47 Location: Bordeline whatever

Pretty Girls Make Graves

Velouria

They may have been mentioned but i'm too lazy to read the whole topic...

Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 5464 Location: dino zone

Telegraph Melts are named after a Jandek album.