Yo La Tengo - after a hapless baseball Mets fielding incident
Green Day - Named after something that should be cool and celebrated worldwide, but turned out kinda lame.
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2026
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They Might Be Giants - a reference to the George C. Scott movie of the same name, where this is his character's answer to why Don Quixote jousted with windmills
Good one, I knew it was a movie but not the Don Quixote context!
Fair to Midland.
The Who
The Hu
Propagandhi
Minor Threat
Ruskaja
Circle Jerks
The Slits
Eagles of Death Metal
Well I see someone is into punk rock. Propaghandi and MT are some of my favorites. CJ are great as well. Not punk, but EoDM rock.
I'm on board with Propagandhi, Save Ferris, and EODM but I'm unfamiliar with the backstories on the rest. What makes them clever?
So The Who came around when all the band names seemed to be "The something", so The Who kinda poked fun at that trend.
The Hu is a Mongolian metal band (Mongolian as in Hun), and their name is phonetically the same as world famous rock band The Who.
Minor Threat has a double meaning: "Insignificant" Threat and "Youth" Threat. The song "Minor Threat - Minor Threat" really nails that point down.
Ruskaja is just blending "Ruski" and "ska" together, you can probably guess their sound. Fun fact the first time I heard "Energia" I jokingly, accidently guessed their name.
You're on the Internet so I assume you've heard the term "Circle Jerk", but a jerk is also a person, the asshole type, so "Circle Jerks" is just a play on words between those two meanings.
The Slits is an all female punk band, and the name is a reference to that.
Funny how The [Name] is cyclical. Sum 41 had a music video where they jokingly changed their name to The Sums to ride the trend
Jerk is also a play on "clerk" as in Soda Jerk. Circle Jerk referring to group hog cranking is from the 60s I think
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Theres sooooo many. I'm really into bands.
Can't think of a lot at the moment but Some I think are clever or interesting:
- deftones ("tone deaf")
- muse (short and to the point)
- limp bizkit (yeah, I never knew the origin of this till a few years ago). Not a fan of the band myself.
So did you like Wham!
Bowling for Soup- 1985
"She rocked out to Wham!, not a big Limp Bizkit fan"
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Lol I agree with you on Deftones but I'm not sure I'd consider Limp Bizkit a "clever" name. For sure funny, though
Yeah its more silly than clever.
I don't know that it's clever but it always gives me a good chuckle, Steely Dan is named after a steam powered strap on.
Had no idea!
Similarly, it was years before I learned where Arab Strap got their name....
It's one of my dad's favorite pieces of music trivia. Probably because it made us kids uncomfortable lol
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There is that joke from Peep Show "we were thinking of calling ourselves 'Various Artists' just to fuck with people with iPods"
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The Beatles. It's a plural of people who can keep a beat.
Like the Oneders?
The lads actually just really hated a bloke called Les.
But seriously, it was also an homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
You know, I guess I don't give them enough credit for that one
Save Ferris
Flogging Molly
TV on the Radio
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats
LCD Soundsystem
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Jack Off Jill
- Glass Hammer - I like oxymorons [prog rock]
- Blind Guardian - also kind of an oxymoron [power metal]
- Animals as Leaders - political messaging at its finest? [prog rock/metal]
- Carbon-based Lifeforms - that's us (and our surrounding) [ambient]
- Envy of None - yeah... [not sure about genre]
- Ayreon - sounds cool, is basically a play on words of the creator's name (Arjen Lucassen) [prog rock/metal]
- NoFX - quite fitting for [punk rock]
I've always loved the name Animals As Leaders. Humans ain't cutting it so fuck it, the dogs are in charge now.
Dunno if they ever did it but my friend wanted his band to call themselves Free Beer. He figured they would get gigs as an opening act. This Friday at the Paramount - Boy Genius, with Free Beer!
Some bands I like with names I think are clever:
The Callous Daoboys
Drop Dead, Gorgeous
unpeople
Bloodywood
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Metalachi - It's a mariachi band that plays metal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_5y5KrBoO8
Barenaked Ladies - they wanted something that caught peoples attention when looking at random small town band posters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC_q9KPczAg
Bilmuri - he just was a big fan of Bill Murray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGTsevoF23Y
Fair to Midland - a play on fair to middling, they were also from Texas who has a town called Midland.. A band created and revolved around little quips and folksy sayings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpTHbOkrSu0
I received the Stunt CD on Christmas morning and I will never forget my joyful grandpa's smile drop as he turned to me and said "shame on you..."
He know it was an album.... from a band making music people called "wuss rock"
People can call it what they want, it was catchy as hell and I think the writing was pretty great on lyrics and music. Can't say the same for most albums past that one, and definitely after Page left. Stunt was lightning in a bottle for me.
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The 13th Floor Elevators, based on the fact that many buildings don't have a "13th floor" because of superstition, so they named themselves after something that doesn't exist.
Leftöver Crack, same deal! There ain't no such thing as leftover crack!
based on the fact that many buildings don't have a "13th floor" because of superstition
Literally me right now on the "14th" floor
Sex Pistols
Whilst not clever, but the band name is interesting.
Cease
Was an excellent local drone band.
I always thought the name was curious and succinct.
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