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Rock band names require creativity, insight and maybe a sense of humor
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Speaking of names
The Albuquerque band Hit By a Bus — yes, the founder says he was hit by a bus — has been on a summerlong tour of the West as part of the Extreme Tour.
The band has boomeranged back into New Mexico this week. On Aug. 10, Hit By a Bus plays at Hallowed Grounds, 10405 Comanche N.E.
The show starts at 6 p.m., and it's free.
Naming the band
Do this:
Evan Ratliff, of Ready Made magazine, suggests these guidelines when naming a band.
• Consider definite articles: the White Stripes, the Shins and the Flaming Lips.
• Use inside jokes: Death Cab for Cutie and My Morning Jacket.
• Do the mundane: Red Hot Chili Peppers and Creed.
• Copy down four columns of random articles, adjectives, nouns and verbs. Draw lines and conjugate.
• Make up words, because the laws of grammar, syntax and Latin roots do not apply: Aerosmith and Radiohead.
Don't do this:
Pete Blackwell at Blogcritics magazine suggests pitfalls to avoid:
• Don't name your band with one syllable: Staind, Phish and Live. (Exceptions: Kiss and Fear.)
• Don't use a preposition: Archers of Loaf, Tears for Fears and Souls at Zero.
• Don't include numbers: Matchbox 20, 3 Doors Down and Blink 182.
• Don't intentionally misspell: Limp Bizkit, 'N Sync and Linkin Park. (Exceptions: Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Beatles.)
• Don't add the word Mister: Mr. Bungle, Mr. Big, Mister Mister.
• Don't rock the Lord's name in vain: God is my Co-Pilot, the Jesus Lizard, Eyehategod.
See the bands
The Gracchi will have a CD release party at 9 p.m. on Aug. 10, with support from the Hollis Wake, 500 and the Unemploid.
It's at the Launchpad, 618 Central Ave. S.W. $5. 764-8887.
Naming a band is like naming a child. You may not realize how important it is until it pops into your head that, if some major label discovers you, the name will follow you throughout your music career.
Some parents don't put too much thought into naming their kids, and they decide to keep it traditional. The band-name equivalent of that is Queen, which, to vocalist/pianist Freddie Mercury, sounded universal but also elegant and simple.
The most famous twist on a simple name is the Beatles, who started out with Beetles (after Buddy Holly's the Crickets) but spelled it with an A to reflect the popular "beat music" in England.
And there are others that keep the name meaningful in their own special way.
Jimmy Eat World was inspired by guitarist Tom Lindon's two siblings who used to fight when they were kids. Jimmy, the bigger brother, always won, and Ed, the youngest, once drew a picture that said "Jimmy Eat World."
Bands in Albuquerque are no exception. You can see local bands that carry simple names formed by joining an adjective or verb and a noun. But you can also find bands with the most bizarre names that make perfect sense after you know the history behind them.
Some local bands shared anecdotes and experiences about how their names came about, and here's what they had to say:
Catchy phrases and anecdotes
"Dead-on point-five" is a phrase people selling narcotics use to express "exactly half," says Dominic Cagliostro. But it is also the name of a contemporary rock band that has opened concerts for Green Day and Neurosis.
Dominic Cagliostro, lead guitarist and singer in Dead on Point 5, said drugs have always been related with the rock culture. He wanted the band's name to represent this fusion. Cagliostro said he has been sober for about two years, but he says the name still reflects their music.
The Hollis Wake have a more personal tale to tell about their name. Singer and bass player Sarah Meadows had a friend who committed suicide in Hollis, N.H. They decided to name their band the Hollis Wake because they started composing songs dedicated to Meadows' friend.
"Our music works with the band's name," said Micah Chappell, drummer of the pop-rock band. "A wake is a celebration of something sad. We take that and we turn it into something happy."
The Hollis Wake accept their musical contradiction.
"Our music is very happy-sounding musically, but we sing about sad things," Chappell said.
They saw the sign
The lyrics of the early '90s sugar-pop song "The Sign" by Ace of Base read, "I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes." And there are local bands who took the advice literally. (And by the way, what's up with rhyming band names, anyway?)
Harry Reduf-Brown grew up in La Joya, N.M., and used to walk around to find places to hike with his friends.
"One day, around 15 years ago, we were going to hitchhike to Albuquerque, and we saw a sign saying Unit 7 Drain," Reduf-Brown said. He picked it up and took it home.
Four years later, he would name his indie-rock band after that sign hanging on the wall in the place where they would rehearse.
"The most important thing is to pick a name that sounds like what people think your band should sound like," said Reduf-Brown, who plays guitar.
Another guitar player, John Sandlin, took a trip to France two years ago and saw a sign that read: Attention: chat lunatique, meaning attention: moody cat. That was all it took him to realize that was going to be the band's name: Le Chat Lunatique.
"There was never really a discussion about it," said Jared Putnam, who plays bass. "It evokes mood, jazz, swing and Western swing."
Putnam says it is also reflects their love for the 19th-century cabaret of the Montmartre district of Paris.
Nicknames
Singer and guitar player Martin Stamper needed a nickname while he hiked on the Appalachian Trail in 1995, says Stamper's bandmate, drummer Roblyn Crawford. Stamper was born with a condition that causes fast, chaotic heartbeats, known as long QT syndrome.
The nickname? Fast Heart Mart. And a band was born.
His heart could beat too fast to the point of causing sudden death. Now he has an implanted device to shock his heart whenever his nickname manifests itself.
Stamper and Crawford play a mix of different genres such as Celtic, bluegrass, East Indian, hip-hop and rock in acoustic venues. They are wrapping up their summer tour in California and coming back to perform in Albuquerque on Sept. 1.
Mythological and legendary names
The Gracchi brothers were social reformers who sought justice for lower classes of Rome around 120 BC. The name Gracchi sounds like '60s garage, '70s punk and early '80s hardcore, according to the band's MySpace profile.
They had been struggling to find a name for the band. Drummer Jeff Jones, a history lover, finally came up with the Gracchi, and they all agreed it was original.
"The Gracchi were reformers. They wanted to give land back to the people, and they were killed for that," said Ashley Floyd who plays bass. "We are a rock 'n' roll band. We don't take ourselves too seriously. We just want to give rock to the people."
Although the members of the Gracchi enjoy the originality of their name, Floyd says it not very marketable.
"I think it is unique, but at the same time, people can't pronounce it," he said.
Then there's the band Vakina Dentata, a variation on vagina dentata made in order to keep the same pronunciation. It means "vagina with teeth" in Latin.
"It was a myth. It was used to frighten boys in many different cultures and continents," said Carol Spizman, singer and guitarist of the folk-rock band.
Metaphorically speaking, vagina dentata means "the vagina will tease," which deals with men's fear of castration and women's power, Spizman says.
Spizman was wary of using the name, because it sounded like a lesbian punk band and because of the V-word. But she persuaded herself.
"I like it because of the idea of facing our fears," she said.
That's not to say others are sold on the name. Vakina Dentata lost a gig because of the name, Spizman said.
Religion: Don't go there
Pete Blackwell wrote an article on the worst band names ever and listed some rules on what not to do with your band's name. "Thou shalt not rock the Lord's name in vain," he wrote for Blogcritics magazine.
He recommends not using any religious-related words that would look like "an attempt to garner some free publicity for being irreverent and daring."
Five Minute Sin is a local exception to the rule. The band did not only mean sin as in wrongdoing, but also as the Spanish preposition that means "without."
As a result we can get either a sin that lasts five minutes or five minutes without anything.
"We were very lucky in coming up with that name," said guitarist and singer Jesse Korman. Other local bands with religious (or nonreligious) names are the rock band Of God and Science and the country band Sin Serenade.
The last word
The most important thing to remember is that there's no style-book to follow when naming your band. Most bands agree the name you use for your band has to be related to the music you play.
Because just as Cagliostro from Dead on Point 5 said: "The name doesn't make the band; the band makes the name."
