Band names: Origins and Meanings

[malg]

Stanford Prison Experiment were named after an experiment at Stanford Prison.

That was one fucked up experiment as well. Fucking loons.

 

[malg]

Probably been said, but anyway....The Human League - named after a group in a science fiction board game.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Some from the Pacific northwest USA . . .

Sleater-Kinney -- named after this road in Olympia, WA.



Everclear -- named after the infamous grain alcohol (often mixed with Jello and done in "shots" at universities across the USA).

Death Cab For Cutie -- taken from a song from a band you Brits grew up with, the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band.

Pearl Jam -- thought (like The Lovin' Spoonful and 10CC) to be a semen reference, it is actually named after Eddie Vedder's great grandmother (Pearl) who had a special recipe for peyote-laced jam. Oh, wait. Vedder admitted that was bullshit. The real story the band later admitted is that they were going to be named Pearl, but added "Jam" after going to a Neil Young concert.

And of course . . . that is bullshit also. It is completely a semen reference.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

There's variations on the story but Led Zeppelin's name supposedly came about from a comment by Keith Moon, who claimed that a supergroup Page was trying to put together would go down like a lead balloon. That band involving Jeff Beck and John Entwistle never happened but Page took inspiration from it for the New Yardbirds...

Their manager, Peter Grant, explained that the change of spelling of Lead to Led was to avoid (in his own words) "Thick Americans mispronouncing it"

 

[Mancitydoogle]

Toad the Wet Sprocket after a Monty Python sketch

The Velvet Underground after a novel about deviant sex

Hootie and the Blowfish after nicknames for a couple of Darius Rucker’s mates.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

Lynyrd Skynyrd was a mocking reference to a school PE teacher, Leonard Skinner, who strictly enforced a "No Long Hair" policy.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Martha and The Muffins.
Apparently, she thought the band were a bunch of cnuts.

No. Actually…..
They chose the name "Martha and the Muffins" to distance themselves from the aggressive names adopted by many punk bands of the era. According to Mark Gane: "We decided to use it as a temporary name until we could all agree on something better." The name ended up sticking for the next seven years.

 

[Marklr]

Level 42 - Named after Level 41 but slightly higher.

 

[1961_vintage]

Oasis-Named after a famous soft drink

Thought they were named after some leisure centre in Swindon?

 

[PragueBlue]

Apparently New Order's name comes from the title of a Guardian article - The People's New Order of Kampuchea.

Joy Division was from the novel - House of Dolls.