More Bands with Silly Names

In thinking up a name for your band or group you would hope that it would be foremost in your groups collective grey matter to consider that the band/group name picked could in fact determine whether or not you make or break in the music world commercially. The following list is of people and groups I believe left their grey matter to worry about other things, such as sucking the ink of bic pens. Either that or they just didn't care about becoming famous, actively seeking to name themselves so insanely that it could almost be guaranteed that fame wouldn't come a knocking. There of course could be many reasons for this, drugs and alcohol spring to mind or perhaps the unwise decision to let your little sister think up a bizarre name for your group after one pub-crawl too many.

1: Splodgenessabounds - The jokesters of the Punk revolution who's epic '2 Pints of lager and a packet of crisps please' was a pub-favorite for many months in the early-early 80's and is still easily recognizable and sing-along-able at any local booze-up.
2: Girls at our best - Back when Indie was king at the start of the 80's little bands with good ideas and a super-low budget produced some great indie classics like this band did with their first 'Getting nowhere fast'
3: The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu - When Rave and House were the in-thing circa 90's you could always rely on the Justifieds to deliver the goods.
4: Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction - Supposedly the next big thing in the late 80's this guitar driven 'Cult' wanna-be band never really took off. Either 10 years too late or 10 years too early they didn't float anyone's boat and sunk without a trace. Goes to show, timing is everything.
5: A Certain Ratio - Early Indie-Funk 80's group with a lo-fi delivery. Certainly their name gives no indication at all as to what sort of music you might expect to hear coming from your speakers.
6: Veruca Salt - Nina Gordon left this foot infection of a band in 1998' to go on to bigger and better things with some excellent solo work, especially with her debut release 'Tonight and the rest of my life' from 2000.
7: Glaxo Babies - Had a popular indie hit with their 2nd single 'Christine Keeler' back in 1979.
8: Toad the Wet Sprocket - Quite a well known Californian band who despite their extremely dodgy name managed to produce many radio friendly Soft Rock hits all through the 90's.
9: Floy Joy - Who's 'Into the Hot' LP from 1984' laid down a smooth laid back and decidedly British R&B groove. 'Burn down a rhythm' being a favorite.
10: Revolting Cocks - A side project of 'Ministry' front man 'Al Jourgensen' & a band who got their name according to 'Allmusic.com' by being thrown out of a bar & being called 'Insert name here', hence the name. Industrial noise in the same vein as early 'Cabaret Voltaire', speaking of which.......
11: Cabaret Voltaire, who along with 'Throbbing Gristle' set the standard for early Industrial noise. Started in 74' with highly experimental tape loops the band later embraced and twisted synthesizers to evolve a unique industrial vision all their own. In 83' they released 'Crackdown' their most accessible work yet and with dance tunes like 'Why kill time (when you can kill yourself)' they continued to gain a big underground fan-base.
12: Glass Torpedoes - Back to about 1980 for this little D.I.Y. outfit.
13: That Petrol Emotion - From the late 80's into the early 90's this rockin' group gave some ex 'Undertones' band-mates something to do with themselves after the brilliant 'Undertones' huge popularity.
14: Spizz Energi - With various incantations including 'Athletico Spizz 80' and 'Spizz Oil' this group never bested their 'Spizz Energi' punk hey-day with classic punk/post-punk fun songs like 'Soldier, Soldier' and the definitive fun-punk-classic 'Where's Captain Kirk?' from 1979.
15: The The - 'The the what?' I hear you ask. Well, I feel your pain. I hated having to ask for any records by this confusingly named band for obvious reasons. However, in 83' they produced 'Soul Mining' which was one of the very best albums released by a British band in the 80's with 'Matt Johnson's' deep soulful growl and the tinkling delights of guest artiste 'Jools Holland' of Squeeze fame.
16: Half Man Half Biscuit. I don't know which half was which but here we have more Northern Brits with thick accents singing about nothing in particular. These purveyors of inter-cookie experimentation were a favorite on the 'John Peel Show'.
17: Young Marble Giants. A gentle folksy trio from Cardiff, Wales who released only one album 'Colossal Youth' and a couple of singles. They were a gentle breeze in 79' in amongst all the post-punk chaos.
18: The Pooh Sticks. Staying in Wales, Swansea this time we have the unfortunately named Pooh Sticks an interesting indie band from the late 80's whose main claim to fame was probably their name. Hey, I'm a poet and I don't even know it.
19: It's Immaterial: A soft British 80's pop/rock group who for whatever reason decided to saddle themselves with the most non-committal band name in 80's history. One hit song 'Driving Away From Home' saw them drive right out of the charts never to be seen again. Who cares eh!
20: Classix Nouveaux: Awful tinny New Wave/Glam no-hit wonders from the early 80's.
21: Cuddly Toys - Another 80's glam band doomed to extinction by poor band name choice.
22: Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft - Excellent late 70's early 80's German/Spanish Electro/Industrial noise with an ahead of it's time techno sounding edge and with a penchant for tight leather outfits and stark Black backgrounds on their album covers they looked like a 'Marc Almond' wet dream. With pulsating beat-driven fare such as 'Der Mussolini' they were an acquired taste at the time. 'Robert Gorl' went on to experiment with heavy electronic beats in numerous solo projects and collaborations with equally gifted electro scribe 'Pete Namlook'.
23: Pearl Harbor and the Explosions. Thankfully this band wasn't around in 42' or they wouldn't have enjoyed the minimal success they had in the 80's.
24: Inspiral Carpets. British Indie darlings of the early 90's, whose 'Dragging me down' remains a particular favorite. Retro-Psychedelic indie rock for the 90's anorak generation.
25: Two Lone Swordsmen. Interesting Electronic experimentation. Veering from heavy bass dub to groovy Techno rhythms this band makes for an interesting listen. Their album 'Tiny Reminders' from 2000 is a highly innovative experimental album and they have become more accessible over the years. Their 'From the Double Gone Chapel' album from 2004 is particularly catchy.
26: Sigue Sigue Sputnik. From the 80's came this much hyped but rather embarrassing media put-together group. Their first single 'Love Missile F1-11' got to no.3 in the British charts but that was the beginning and end of this group's fame.
27: The Negro Problem. Well, this is a brave name for a band - even if it is meant in an ironic sort of way and not the slogan for some racist/skinhead band. A white band headed by a black singer. Any group brave enough to call themselves the Negro problem should be given a listen to in my book
28: Human Sexual Response. In the early 80's this interesting Rock/Indie Boston group promised much but disintegrated after 2 albums.
29: Archers of Loaf. American Indie rock from the 90's. I defy you to go to your local Record/CD store and say to one of the workers there 'Do you have Archers of Loaf?'

There you have it. A delightful assortment of ridiculously named bands. Perhaps no more ridiculous than some of the mega-popular bands that came about in the 80's with probably crappier names. Bands like 'U2' or 'The Police', neither of which if you think about it really doesn't mean much of anything. At least some of these groups, even though they crashed and burned in spite of their uncommercial group names were and in some cases still are striving to be different. Be bold my musical concubines. Seek out weirdly named groups for there lies salvation. Yeah, well.......whatever!