The Greatest Band Names of All Time

While you can't always judge a musical group by its name, occasionally a band comes up with a moniker that is so good you almost don't care what they sound like. Even better if they it's hermetically descriptive - you know exactly what they will sound like just from the name. Here's my list of the greatest band names:

1. Wall of Voodoo - The greatest band name of all time. Originally a group of guys who wanted to make horror film soundtracks they released 3 of the best, creepy, quirky, odd new wave albums of the early 1980s.
   
   
2. The Beatles - I can't believe how many people don't realize that this is the word "Beat" and not "Beetles".
   
   
3. XTC- Supposedly chosen because it leaps out from the printed page (which it does).
   
   
4. Foetus - Jim Thirwell's main project has sported a laundry list of great names including Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, You've Got Foetus On Your Breath, The Foetus All-Nude Review, and F.A.T. (Foetus Art Terrorism).
   
   
5. The Sex Pistols - Pick two unrelated words and put them together; if one of them has to do with sex and one has to do with violence, so much the better.
   
   
6. Butthole Surfers - Same as the previous, just funnier.
   
   
7. The Bevis Frond - Don't know what bevis frond means but adding "The" at the beginning makes all the difference between a goofy name and a great one [see Ozric Tentacles].
   
   
8. Hüsker Dü - Their name comes from a Scandinavian children's game - I remember the commercials from when I was a kid. It means "Do you remember".
   
   
9. Eat Static - The great British techno duo.
   
   
10. Killing Joke - I'm not sure if this comes from the Monty Python skit about a joke so funny it kills you when you hear it. Somehow it is the the only possible name for these ex-pat Brits and their bone shattering riffs.
    
    

Other names worth a mention include:

• Krautrock bands - Apparently one of the prerequisites to be part of the Krautrock movement in the early 1970s was an excellent name : Can, Faust, Amon Düül, Ash Ra Temple, The Cosmic Jokers, Guru Guru, Neu!, Brainticket, etc.
  
• DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid ( from a William Burroughs book)
  
• Balloon Farm (a great psychedelic band from the 1960s)
  
• Ambitious Lovers (everybody loves an ambitious lover)
  
• The Teardrop Explodes! (present imperative tense -way cool)
  
• Pop Will Eat Itself (from a music magazine article)
  
• Blue Öyster Cult (one umlat good -- two umlats bad ex. Mötley Crüe)
  
• When People Were Shorter And Lived Near The Water (yeah. what can I say)
  

And not to dwell on it, among the worst, stupid, inane band names ever:

• Remus And The Lupins
• Enter The Haggis
• Spock's Beard
• Toad The Wet Sprocket
• Smashing Pumpkins
• Hoobastank
• The Band
• Hootie and the Blowfish
• Limp Bizkit
• Staind
• Pet Shop Boys
• Let's Active
• Kajagoogoo
• The Goo Goo Dolls
• The Foo Fighters
• Archers of Loaf
• Butt Trumpet If you need help with picking a good band name, I've got a few hundred suggestions on this page.

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