Too much time on my hands? Me?
(this is one where I have to credit the likes of URW, Bert, Collywobble and Velasquez from ‘another
forum’. Some of them are my own, however. Not the best ones, obviously).
Ultra Woks
(Ken Hom’s side-band)
The Dead Ken Doddys
(scored with hard-hitting single ‘What you need, missus, is a Holiday In Camber Sands’)
Job Division
(unemployed Manc protest group of the Thatcher era; biggest hit – ‘Gov. will tear us apart’)
King Magnolia
(psychedelic band widely criticised for lacking imagination)
Talking Herds
(David Byrne’s flirtation with the Wildebeest Music of the Serengeti (Gnu Wave) turned out to be a
road to nowhere)
Rodeohead
(Texan public schoolboys who scored unlikely hits with ‘Steer Spirit’ and ‘Paranoid Bovine’)
Wang Chuck
(Manchester mid-80s combo who became the house band at the Rover’s Return)
Flog All Seagulls
(Brutal Goth band who evolved from That Petrel Emotion)
New Odour
(Popular band on legendary Manchester label Olfactory Records)
Frankie Goes to Southport
(early incarnation of Liverpudlian supergroup caught short by glamour deficit of original appellation)
De Stijl Council
(Paul Weller briefly linked with this Dutch group, disastrously resulting in former Jam fans
deserting him for being too square)
The Inedible String Band
(started out as waiters in a notoriously low-rent Brixton spaghetti house)
The Teatflop Explodes
(formed in tribute to Janet Jackson’s Superbowl appearance)
Johnny Hates Jizz
(Solo artist struggling to reconcile his homophobia)
Spandau Billet
(Berlin act formed in prison by Kemp brothers)
4 Responses to Listmania 3: Alternative Band Names
Great!
Here are a few I’ve just made up, most of them rather feeble:
The Tong Tongs
(Band of hairdressers with songs ‘Shut up and let me blow (dry)’ and ‘That’s not my mane’)
David Boughie
(Tree surgeon famous for ‘John I’m only lancing(branches)’ and ‘Ashes to ashes,oaks to cinder’)
Em and um
(Inarticulate bloke who rapped ‘The Way I Um’)
Echo and no Binnymen
(Band formed by dustmen who now only empty bins monthly instead of weekly, famous for ‘Vile-stinking Terrace’, ‘Happy Bin men’, ‘Do it Dirty’, ‘Rescue(me from the stench)’, ‘My Kingdom(smells)’)
That’s the spirit Leyla. The Eminem one deserves to be worked up into a stand-up routine.
Unfortunately, ‘Rodeohead’ is for real – it was the title of a medley by an LA duo called Hard N’ Firm, and consists of several Thom Yorke songs performed in a comedy bluegrass stylee.
But in the spirit of Alex’s post, how about the Washington DC outfit who discovered a New Romantic element to their percussive funk sound, and gave us Kajagogo?
Blimey. I had no idea (though it’s possible it may have lodged in the subconscious at some point).