What’s in a name? A lot, really. I may like the metal sounds from the band Aborted Fetus, but I probably won’t go around wearing their shirt.

I wanted to know what the origins are of some interesting band names I’ve come across lately, so I asked:

What’s the story behind your band name?

“The name of our band came from the title of a Christian Bland song. Christian plays guitar for the Austin, TX band The Black Angels. Both Bland’s and The Angels music has been a huge influence for us. I first became a fan when I discovered that Christian had his own project. At the time we were struggling with finding a name for our band. We were Blackgrass at one point but then we found out that the name Blackgrass had already been taken by a Tennessee gothic band. When I came across Bland’s music I saw that he had a song called “Black Crayon”. Not only is it a great tune but the name jumped out at me, #1 It had the word “black” in it, and #2 the song was by someone who really meant something to our music. I have written Christian and told him about the name and have actually asked him for the permission to do a cover of it for our upcoming debut album. Stay tuned maybe you’ll get to hear it on our record.”

-Alfonso Contreras: vocals/guitars
The Black Crayons
Los Angeles

“We got our band name from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s french film Amelie. In one scene Amelie is waiting for Nino to meet her at the cafe. When he doesn’t show up in time, she fabricates this neurotic story of why he didnt show. This is the direct quote from the movie:

“Nino is late. Amelie can only see two explanations. 1 – he didn’t get the photo. 2 – before he could assemble it, a gang of bank robbers took him hostage. The cops gave chase. They got away… but he caused a crash. When he came to, he’d lost his memory. An ex-con picked him up, mistook him for a fugitive, and shipped him to Istanbul. There he met some Afghan raiders who took him to steal some Russian warheads. But their truck hit a mine in Tajikistan. He survived, took to the hills, and became a Mujaheddin. Amelie refuses to get upset for a guy who’ll eat borscht all his life in a hat like a tea cozy. “

After watching that scene I took note of “afghan raiders” and kept it as a possible band name for a future project. When it came time for Mikey and I to name our band, I threw the idea at him and he loved it. That’s the story!”

-Beans of Afghan Raiders
Las Vegas

“KILLCODE – the actual definition -In times of war, after a laser guided missile strikes a target, there is another laser that goes in and assesses the probability of kill…….THIS IS THE KILLCODE!

As far as what it means to us…All of the guys in the band not only play ROCK music, but we are fans of it…..so when we all got together it was like “WE ARE THE KILLCODE” we will come in after all is said and done…..and make sure that the job has been done.

We are not here to play nice……we are here to play LOUD!”

-Tom of :::KILLCODE:::
NYC

“A lot of people assume this name has to do with relationships…But, when it comes down to it, in life there are decisions and you absolutely need to come to a final answer or action of choice. You could go here or you could go there… you could do this or you could do that… you can eat this or you could eat that… you could make up, or you could break up… hence the name Makeupbreakup. So, the name was inspired by realizing that life is all about making decisions, and in certain situations, it takes time to want to execute your final action or choice. The time in-between whatever your situation is and your final decision is a real unique and spiritual place.”

-MakeUpBreakUp
Providence, RI

“My favorite painter, egon schiele, has many self-portraits but one of the most intense and interesting ones is titled ‘the red host’.”

-Red Host
San Francisco

“Well, we were trying to think of a fitting name for an old-school metal band. It took a while, but we finally decided on the word “havoc”. I (David) doodle a lot of band logos, so I had some cool ideas for our own logo, but with a “c” at the end of the word, it wouldn’t be symmetrical, ya know? So, we changed the “c” to the letter “k” and I drew up a rough sketch. As soon as the logo was finished, we were sure that it was EXACTLY how we wanted to present ourselves… It just looked so cool that it HAD TO be our name!”

-David of HAVOK
Denver, CO

Well, we are identical triplets who come from a family that trained Hollywood bears such as ‘The Bears That Sing For Duke.’ So we figure, “Hey, combine our triplet biology, bear history, and liking of exclamation points and we’ve got a band name!” Thus, we decided to go with the name BEARS! BEARS! BEARS! Not to mention it was better than our previous band name, Dumpster Bitches.”

-BEARS! BEARS! BEARS!
San Francisco

“GLOB. It Means so many things. For example, “Greetings, Lower Order Being.” And Girls Love Our Band, by the way. We are also the Global Linguistics Organization Bureau. Sometimes we’re Gettin’ Loud On Booze. Got Lights On Body? GLOB does. With the right crowd, we are the Group-Love Orgy Band. Some of us may have been Genetic Lab-Origin Babies. But really we’re just a bunch of Gun-Lovin’ Old Boys enjoying some Green Local Organic Buds. We’ve been told that the letters G.L.O.B. stand for many things, but we just can’t think of any. So please send your suggestions of what G.L.O.B. stands for to www.myspace.com/globband
Thanks, and God Licks Our Balls.”

-G.L.O.B.
Willits, CA

“The name Vin Rouge was decided after a long night of drinking and watching the David Lynch film Blue Velvet. Drew and I woke up to a mess of wine bottle and glasses. As we cleared through the clutter of the night previous we saw that a large wine ring had been left on one of the art deco styled French coasters I had recently acquired. Vin Rouge was the theme of that particular alcohol launch pad. The mark had been made and the name carried on.”

-Adam of Vin Rouge
San Francisco