What's the stupidest name a rock band has ever named themselves?

I had always heard they wanted to stand out in the record sections of America so made sure they would be the last band and therefore easy to find. "Top" means they don't think of themselves as bottom in terms of charts... just the last alphabetically.

(This will make no sense, I guess, to younger posters who haven't browsed row after row and aisle after aisle of band names.)

 

that story's got legs

 

Could be.

I had always heard that it was originally supposed to be "ZZ King" because they all loved BB King so much. Then they changed it to "Top" so it wouldn't sound like BB King - and because they all thought King was at the top of the blues genre.

 

Abörted Hitler Cöck

Has to take the cake.


As for bands we've listened to....

Papa Roach
Fatboy Slim
Smash Mouth
Blink-182
Barenaked Ladies

are cream of the crop.

 

Def Leppard

 

Whitney Houston - she wasn't even born in Houston

Barenaked Ladies - I've seen them all naked, none of them are ladies.

 

10,000 Maniacs. No way there's 10,000 of them, and no homicidal maniacs among them

 

i always heard that they took their name from two different types of rolling papers - zig zag and top. but ill go with whatever billy gibbons says.

found this website...funny that there are so many theories as to where the name came from.

http://www.bandnameexplained.com/2013/04/zz-top-band-name-meaning.html

ZZ Top - The true story of their name

Rock band from American Houston, also affectionately called That Little Ol' Band from Texas. Their repertoire leans heavily on songs consisting of a blend of boogie and blues.

There are only a few formations that can boast so many different explanations for their band name.

Among these are several far-fetched ones (the 'double Z' would be a textual representation of the view on the open doors of the barns where the band started playing, or something like that), but also very credible ones (the band members would be fond of big breasts, of the format supported in America by Double Z Bra's).

Another good one is the explanation that the name is a retrograde band name, meaning that the name is to be read back-to-front: Pot ZZ (mar1juana makes sleepy!).

And yet another one: the bus with hungry band members is said to have halted at a PIZZA STOP, indicated by neon letters. The illuminated advertising was not working properly, the letters PI, A and S (together also a fine band name) failing to light up.

Of course there is also the obvious suggestion that by choosing ZZ Top as a band name the band’s albums would be easy to find in the store: always right at the back.

The ZZ Ranch in Mexico (?) appears on the list of explanations, and so does the combination of two cigarette paper brands, Zig-Zag and Top, that did well in the world of dope – a plausible explanation judging by the band's drug use.

If however we are to go by the band itself, there is only one conclusive explanation for the band name ZZ Top, and that is that band member Billy Gibbons came up with it.

This can be gathered from Gibbons' autobiography Billy F Gibbons: Rock + Roll Gearhead. In that book Gibbons describes an appartment where he once lived, the walls of which were covered with concert posters and flyers. Among the advertised artists were Z.Z. Hill and B.B. King.

For a moment Gibbons toyed with the idea that Z.Z. King or B.B. Hill could be fun band names, but in the end it became ZZ Top.

 

Banda rito, banda doon.

 

...

 

Polyphonic Spree - I hate them, and everything about them. The name is horrible. But I do like St. Vincent.

 

Vampire Weekend. None of them are vampires, and today is Monday.

 

This one's a 2 fer - a matryoshka doll of bad band names:

 

I had no idea who Death Cab for Coutee was until I heard their song "Gold Rush" on the radio the other day. It's not bad.

For the past decade, I thought that ....And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead was a metal band, and that's not a bad name at all for Queens of the Stone Age type rock. I told my brother about the premise of this thread on Saturday and those were the first words out of his mouth. I believe he called them "the central casting shittiest generic hipster sh!tty hipster band". I didn't know.

 

I Love You, But I've Chosen Darkness is about the most pretentious name I've ever heard..

 

Chumbawamba
Bluddy Tampon & the Tuna Melts
Hoobastank
Spongeworthy Vulcans

 

I always thought W.A.S.P. was a dumb band name. The story behind the name is kind of funny, though. The band never said what the letters stand for...albeit there has been speculation (everything from the bug to White-Anglo Saxon Protestant to We Are Sexual Perverts). The main reason for the name was to use periods in the name (as other band names mostly didn't do it, other than R.E.M.) and create a "question mark of uncertainty" (source: lead singer Blackie Lawless). When Lawless was asked what it stood for in a 2010 interview, he said "We Ain't Sure, Pal". The band is still around and have made 15 studio albums. And, I believe Lawless attributes some of that success to the mystique surrounding the band name.

I saw them once as an opener to some other hair band act in the 80s. I don't really remember it but I do remember the singer drank fake blood from a fake skull and it was comical.