When I was originally putting together bands for this article, the topic was simply "Great Bands with Terrible Names," but I soon realized that a great number of the bands I had chosen were emo bands. It must be an unfortunate side effect of playing music in a genre that itself has a terrible name. Here are seven excellent emo bands that should've thought a little longer about the names they chose.
1. Cap'n Jazz
Cap'n Jazz formed in Chicago all the way back in 1989, when the members were still teenagers (drummer Mike Kinsella was only 12), which explains why their band name sounds like an inside joke. The band parted ways in 1995 to start separate bands with slightly less ridiculous names.
2. American Football
When Cap'n Jazz drummer Mike Kinsella decided to start playing guitar and front his own project, he chose a name that wasn't as silly as his former band's, but possibly more confusing. Supposedly it's a comment on how obscenely wealthy professional athletes are, but that seems more like an article for Sports Illustrated than a Midwest emo band.
3. Algernon Cadwallader
These Philly Cap'n Jazz sound-alikes (who broke up in 2012) have some great albums, but just saying that name out loud exhausts me too much to ever want to talk about them again.
4. The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die
This Connecticut nine-piece (!) has a name so long that when fans abbreviate it, they only bother typing "twiabp". More like "tl;dr", am I right?
5. Texas is the Reason
These guys took their name from the lyrics to a Misfits song about the JFK assassination ("Texas is the reason that the president's dead"), and while taking your name from another band's lyrics is fine, maybe they should have chosen a line that makes any sort of sense out of context. Even "The President's Dead" would have been a better name, because it would at least be controversial.
6. Dads
Along with the unfortunate coincidence of sharing a name with that Seth MacFarlane abomination (the band formed back in 2010 before that show premiered), this NJ duo has a name that sounds very Internet, if that makes any sense. It just seems like a name that would've been funny to a lot of people on the Internet when they thought of it, but then would sound kind of stupid later on.
7. Sunny Day Real Estate
Here's a name that sounds kind of cool and mysterious until you find out what it means. It's a criticism on the far reach of capitalism, and how even sunny days could be potentially commercialized and sold. In theory it's an interesting idea, but it would have made for a better song title, or even the name of a satirical short story. The band was never this political in their lyrics, which makes their choice of name even more bizarre.
© 2024 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
