http://cityguide.theithacajournal.com/fe/arts/20020711-198676.aspinteresting read. talks of the origions of a bunch of band names including pb
NATHAN TURK
Gannett News Service
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When Alex Trebek gave the answer "One of the strangest band names in the country" on the game show Jeopardy in 1999, the correct answer was: "Who is Hypnotic Clambake?"
But these days, Hypnotic Clambake is keeping company with the also strangely named Deep Banana Blackout, Incognito Sofa Love and Psychedelic Breakfast.
Is there a method to the madness of choosing these names, or has the whole name game become a contest to see who can be more weird?
Sometimes, it\'s simply a matter of playing with words. Fuzz San Giovanni of Connecticut\'s jam/ funk band Deep Banana Blackout says, "One night my band mates and I were trying to see who could come up with the worst possible name for an X-rated movie. Somebody threw out the name, \'Deep Banana Blackout\'" -- a rather blue innuendo that eventually became their moniker.
For Ithaca\'s Donna the Buffalo, it began with a bottle of whiskey. "We were all sitting around trying to come up with a name and someone threw out \'Dawn of the Buffalo,\'" says manager Barnaby Greenburg. " And I don\'t know if that person had an accent, or if it was just the whiskey working its evil, but somebody shouted in response, \'Donna the Buffalo! That\'s perfect!\'"
And it was probably the same spur-of-the-moment magic that gave Incognito Sofa Love their name. Justin Grable, bassist for the New London, Conn.-based jam band, says he and a couple other members were ruminating over a window ad they would often see while passing by a local used furniture store that read, "leather sofa love, $99."
"I think they forgot to write \'seat\' after \'love,\'" he says. "Anyway we were throwing around the words \'sofa\' and \'love\' and all of a sudden Adam (the sax player) walked over, wearing a shirt that said \'Incognito\'s Volleyball tournament\' or something. We all just kind of looked at each other and laughed; it was a perfect match-up."
Sometimes, bands get their names by borrowing from other bands.
Vince Herman of Boulder, Colo.\'s "slam-grass" group Leftover Salmon relates, "Before this group, I was in a band called the Left-Hand String Band and one night we were supposed to do a gig with our friends The Salmon-Heads. A couple members from each band ended up not showing up so we decided to pool together to make a super-group, and came up with this not-so-clever hybrid name, Leftover Salmon."
Tim Palmieri of Connecticut\'s Psychedelic Breakfast says his band\'s name came, in a roundabout way, from a Pink Floyd song. "The drummer (Adrian Tramontano) was actually in a band before this called Adrian\'s Psychedelic Breakfast, which he had co-opted from the Pink Floyd song "Alan\'s Psychedelic Breakfast". We all thought it would be cool for the new band to just drop the \'Adrian\'s\' part."
Although many people think that Ithaca roots/reggae group John Brown\'s Body derived their name from a Bob Marley song ("John Brown is Dead"), lead singer Kevin Kinsella says it isn\'t so.
"It\'s really a tribute to the pre-Civil War-era abolitionist from Kansas who had the same name. He was sort of a Christ-like figure because he was both loved and hated by a lot of people and he was eventually hung for his belief that whites and blacks should be unified. So we\'re kind of using his imagery the same way Christ\'s is used -- just as we are all the body of Christ, by accepting him, we are all the body of John Brown by accepting his teachings."
On the decidedly less metaphysical side of things, a lot of bands look to food for inspiration.
Baltimore\'s roots rock/electronica hybrid Lake Trout named themselves after a local soul food. "You can get lake trout just about anywhere in Baltimore," says guitarist Ed Harris. "It\'s an open-faced fish sandwich with bread, fried trout and hot sauce."
Maury Rosenberg of Rochester\'s now-famous Hypnotic Clambake says, "Originally I wanted to call it Clambake, which connotes both living things and a gathering...and then I thought, \'no, I need an adjective.\' So I threw on \'hypnotic."
Jordan Katz of Long Island-based funk/rock septet Rainbow Trout says his group\'s cue came from a recipe card. "We were on our way to a gig one night when our bass player (Mark Calderon) found a little Betty Crocker recipe card on the ground for a rainbow trout dish. We saw it as kind of a divine message, I guess."
What\'s up with all the sea life-related names? Although Katz is aware his group falls squarely into the pattern, along with groups called the Ominous Seapods, the River-Runt Spookfloaters, Amfibian, Liquid Lobster, Oysterhead and perhaps the granddaddy of them all, Phish, he says it didn\'t influence his group\'s name choice.
"It was just coincidence. I can\'t really explain the pattern, except that on the zodiac chart you\'ll find that a lot of creative people are water signs."
Considering all these names, though, brings up a more important question: Are bands like these doomed to be seen as jokesters for the rest of their career?
"I hope so!" Leftover Salmon\'s Vince Herman says. "Personally I\'m wary of bands that try to come across serious or \'cool.\' Our belief has always been that the music speaks for itself, what else is there to prove?"
Rosenberg agrees. "I actually prefer it when people laugh when I tell them our band name. It makes me feel like I\'ve left them with the right impression -- that we\'re not about big egos or trying to be the weirdest band out there. We\'re just in this for the music and to have fun."
