Ventura
I like my band's name.I don't remember why we called it like that,but I do remember we liked it.

Not crap.

The Barnuns - thought it was pretty clever at the time, but now i think it was more or less crap. My judgment could be clouded because the music was fucking awful, though.

The Barnuns then changed their name to Killfloor. I think maybe we were trying to go for a badass-sounding name, and yet, we were still not even remotely badass. Crappier than the original name.

Then the singer (yaledelay) and i joined up with choppy and our pal Mandy and formed The Pop Machine, which also eventually included Mandroid2.0. This name i feel is not crap, but the fact that there were like three other The Pop Machines was kinda crap.

(Note: regarding the definite article, i thought it was absolutely absurdly silly and hilarious to include the article as part of the band name to the point where i was insisting it be included in addition to an article referring to the band--for example, "In January 2000, we played the last The Pop Machine show.")

And now yale, choppy, and myself are in IfIHadAHiFi, and frankly, i think our name is brilliant. A good band name should really summarize what the band is about and help to really round out or frame the mental image of the band in the listener's head. "IfIHadAHiFi" is a palindrome, so it's geeky, and the "HiFi" portion somehow implies that we're sort of sloppy, unpolished, and "lo fi?" Maybe? I dunno, i think it fits.

"Rising Shotgun" is indeed a NOT CRAP band name. Amazing!

Racetrack

My bandmates tell me we are named after a town in Montana. I am inclined to believe them:

I think it is a decent band name. It is funny when venues can't decide whether we spell it as one or two words.

I feel so stupid. SO STUPID for not recognizing the palindromania going on in your band's name.

Any band name that is a palindrome is Not crap.
This includes "racecar" but not Bob.

Rising Shotgun. Said before, so good.

DrAwkward wrote:
"IfIHadAHiFi" is a palindrome, so it's geeky, and the "HiFi" portion somehow implies that we're sort of sloppy, unpolished, and "lo fi?" Maybe? I dunno, i think it fits.

When I heard about you guys from So Many Dynamos it was in reference to another midwest band using keyboards with a palindrome name.

Then I responded, "So Many Dynamos is a palindrome?"

Then I felt ashamed that I'd spent all that money on that English degree.

tallchris wrote:When I heard about you guys from So Many Dynamos it was in reference to another midwest band using keyboards with a palindrome name.

Then I responded, "So Many Dynamos is a palindrome?"

Then I felt ashamed that I'd spent all that money on that English degree.

The first time we ever played with those guys in Milwaukee, both our bands immediately instigated a shit-talking war based on this. It's led to some really great burns live. They keep ripping on us for being old and washed up (they're on average about 8 years younger than us), and we keep teasing them for being Dismemberment Plan soundalikes. Great guys and a great band, though!

It should be noted that our band aliases--DrAwkward, Yale Delay, MrAlarm, and Reno Loner--are also palindromes, as was the name of our ex-keyboardist, Noise Lesion.

DrAwkward wrote:

tallchris wrote:When I heard about you guys from So Many Dynamos it was in reference to another midwest band using keyboards with a palindrome name.

Then I responded, "So Many Dynamos is a palindrome?"

Then I felt ashamed that I'd spent all that money on that English degree.

The first time we ever played with those guys in Milwaukee, both our bands immediately instigated a shit-talking war based on this. It's led to some really great burns live. They keep ripping on us for being old and washed up (they're on average about 8 years younger than us), and we keep teasing them for being Dismemberment Plan soundalikes. Great guys and a great band, though!

It should be noted that our band aliases--DrAwkward, Yale Delay, MrAlarm, and Reno Loner--are also palindromes, as was the name of our ex-keyboardist, Noise Lesion.

Fuck!

DrAwkward wrote:

tallchris wrote:When I heard about you guys from So Many Dynamos it was in reference to another midwest band using keyboards with a palindrome name.

Then I responded, "So Many Dynamos is a palindrome?"

Then I felt ashamed that I'd spent all that money on that English degree.

The first time we ever played with those guys in Milwaukee, both our bands immediately instigated a shit-talking war based on this. It's led to some really great burns live. They keep ripping on us for being old and washed up (they're on average about 8 years younger than us), and we keep teasing them for being Dismemberment Plan soundalikes. Great guys and a great band, though!

It should be noted that our band aliases--DrAwkward, Yale Delay, MrAlarm, and Reno Loner--are also palindromes, as was the name of our ex-keyboardist, Noise Lesion.

I've chided them many a times with the Dismberment Plan reference. It is funny, because it is true. They're our labelmates, and we've always had a friendly sibling like relation with them.

tallchris wrote:I've chided them many a times with the Dismberment Plan reference. It is funny, because it is true. They're our labelmates, and we've always had a friendly sibling like relation with them.

My favorite one to date has been, "Hey, what's your favorite So Many Dynamos song? Mine is 'Spider in the snow.'"

Although i think the one that made them laugh the most was the time they finished a song and i just looked at them and said, "uh, you guys might wanna try that one again."

My first band, at age 13, w/12 yr old bassist and 13 yr old drummer, was
Fast Break. I came up w/this name.

Try to beat this band name. You will fail.

Second band was The Pedestrians. This was my band in high school. I came up w/this name. I felt validated later when I found out about this.

Third band was called Royce Union.
Royce Union is a cheap brand of bicycle that might still be around. Our drummer/my best friend came up w/this name. I love this name.

Fourth band was called Chum Frink.
Chum Frink is the hilarious "corporate poet" character in Sinclair Lewis's bk "Babbitt." I came up w/this name. Do I still like it? I guess so.

Current band is called Oaxacan.
I came up w/this name. This name means a few different personal things:

1. A tribute to the mind-blowing city of Oaxaca and to la raza in general.

2. A nod to my favorite writer, Richard Meltzer, who in the 70s was friends with the band who eventually became B.O.C. Meltzer told them they should name their band Oaxaca. They did some unreleased recordings under this name.

3. A tribute to Can (Oaxa-can).

Also- looks cool.

I like this band name.