This morning began with a hot cup of coffee.
It’s a rather dreary morning in Ocala, so a cozy cup of coffee was the perfect way to begin the day. I sipped my coffee as I ate a bowl of scrambled eggs with turkey bacon, broccoli and cauliflower.
An unpictured piece of cinnamon raisin toast that I ate while I was cooking my eggs also found its way into my breakfast.
My stomach is nice and warm!
Strange Band Names
Ryan and I have been together since the spring semester of my freshman year in college. We’re approaching our nine year dating anniversary in February, so I found myself rather surprised when, on our evening walk with Sadie last night, I learned something new and hilarious about his childhood.
I knew Ryan played the drums growing up.
I knew he was in a band.
What I did not know was the name of his band.
They were The Vandals.
When he told me this last night, I could not stop laughing and I told him it was way too adorable, especially since I know from Ryan’s stories about his past that he wasn’t exactly a rebel without a cause in high school. (Side note: I Googled “The Vandals” and apparently they are a legitimate punk rock band that began playing together in 1980. I guess Ryan and his friends were onto something!)
Ryan then asked me what I would name my band if I were ever in one and I was completely stumped. My musical talent is limited to my ability to play “The First Noel” on the piano, so I never really thought about it before.
I think we can all agree that Peanut Butter Fingers isn’t exactly rock band material.
When you think about it, most band names are really, really strange. Smashing Pumpkins. Nine Inch Nails. Hootie and the Blowfish. Florence + the Machine. I wonder what the friends, parents and significant others of the members of these bands thought when they first heard their band names!
Question of the Morning
- Have you ever been in a band? What was the name of your band?
- If you were to ever be in a band, what would you want your band name to be?
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My boyfriend loves to learn about how bands got their name. He takes a lot of interest in that. Me, I could care less either way.
Haha I’ve always thought the same thing! I have no idea what I’d call my band. Probably something very plain jane and boring compared to “The Vandals” and “Smashing Pumpkins”. lol Guess it’s good I have ZERO musical inclination.
I took piano lessons from 1st to 6th grade, but I highly doubt that I was qualified to be a part of a band, ha! I always wonder where my favorite band got its name: Rascal Flatts!
Haha! I love that you can learn something new about someone even when you’ve known them that long!
I was never in a band, well except my middle school concert band, playing the trumpet which was not the most lady-like instrument!
I have no idea what I’d name my band… If I had a singing voice at all I think I’d prefer to be like Taylor swift or Carrie underwood and go by my own name! Making up a goofy band name would be far too big of a task for me! =)
My 4yr old and I like to pretend to be in a band and our band’s name is ‘Cheesburger & the French Fries.’ He is lead singer and I am on drums. Its a duet at the moment but were looking for a guitarist if you’re interested! haha
oh my gosh, this is so great. i LOVE it!!! thanks for making me smile, robin!
REMEMBER THE FIRE
Is my husbands band! They got their name because they used to practice in his parents garage. In the middle of winter it is very cold in Ottawa, Ontario so they would use the woodstove to heat the garage. My father in-law would always worry they would forget the fire on… Hence Remember the Fire!!! Check them out!!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Remember-the-Fire/190128521026013
i love that!!
WOAH! Small world! I’m from Ottawa and I knew exactly what band you were writing about as soon as I saw “REMEMBER THE FIRE”….I even thought about that band name as I was reading this post!
CRAZY!
My mom was in a band when I was younger, she was lead singer. They were called TANGENT, which I thought was really clever! That’s two Ottawa-based band names for your records Julie 😛
My brother had a band called “Adam’s 5 Friends” – but there were only two of them…. he’s an odd one.
ha!!!
I wasn’t in a band per se, but I was part of a string ensemble group–“The String Things.” Too witty, I know. 🙂 We had four violins, two violas (including me), and two cellos. For string instruments, we rocked out hard. 😉
Sooo crazy you brought this up! My husband and I were talking about this a few months ago. Very similar story-I knew he was in a ‘garage’ band when he was young and played the drums but that was the first time he told me their name… LEFTOVER PIZZA. Seriously?! I still laugh about that!
(btw – our stories are so similar! my husband and i started dating when i was a senior in high school. We just celebrated 8 years of being together and have been married almost 4.)
LOVE your blog 🙂
When I was a kid, my cousins and I made a band, we were “The Copy Cats” and we only did covers. Then I was in another one with a few other girls and we were “the bad girls” and again we were probably as far from that as possible.
Then I managed bands for awhile, one who thankfully changed their name from 6Cheek to Wesley Jeremiah, to who are now known as The Lumineers.
I LOVE The Lumineers! That’s amazing.
Lol that is classic! I think everyone I knew had a band, or a business (babysitting, jewelry). Kids are so ambitious!
I played bass in an all girl punk band when I was 15 called Welcome To Paradise. I don’t remember being any good, but we were pretty serious about it! 🙂
Haha I am definitely not talented enough to be in a band! It is interesting, thinking about where all those band names come from and what meaning or significance they have. I’d have to give it some thought… I’d want something kind of smart and creative, plus I think it would depend on who’s in the band!
Have you ever seen Parks and Recreation?? One of the characters (Andy) is in a band that is constantly changing names! I think for now it’s Mouse Rat…but you should hear some of the other names that it’s called throughout the show!
There’s actually a really great Canadian band called The Sadies: http://www.myspace.com/thesadies
oh my gosh! cool!
I had a band in high school (we stayed together for two weeks) called the Genetically Altered Squirrels. Our first album was going to be GAS Station. (Get it? Genetically Altered Squirrels? GAS? We were so clever!)
I played piano all growing up but don’t think I could be qualified to be in a band! It took me forever to think of my blog name so I would have to think long and hard about a a band name haha
Ohh the Vandals! I used to listen to them a bit in high school (ten years ago!!)… they have some weird/funny songs. I used to be in a band and we called ourselves Ghost Party. I can’t even remember where it came from, but it always made us laugh. It still does… I’m going to have to see if anyone remembers how we made that up…
I love using leftover veggies with eggs for breakfast. Fast and easy. I sometime make burritos with them too.
I’ll have to think about the band name. My fiance played the drums too. Does Ryan tap on stuff all the time like he is playing the drums, too? My fiance taps on this desk like he is ALL DAY! And when he is driving, on the steering wheel (Think VW commercial.)
My husband and I started dating in the Spring of my sophomore year in college, and this February will be our 15 year dating anniversary!
I had totally forgotten about our dating anniversary since we celebrate our marriage day now, so thanks for that blast from the past thought!
What a fun question!
My cousin, who is a geologist, started a band with some of his colleagues… they call themselves THE ROCK BAND.
*Groan*
this is so fantastic! i <3 cheesy puns!
Are you saying that Ryan was in The Vandals, or that his band was also called The Vandals?
Band names are funny… I work in concerts and get a kick out of the quirky / weird name of the bands that come through. One of the weirder ones we hav this fall is ‘YESHE’ who will be opening for Xavier Rudd.
his band was also called the vandals. they never recorded any legit music. 🙂
I did the concert band thing for 11 years, but you never get to have a cool name when you’re in that kind of band…Symphonic Band, Wind Symphony, and/or Wind Ensemble just aren’t very catchy 😛
For an extremely hot second of my childhood, my sister and I were a “band.” We were adding onto our house at the time, which meant we had a big, open, empty room in our basement under the addition. We had recently gone to a summer craft fair and got water balloon “yo-yos,” which we thought would be the perfect gimmick for a band. I’m not entirely sure how you would’ve spelled our band name, but it was pronounced “BaSoYo” in a weird combination of our names + yo-yo. We danced around the empty room in our basement, singing our hearts out. Alas, what could have been… 😉
I think Peanut Butter Fingers is a great band name. Then you could have a cool following of people who shorten you to PBF. Think of the marketing possibilties! Hahaha 😉
How fun! I like ‘The Sadies” 😉
There’s an online quiz somewhere that lists a name for you to guess: punk band, or retired ban and Jerry’s flavor? I scored poorly 😉
your egg scrambles always look so good and make me wish i had access to a kitchen right now!!
also i am NOT a creative person by any means so i’d be horrible at coming up with something like a band name!
hahahaha oh that’s fantastic! my boyfriend was in a band before we met in highschool also and i never thought anything of it until we started dating and his cousin told me thats why his screen name was “last in line”, it was the band name. hilarious!
Bands names are so funny! My friend in high school and I had an imaginary band (neither of us were musically inclined) called epinephrine. So ridiculous to admit to.
lol, that must have been a fun night. 😀 I’m not very familiar with this band but I know their songs are rather popular! I might be ignorant to the meaning of their name for all I know, but always wondered what “death cab for cutie” meant. haha…in the end, most band names ARE weird if you think about it huh?!
haha I was never in a band but my friend was haha his band was called… and be prepared to laugh lol… the killer monkeys
to this day, I still don’t know why hahahaha
Haha when I first read the title of your post I saw “Strange Brand Names” so when you started talking about music I was like… what? God I think I need another cup of coffee…
I thought it said Brand names too! ha
I love how Sadie “looks” like she’s laying down, but upon closer inspection her booty is off the floor! Energy dogs never reallllly lay down, do they? 🙂
My friends and I had a knock off Spice girls band when we were tweens- we called ourselves “Bulls eye” or something.. and we each had a special name.. so wich I could remember what the all were! But one time one of the moms called a radio station and the DJ let us sing to them hahaha
My friends and I did a Spice Girls knock off too! except we just adopted the already existing Spice Girls’ names and songs haha so more of like a tribute band?
This quinoa looks so delicious! My mom is from Peru so I have been eating quinoa my whole life. I feel like more people need to discover the wonderfulness of it! I wanted to try to make it a different way than I was used to and I found a recipe for coconut quinoa with a cilantro kale cashew pesto with red onions and it was SO delicious! On my blog I made it under the post Sunday Meal #1. I think you would like it! Definitely give it a try. 🙂 mygracefulself.blogspot.com
I had a band with my cousin…kind of, we just made up songs. Our best one was called ” Rotten eggs are too smelly for me” we basically repeated the same words over and over.
No band for me! but I do play the piano (allbeit, not very well). If I had a band, I’d call it the Fitness Freaks, because I’d probably just sing tunes about how awesome fitness is. And how much of a dork I am 🙂
I LOVE toast for breakfast…there is nothing more comforting! Have you tried the limited edition Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Spice Swirl bread? It is delicious!
I wish I was creative enough to come up with a band name, let alone play an instrument!
Oh, this made me laugh! Haven’t we all come up with fake band names at one time or another? I’ve never really played any instrument or wanted to have a band, but my friend and I used to talk about our fake band as if it were real in high school. We called it “Control 17,” which we got from a sticker inside of a new piece of clothing. Like a quality control sticker. So random! We still laugh about it to this day. Thanks for bringing back a funny memory!
I was in a band in university called Blue Highway. I have no idea why and didn’t have any say in it since I joined as a singer after they had already been together a while!
I have been in a number of different bands. I play bass and drums (not at the same time haha).
Some names:
Frozen Goldfish
Breaking down Broadway
Suicidal Glee Club
Bodies on the Lawn
and my current…
Bazinga!
My brother was in a band for 10 years and they were called Blue Turtle Seduction. They were based in Lake Tahoe and they piggybacked on the “Keep Tahoe Blue” stickers, turned the blue lake into a blue turtle, and renamed it “Keep Tahoe Seductive.” My parents were really proud.
I wish I was in a band. Mostly, I just wish I had some musical talent!
Never been in a band, but my friend and I pretend we are the next Eninem and Lil Kim.
So he is McDeezy (last name is McDowall) and I am Lil Madre (since I am hispanic). We like to freestyle rap on long drives when no one else is around!
P.S. LOVE your blog, just the right balance of just about everything! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Toly and I have been together since high school and I feel like I know everything about him but every so often he’ll pull out some ridiculous fact about his childhood that makes me laugh.
I love that Ryan was in a band! What a cute story. 🙂
I would call my band, “Honeywagon”.
“Honeywagon” is a polite term for the giant trucks that carry manure away from a farm.
I learned about them when I was 12 at the Minnesota State Fair and was fascinated by the pretty name with such an ugly job! 😉
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywagon
My friends and I started a band in middle school, but all we really did at rehearsals was sit around and eat candy!
My husband has been in two bands since I’ve known him. The first was called One More Point. He came up with the name because he needed one more point to pass a final in high school once! lol His current band (although I guess they’re on hiatus) is called Always Second Favorite. 🙂
I’ve never thought of a band name for myself. For the same reason. I hate to say this but The Vandals sounded very 1960 to me. Sorry!
However, my son has a band “Forever Nameless.” It’s not the kind of music that I listen to but they do get oaying gigs and play at The Loop a lot (STL thing). With that being said theres not a lot of money in it and he still has to teach at the high school part time and work at JCP full time. You lucked out that Ryan isn’t still trying to make it big. 🙂