Tom was right.

[<<<<<]

Sounds like a potentially amusing game to me. 

On the flipside, it's hard to entirely verify that any band name has never existed.  You know how it is ~ for every band that ever signs some sort of deal or lands on the obscurest radar, there are a million more that only 15 people ever saw play.  You could also almost make a game of dreaming up bogus band names and trying to see if you can verify if anyone's ever used the name for a band before.

I'd guess that Myspace alone is a pretty good indication of a good portion of bands that have existed in some form within the last 5 years or so.

[John Junk]

The FOT better finish the Plunko script fast, because it's only a matter of time before the "Not Another Intellectual Comedy" franchise closes our window of opportunity.

Water on the Smoker is an awesome fake name!
My stand-by fave fake band name is Jpeg and the Gifs.  I swear some day I will be in a band with this name.

[Sarah]

I think maybe I am making myself a nuisance by posting too much. Just say the word and I will log off for a week.

Look at my post count, Dave.  Then look at yours.  Now shut up (and by that I mean keep posting). 

[Kibblesmith]

Daydream Nation: Forthcoming teen comedy directed by Michael Goldbach, starring "Heroes" cheerleader Hayden Panettiere

Hayden Panettiere already made this movie, it was called Disney's The Ice Princess, and it was awesome.

(sigh.)

Just tell me it's not actually called Daydream Nation.

[Julie]

I will conduct an experiment on my statistics classes if you want. Let's hand them a list of band names. Let's let 5 of the bands be real, including Sonic Youth, with the other 4 being well-known-among-music-nuts but unknown to the public (Comets on Fire? Built To Spill? Broken Social Scene? people like that) and let the other 5 be nonexistent but plausible as band names (Momentum Flux? Run Midget Run? Water On the Smoker?)

We then simply ask the "kids" to select whether they think the name is for a real band or not.

Anybody want to play? If so, suggest some real and fake band names that I could use.

I think maybe I am making myself a nuisance by posting too much. Just say the word and I will log off for a week.

You need a better sampling method. Don't you teach them that?

[JonFromMaplewood]

...always pitch their terrible ideas as "psychological thrillers".  Now I feel like "intellectual comedy" is going to take its place in that same shitty pantheon.

Let's buck the system and write a "psychological comedy."

Also, Dave, here are some fake band names that may be real band names for all I know:
Collect All Four
The Sleep of the Righteous
Billy Barty's Body

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I'll see your Run Midget Run and raise you one Uncle Barry and the Shiksas.

In my class the other day I was going on about Henry Rollins (specifically w/r/t Thomas Frank's Baffler article, "Why Johnny Can't Dissent") and it slowly dawned on me that the kids had no idea who I was talking about.  So, in the next class, I switched the analogy to Hannah Montana (actually, it was a different analogy).

[Beth]

Also, Dave, here are some fake band names that may be real band names for all I know:
Collect All Four
The Sleep of the Righteous
Billy Barty's Body

this wouldn't be an FOT thread if i didn't steer slightly off topic.

speaking of  trendy band names, the mention of wolves, deer, and birds seems ridiculously rampant these days.  just attach appropriate noun, verb, or adjective to any of those three animals, and you may have your next pitchfork hero. i swear that website probably doesn't even listen to the actual albums half of the time before they give their review.

[samir]

How about all those "legendary" power pop bands?

Lovely Boys, The Craigs, Ted Jacobs and The Now, Sherbert Falls, The Album, The Sleestaks, Denny Leonard and the Lemmons, September Gurgles, The Zoom, Darren Robbins and the Rockstars, Sugar Pie Four, The Bingles, Failure Time, or Witchypoo, I Love You The Ghost Of Ann B. Davis, The Menthols, Larry Neville and The Fun, Bam Bam, Candy-Coated Sugar Smacks, and Rick and The Backers, The Need, The Hurt, The Yes, The No, and The Maybe.

[Laurie]

I'll see your Run Midget Run and raise you one Uncle Barry and the Shiksas.

In my class the other day I was going on about Henry Rollins (specifically w/r/t Thomas Frank's Baffler article, "Why Johnny Can't Dissent") and it slowly dawned on me that the kids had no idea who I was talking about.  So, in the next class, I switched the analogy to Hannah Montana (actually, it was a different analogy).

I thought you taught a college class?

Okay, I admit, I mostly know Henry Rollins as the guy who chases Lydia Lunch around and scared the shit out of me when I watched Richard Kern's dirty movies at the tender age of 16. Was that "Submit to Me"? On the first Hardcore video? I forget.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I'll see your Run Midget Run and raise you one Uncle Barry and the Shiksas.

In my class the other day I was going on about Henry Rollins (specifically w/r/t Thomas Frank's Baffler article, "Why Johnny Can't Dissent") and it slowly dawned on me that the kids had no idea who I was talking about.  So, in the next class, I switched the analogy to Hannah Montana (actually, it was a different analogy).

I thought you taught a college class?

I do.  Three of them, in fact.  And, to be fair, most of my creative writing students are much more culturally savvy.

Though, truthfully, about 2 or 3 kids out of 22 knew who Rollins was.  And, while they all recognized Hannah Montana, my reference was meant as a a "teaching joke" (I invented a hypothetical Hannah Montana paper to demonstrate how cultural studies can take even the most trivial crap and find some sort of significance in it).

[<<<<<]

speaking of  trendy band names, the mention of wolves, deer, and birds seems ridiculously rampant these days.  just attach appropriate noun, verb, or adjective to any of those three animals, and you may have your next pitchfork hero.

Nice observation.  Could always be worse though.  Like how all of the industrial-type bands of the early nineties had an odd attachment to pigs.  Maybe a little amusing at first, but just sort of creepy and cliche after a bit.

Enough with the pig thing already.

[John Junk]

Wolfback Mountain.

On the rare occasions that I'm actually teaching people, I like to pretend that I know less than I actually do about pop culture, and to say stuff to my college-level art students like "I know you guys all love that Hey Yah song right now" and stuff.  Just try and be like four years off so that it's just lame enough to be believable.  Like "Yeah, maybe I should play some Eminem to wake you guys up.  'Lose Yourself In The Moment' right?  I know what you guys like!"

[bobby.]

haha, when I listened to the "movies -> video games" podcast, I was thinking of one obvious one and surprised that nobody called up with it...

[emma]

How about all those "legendary" power pop bands?

Lovely Boys, The Craigs, Ted Jacobs and The Now, Sherbert Falls, The Album, The Sleestaks, Denny Leonard and the Lemmons, September Gurgles, The Zoom, Darren Robbins and the Rockstars, Sugar Pie Four, The Bingles, Failure Time, or Witchypoo, I Love You The Ghost Of Ann B. Davis, The Menthols, Larry Neville and The Fun, Bam Bam, Candy-Coated Sugar Smacks, and Rick and The Backers, The Need, The Hurt, The Yes, The No, and The Maybe.

I thought i was the only person with all of these written down somewhere!