ROCK AND ROLL

Here’s an excerpt from our upcoming book “THE VERY BEST AND VERY WORST: ROCK AND ROLL.”

Feel free to add your comments below. We might add them to the book.

• THE VERY BEST BAND NAMES

1. Dead Kennedys
2. Foo Fighters
3. The Who
4. The Replacements
5. The The
6. 10cc
7. Black Sabbath
8. Sisters Of Mercy
9. The Police
10. Camper Van Beethoven
11. Snow White Trash
12. AC/DC
13 …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
14. F.U.C.T.
15. Sandy Duncan’s Eye
16. Jane’s Addiction
17. Nine Inch Nails
18. Fine Young Cannibals
19. My Bloody Valentine
20. Rush
21. Steely Dan

• THE VERY WORST BAND NAMES

1. Oingo Boingo
2. Hoodoo Gurus
3. Afghan Whigs
4. Duran Duran
5. Blink 182
6. Goo Goo Dolls
7. Butthole Surfers
8. Cannibal Corpse
9. The Joe Perry Project (Hello? Did you check in with Alan Parsons first?)
10. Limp Bizkit
11. Procol Harum
12, Gwar
13. Enuff Z’Nuff
14. Hoobastank
15. His Name Is Alive
16. Moby Grape
17. Strawberry Alarm Clock
18. Joy Division (because it’s named for rape rooms at concentration camps)
19. The Babys
20. Damn Yankees
21. Modest Mouse
22. Mahogany Rush
23. John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
24. Dexy’s Midnight Runners

Other chapters in the book . . .

The Very Best Selling Records
The Very Worst Best Selling Records
The Very Best Selling Tours
The Very Best Solos — The Very Worst Solos
The Very Best Singers – The Very Worst Singers
The Very Best Guitarists – The Very Worst
The Very Best Bassists – The Very Worst
The Very Best Drummers – The Very Worst
The Very Best Keyboardists – The Very Worst
The Very Best Bands – The Very Worst Bands
The Very Best Albums – The Very Worst Albums
The Very Best Design – The Very Worst Design (albums)
The Very Worst Moments (Napster/Metallica, Hillary Rosen, Altamont, The Osbournes, etc)
The Very Best Moments (Live Aid, Woodstock, etc.)
The Very Best Songs – Worst

10 Comments »

  • Guys,
    Buthole surfers is such a good name for so many good reasons. The best would be to ask the lead singer about DAD aka Mr. Peppermint

    Comment by Laurin — 11/8/06 @ 3:36 pm

  • Actually, The The is one of the stupidest rock-band names ever. It’s not even witty in a post-modern way. Maybe it was funny when the band was drunk one night and thought it up, but they should have realized the next day how retarded it was. Alas, they did not and unfortunately put it on their album covers.

    In your list of Best names, you forgot to mention Thin Lizzy. On the surface it would seem like a dud, but the story behind it priceless. TL frontman is from Dublin and created the name as snide insult to his fellow Dubliners, none of whom can pronounce the blend “th” properly. So Lynott’s little joke to himself is that the band could have been named Tin Lizzy OR Thin Lizzy, but it wouldn’t make any difference to a fan from Dublin. They still could only pronounce it “T’in Lizzy.” In a dry Irish way, that’s a funny joke.

    Comment by Pete — 11/10/06 @ 12:24 pm

  • Oh, our friend Dr. Knife did recently point out that “Metallica” is certainly the lamest metal-band name of all time (well, next to the equally stupid “Megadeth”).

    I mean, should there now be genre-copping band names like Punkola, Jazzbo and CountryFuck? I hope not.

    Comment by Pete — 11/10/06 @ 12:28 pm

  • Ummmm….what about Kajagoogoo in the Worst list? And Angry Samoans and X in the Best?

    Comment by JustinK — 11/10/06 @ 2:25 pm

  • You almost could make your Worst list focused on pop atrocities of the ’80s:

    –Bananarama
    –Flock of Seagulls
    –John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band (can you “bar band”?)
    –Frankie Goes to Hollywood
    –Kajagoogoo
    –Wang Chung

    And who can forget this ridiculous band name from the ’70s and early ’80s: REO Speedwagon. Could anything be worse?

    Comment by Pete — 11/13/06 @ 9:05 am

  • All new band names suck.

    You can’t use Led Zeppelin or The Who anymore because all the good names have already been taken!!

    Comment by Bruce — 11/15/06 @ 10:02 am

  • I’m partial to Bare Naked Ladies…for obvious reasons, and Kinky Freedman and the Texas Jew Boys (for not so obvious reasons).

    Comment by Devo — 11/17/06 @ 11:10 am

  • ps. I thought Butthole Surfers and Queen were the same band…..?

    Comment by Devo — 11/17/06 @ 11:11 am

  • best band name ever: The Night the Goldfish Died

    Comment by fally — 11/17/06 @ 2:19 pm

  • Fally- thanks for suggesting The Night The Goldfish Died as best band name ever.I was half of that illustrious ensemble! We’ve got a retrospective cd thing made up of our early 80’s cassettes coming out this year on Hyped2death.
    www.hyped2death.com for more info soon.
    groovy
    x

    Comment by paul groovy — 01/25/07 @ 7:24 am

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