[skinslapper]

I find band names to be very interesting. Sometimes good, sometimes funny, sometimes bloody stupid. Give us a list and some funny stories.
Here's mine in chronological order.

Wench- my first band. Female vocals, lots of Hole songs, riot girl grunge, good name.

Leukaemia Dog- Three piece, silly guy grunge, good name.

Astral- Hard rock cover band trying to be more but couldn't write songs. Lots of Tool, I was happy.

Bloomfield- Mellow rock/ grunge band started by my now cousin in law. He was a controlling idiot who always thought the problem was everyone else. He was also too busy saying he was "original" to do anything about it. He now plays solo with an accoustic and still thinks he's "original".

Phobic Jones- Nu Metal, RATM/Korn style metal with a touch more funk. Big sound, great songs, just fell apart one day, don't know why.

And now Atfault- Punk/Metal, best guitarists I've played with, good lyrics, song writing is becoming more progressive everytime, check us out at www.myspace.com/atfault .

[Davenhurst]

Good topic!

Umm... there have been lots so I'll list the ones I can remember...

Frequency - my first proper band at school, we played a cover of REM's "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" so took our name from that. Did a silly thrash song called "Mashed Carrots". Fun.

Veto - Think Sonic Youth, Sebadoh and so on.... Joined this band exactly one week before a gig, their previous drummer up and left for Japan or something. The gig was a storming success so I was a permanent addition, made lots of new friends and joined more bands as a result.

The Signal - basically this band was Veto reinvented, we started playing more odd, almost proggy stuff. By proggy I mean King Crimson at their riffiest and rockiest. Lots of odd time signatures and syncopation, mostly all instrumental. Had a track on a compilation from a local label, recorded a 7" for them but it never got released. Had a few major labels sniffing around then our guitarist went to university and it stagnated for a while. Kicked our bassist out and the other guitarist left. Got a new bassist and went even more doom rock. Good heavy stuff. That kind of fizzled out and the guitarist and I formed......

Azalea City Penis Club - the name's from guitarist John Fahey's childhood gang. We're still playing but again the guitarist is leaving to study. We have an album recorded and will still release it. See http://www.azaleacitypenisclub.com and you can hear some.

Immense - joined this band at the same time as The Signal, they'd already done an album for Fat Cat Records and had new material to record, needed a new drummer and bassist. I joined and we did an album for Fierce Panda Records, partly recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World studios - what a place that is! Toured the UK a little and had good reviews, but having 6 people in a band including some very strong personalities was too destructive and I left, losing friends in the process. The band didn't continue.

Kiska - still playing, our keyboard player is jetting round the world soon so that'll be the end of it. All instrumental, lots of synths and a mixture of live drums and processed beats. I also play guitar and keys. Have just finished an album. Met my wife through the guys in Kiska.

Gravenhurst - very busy right now, festivals most weekends and extensive touring for about a year including Japan, America, Canada and all of Europe. Signed to Warp Records, currently recording the 4th (?) album. Been in Gravenhurst for many years, met guitarist Nick when his old band Assembly Communications and The Signal played a bunch of shows together. Assembly fell apart after their bassist was killed in a road accident. Gravenhurst started as just Nick with an acoustic guitar but these days it's a sonic-psych-rock juggernaut and I get to hit stuff hard. Hope to keep touring and recording with Gravenhurst for many years. The name Gravenhurst comes from a song written by David Pajo, from the Pullman album "Turnstyles and Junkpiles". Great album.

Robin Allender - member of Azalea City Penis Club, I'm drumming for his solo stuff which is ridiculously good. Have just finished an album and hope to get a load of shows soon. Check http://www.myspace.com/robinallender - seriously, his songs rule.

Right - I think that's it... I'll have a think fot more, I know there's a couple in there somewhere.

[skinslapper]

Dude, I hate how much fun you're having.

[MSTRKRFT]

topp crime- my main band. We're classic rock/rock/acoustic. I want to try and compare us to the sound of Audioslave tied in with Zeppelin with a little bit of something else in there. I really enjoy playing with this band, because every member is a close friend, so we get along really really well, and we can always speak out minds.

Pistols At Noon- My side band, where we make House music. Very fun, and I think we're going to take it to the next level and start DJing some parties. I can't wait for that!

[skinslapper]

Hey Dave, I just read a review in Q magazine for your "Fires In Distant Buildings" album.

They didn't speak too highly of it, but the reviewer sounds like a jerk and I'd think it an accomplishment just to get in there in the first place.

[Davenhurst]

Originally Posted by skinslapper

Hey Dave, I just read a review in Q magazine for your "Fires In Distant Buildings" album.

They didn't speak too highly of it, but the reviewer sounds like a jerk and I'd think it an accomplishment just to get in there in the first place.

Dang, you chose to read the worst review we've had. The way Q deals with reviews is weird, but I won't go into it because I'll sound bitter. The reviewer didn't like it and that's cool.

There's some more reviews on our website: http://www.gravenhurstmusic.com , had some good ones from Rock Sound, NME, Telegraph, Mojo..... It's weird being involved with something on this level, there will always be those who love it and those who don't and as much as you try to maintain a distance sometimes you can't help but let the bad reviews get to you.

[Glynes]

We've been everything from Flaky Pastry (we're musicians, hence, we're flakes!) to We Band 6 (long story, but appealed to me because there are 5 of us!) ... but I think we've finally settled on Cosmik Debris, because a couple of the guys are rabid Zappa fans (we are actually working up a Zappa song, altho it's not the one that 'cosmik debris' is mentioned in. That would make too much sense, wouldn't it?)

[gyutae]

The church bands I've played with never bothered to name themselves. Probaly because so many people rotated in and out of the band. It's hard to find a real identity that way.

[full metal]

Here is my list and it has been some weird ones

Fudge muffin-dont ask because I dont know where the name came from, they where a collage band and I was still in high school and happened to be freinds with the bass player, we played covers and orginals.

storm brinnger- named after a deep purple song, I played with them in japan and we played a few metallica covers but mostly orginals.

Never nobody- Didnt like this one so much all they lead singer wanted to play was covers, smoke pot, and get drunk. that band wasnt leaving the garage it was in so I left.

Red letter words- an all orginal christan band, only played with them for a few weeks but it was fun.

there has been others but they never went any where so I really dont rember their names.

[myner]

I've did a few gigs, but they were all formed for that specific event. Like for school events. So yeah, No names really. But we played a few originals. There was once we had a event that we had to fill something like 40 mins. we decided to mix covers and pass it off as a CONFUSED Piece. it was really fun.
we took parts of:
Avenged sevenfold - Strength of the world
Stratovarius - Black diamond
Rainbow - Gates of babylon
(then we did a really mixed for a finale)
around 15 mins of
Smoke underwater, enter the sand man, hallowed be thy name, war pigs and heaven and hell.

It was bloody fun, sneaking in solos here and there for the last 15 mins.
Pure magic, but it only lasted one night. I guess we call it a one night stand.

but now i'm in a main band called Violance in stride(not confirmed yet).
We're mainly metal, but we have punk and abit of emocore in it. So we're abit confused too hahaha.