Celebrating the Unpopular Arts
 

The name of my band

It’s Sunday afternoon, and the blog tends to be lazy on Sunday afternoons, and I was just reminded of what I would name my band if I had a band (I don’t, nor do I ever plan to have one), so I thought I’d post about it and ask for yours. Mine requires a tiny bit of explanation …

So several years ago, I read something on-line. I can’t remember if Greg Hatcher wrote about it on the old blog, because it’s certainly something he would write about, but he did try to keep things comics-related over there, especially early on, so perhaps not unless he was writing about Addams Family comics. Are there Addams Family comic books? Anyway, at some point I learned about the existence of the 1972 TV movie Evil Roy Slade, starring John Astin as the title character and featuring a killer theme song:

I’ve never actually seen the movie, but it’s on YouTube if you’re interested. I just love the name “Evil Roy Slade.” It sounds so ridiculous but menacing at the same time – the “Roy” works after the two-syllable “Evil,” and “Slade” is a word that just sounds a bit scary. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to be in a band called Evil Roy Slade. When I write the X-Men (come on, Joey Q, you know you want to offer me the job!), someone’s favorite band will be Evil Roy Slade. They’ll be the kind of band that all the cool people in the Marvel Universe go to see. Tony Stark will be at the Drake concert thinking he’s all hot shit, but all the cool people will be at some dive bar watching Evil Roy Slade.

What’s the name of your band? Sound off in the comments! Don’t be shy!

35 Comments

  1. I don’t remember ever writing about it, but I love EVIL ROY SLADE, and Kurt Mitchell, whom Greg and I see at the CBR dinner we have during ECCC, loves it even more.

    Me, I always wanted to name a band Bitter Dregs. Because Spock.

    1. Greg Burgas

      What. The. Fuck. I’m not a big Star Trek fan, but I guess I need to start being one if it means I get to see shit like that. That was insane.

      And yeah, Bitter Dregs is a good name.

  2. My best friend Frankie and I have formed a band named Skinny John Goodman. Not that I have any musical ability whatsoever, but hey, that didn’t stop the Sex Pistols.

    Neat Pat Buttram narration on the Evil Roy Slade TV movie!

  3. Jeff Nettleton

    Evil Roy Slade is a decent little comedy; not as hilarious as I thought it would be; but amusing. For comedy westerns, though apart from Blazing Saddles) I like Rustler’s Rhapsody, with Tom Berenger. It pokes fun at the Roy Rogers-type cowboy, perfectly.

  4. fit2print

    Sadly, the name of my band has already been claimed: the Tragically Hip. If it had been my band’s name (disclosure: I don’t have a band), there’s no telling the heights we’d have reached. So, yeah, it’s impossible to top that particular moniker. Even Tequila Mockingbird doesn’t measure up, though admittedly it’s close. The best band name ever is the Miami Screaming Eagles. Or maybe that’s the best sports team name ever. It’s the best something, for sure…

  5. When I was a teenager, there was no question what my band name would have been: Slow Children at Play. Based on a traffic sign in my neighborhood.

    Had I been a DJ, I would have been DJ Trance Fats.

  6. My fake band names are the Suspicious Pigeons (an all girl rock band), Soul Booty (a bluesy-woozy disco funk jazz ensemble that featured in a story that I created) and Goat Funk (something that sounds like some sort of bad word, but doesn’t actually mean anything).

  7. My favorite real band names:

    Root Boy slim and the Sex Change Band
    Rash of Stabbings
    Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys
    The Skillet Lickers

    Fake band names:
    The Pulchritudinous Expostulators
    Sacrificial Waffle
    Sparkle Motion

      1. My daughter coined this one; whenever I make waffles, I always screw up the first one. She decided that the first waffle has to be ruined as a sacrifice to the waffle gods. Followed immediately by “that would be a good band name.”

  8. Dave Ziegler

    I’ve kept a list of band names since college, largely inspired by Jello Biafra’s “Names for Bands”. A few of my favorites from the list:

    Lazy Agents of Satan
    Serving Local Morons
    Epileptic Gunfighter
    Angry Hulk Love
    Working Class Pothead
    King Ding Dong and the Cream Filling Five (I always imagined this one as a swingy jazz combo)

  9. Hal

    The Bradford Dillmans
    Cockbogglers
    The Nameless
    The Still Point
    Leisurely Repentors
    Pricked Conscience and the Conscientious Pricks
    True Believers (Originally Excelsior! Rival bands:A Is A and Kirby’s Cigar)
    Oh! The Humanity
    The Eyes Of Lynda Carter
    Why Am I Surrounded By Idiots?
    The Stolen Moments
    Eugene Levy’s Eyebrows/Greg Burgas’s Eyebrows

  10. Hal

    Ahahahaha! Sorry, Greg! Your daughter is obviously possessed of firecracker wit and perspicuity, you should thank her she’s keeping you grounded…
    (Truth be told, I’m not exactly lacking in the eyebrow department but it’s no fun teasing yourself is it? )

    1. Hal

      Darn, the emoticons failed to appear. FEH. There should be a “:D” after “…keeping you grounded” and a “;)” following “…tease yourself is it?”.

  11. I’m late to the party on this one because our little family has been on vacation, so no-one’s going to read this, but here I am anyway.

    In my comic, I have a four piece teenage girl punk folk (sure, it’s a thing) band called Objects Of Interest. Because the girls are all science-minded (the phrase being what they call a possibly habitable planet, of course) and it’s also them saying (screaming?) they’re more than just Objects Of Affection.

    The other fake Toronto bands they look up to are Cave In and Lizzy Galactic (a band, not one person.)

    I say “that would make an awesome band name” so much in real life, I couldn’t possibly think of any more.

    1. Greg Burgas

      Caanan: You can’t escape our baleful gaze!!!!!

      I like Objects of Interest, and your explanation about them. Man, the things we put thought into …

      I’ve said that a lot, too, so much that I can’t remember them. But I keep doing it!

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