Category: Band names

Square Pig in a Round Hole-April 15, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Thank you, Seattle weather, for turning nice just in time for the Tax March, Black Lives Matter March, and Easter weekend! We’ll try not to forget this when the rain returns sooner rather than later. In addition to a basket of five splendid band names, my Easter gift to anyone reading this is a an original story. Official release is tomorrow, but go ahead and enjoy it now. Meanwhile, those band names:

3-Piece Bikini

The dapper and businesslike look for the beach.

Broke in Stereo

When you move in together to save on expenses, but neither of you has any money to begin with.

Cranky Babies

Toddlers are the original punks. Makes me think of my favorite Jonathan Richman song, “Not Yet Three.”

A Heart in the Stillness

A tiny poem for moments like Holy Saturday, when the world holds its breath.

Trapdoor Social

Introverts’ escape hatch.

Coming Soon:

On Tuesday, April 18, Your Mother Should Know is on a bill at the Sunset with Mud on My Bra and Strange Like Us. I’ll be playing drums and singing, including three songs I wrote for my novel The Gospel According to St Rage.

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Square Pig in a Round Hole-April 8, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

In spite of an iffy laptop battery and April acting like a moody teen, the Square Pig persists! Standout band names this week include:

Bob Fossil

Jazz hands turned to stone.

The Crüd Güns

Nonlethal but disgusting weaponry. It’s funny even without the umlauts, which take it over the top.

Ghost Town Whistlers

Simultaneously cheerful and creepy.

Nothington

Everybody’s favorite small hometown they can’t wait to leave. (Appearing tonight at El Corazon with Square Pig faves Dead Bars!)

Paws

I’m a fan of one-word names that single out a body part, non-human in this case. (This also allows me to plug Paws and Claws, the new animal-themed anthology from Cake & Quill, for which I donated two stories and a handful of haiku. All proceeds to an animal charity! More info here.)

Square Pig in a Round Hole-April 1, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

What a week it’s been! A mix of musical, literary, and family experiences: on Monday, Your Mother Should Know (my two-piece garage band with my brother) played out for the first time since early 2015; on Tuesday, I met with a book club for lively discussion of my novel The Gospel According to St Rage; on Friday, my first-born turned 26 and got booted off our insurance (don’t worry, he’s got it covered, as it were); and today, Paws and Claws, a charity anthology in which I have two stories and a handful of haiku, was set loose on the world. Meanwhile, my novel is a finalist for a Wishing Shelf Independent Book Award; winners should be announced today. While I wait, my fancy turns to thoughts of band names. The listings this week gave up these treasures:

Alien Knife Fight

Why do we always assume extra-terrestrials have advanced super-weapons? Then again, maybe it’s a laser knife.

Box the Oxford

Love the internal rhyme, and how it could be a shoestore clerk or a retiring English professor.

Goodnight Moonshine

Contributing to the delinquency of a beloved children’s book. Goodnight noises, everywhere.

The Hinges

An example of a favorite band-name genre, it turns the spotlight on a mundane household object that allows us to lift lids and let cats in and out. (And of course I always want to support another music duo.)

 

Tin Foil Top Hat

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you can’t also be dapper.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-March 25, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

So much to celebrate: the official arrival of spring, the temporary break in the rain, the maybe-permanent survival of the ACA, the moderately triumphant return of Your Mother Should Know to the stage after two-plus years away . . . and as ever, a generous selection of creative, amusing, inspiring band names:

Dead Meadow

Why you stay on the trail when hiking in subalpine terrain. And it rhymes!

Happy Heartbreak

Seems like an oxymoron, but it’s true: we love sad songs and tragedies. (I’m especially sad that the realities of life will prevent me from staying to hear them Monday night.)

Headstone Brigade

Implies the dead are active and on the march! (Coincidentally, I’m currently reading a novel called Dancing with the Dead by Charles Freedom Long, a sci-fi thriller that includes armies of souls of the dead (human and alien) that can be called upon to aid the living.)

Moose Blood

Aibell and Moose

Our friends moved with their cat to Alaska. She recently saw her first moose and was captivated. Through aspirational spelling, she is thinking bloody, predatory thoughts.

The Smallest Bear with the Biggest Paws

This sounds like an adorable children’s book; much better than The Big Mean Man with the Tiny Hands.

Your Mother Should Know opens at the Victory Lounge on Monday, March 27 in a stripped-down, highly portable configuration: two voices, assorted hand percussion,and one guitar with amp and a few pedals. Also on the bill: Happy Heartbreak, HuskyBoys, and Nijlpaard.

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Square Pig in a Round Hole-March 18, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

It may seem like the rain will never end, spring will never come, and everything keeps getting worse. But! We had a sunny day last week, hyacinths are blooming, and daffodil sightings have been reported. On top of that, there is still music to make and hear, and band names to celebrate. For example:

Dead Man Winter

A seasonal character who has overstayed his welcome; always old, nearly expired. (Bonus: the bandleader is also associated with past honoree Trampled by Turtles, of whom I wrote on September 8, 2012: I love this image, because of the slow speed. Anything heavy enough to do any damage, you could just roll out of the way. I picture some poor dude, passed out and engulfed by turtles. [N.B. Since this post, I have invented a fictional band called Plague of Turtles, no doubt inspired by this image.])

The Galaxytones

As retro-futuristic as the Space Needle.

Plastic Picnic

Toy food in a playhouse satisfies until it doesn’t. Is this where chefs come from?

Tiny Bones

In high school, my sister reassembled a frog’s skeleton and encased it in Lucite. Ever since, I have been fascinated by how small bones can be, whether in wee animals or our own ears.

Yawning Man

A deliberately boring arts festival in the desert. Everybody catches up on their sleep.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-March 11, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Support local music! Even if you can’t get out to many shows, give your favorite bands some love and buy their records. I can unreservedly recommend two albums that were released yesterday: Shelby Earl‘s The Man Who Made Himself a Name and Dead Bars‘ Dream Gig. They are nothing alike and I love them both. What would happen if Shelby hired Dead Bars as the backing band for her 4th album?

Back to the business of band names:

avians alight

Birds on a wire or birds on fire?

The Cheap Cassettes

First noted (by me, anyway) in 2015, the cassette renaissance continues. They must still be cheap, but can you buy a decent tape deck? We’re lucky to have one from the ’70s. The tape stock stank, but the hardware was solid.

Depths of the Sunset

Bickleton Sunset 1I grew up in the high desert of Central Washington, where we regularly experiences wraparound sunsets. Difficult to photograph, but this painting by my neighbor captures some of the depth.

The Fabulous Roof Shakers

Any name that starts with The Fabulous will capture my notice. This one goes to a place that promises joyful noise.

Genders

I grow more convinced there are 7 billion genders in the world. Here are some of them.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-March 4, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Though there are tons of well-named bands this week, I won’t be going out tonight; I managed to catch my first cold in close to a year. I don’t feel great, but I’ve had worse, so I’m pretending I’m well.

This weeks picks:

Lonesome Home

A melancholy paradox. Also note how the words end with the same three letters but different sounds.

Strange Like Us

“Strange” implies rarity while “us” implies group identity. You don’t have to be popular to belong. (In a happy turn of events, Strange Like Us will join Square Pig faves Mud on My Bra! and my own band Your Mother Should Know for a show in April at the Sunset. Watch for details!)

Uneasy Chairs

A seat that isn’t merely uncomfortable; it’s worried.

The Velveteen Rabbit Hole

I picked this for the children’s book references before I knew it was a Velvet Underground cover band. Now I like it twice as much.

Villain of the Story

Authors love to write them. Actors love to play them. Musicians love to be them, I guess?

Square Pig in a Round Hole-February 25, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Last night, the spouse and I actually went to a show! Thanks to Myla Mud of Mud on My Bra for putting on a great birthday show at Cafe Racer, a weird and welcoming space walking distance from Square Pig HQ. We hadn’t heard any of the bands before and didn’t expect to know any of the musicians, so of course the fiddle player in Merchant Mariner was someone we’ve known for years. Sometimes Seattle is still a small town. And a bottomless well of band names, such as:

Date Night with Brian

This sounds like a goofy rom-com about lowering expectations and doing something you like with someone who likes you. (I first encountered them when they followed me on Twitter, a big deal because I have only 14 followers. So I was pleased to see them come up in the club listings so soon.)

Nine Pound Shadow

I choose to believe it’s a cat or other modest-sized mammal, not something that’s going to ARRGGGHHH . . .

The Octopus Project

Professional respect. The octopus, like the writer, is reclusive, clever, and if threatened, disappears in a cloud of ink.

Puff Puff Beer

How to bro in three easy steps.

The Snubs

The third band from Myla’s birthday provides the much-needed fifth entry. It manages to sound both punchy and elitist. Extra points for performing in matching masks and beanies.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-February 18, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

Although it’s technically still winter, it’s looking a lot like spring: 44 degrees and raining, crocuses poking up, sunrise earlier every day. Another thing to give us hope, along with the unruly herd of cats we call America, and of course, band names.

Another Lost Year

It’s early enough in 2017 that a lot of people still feel bitter about 2016. Those who don’t might think again as they begin to work on their taxes.

Far Out West

The collision of three small words and two geographical phrases imparts grooviness to where we are.

Oceans Ate Alaska

A climate change prediction. The sea will still be hungry when it’s finished with Florida.

ohmme

A mantra, a mild cry of distress, or a cleverly veiled call for resistance?

Why Don’t We

This unfinished suggestion leaves all possibilities open.

Square Pig in a Round Hole-February 11, 2017

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Square PigNaming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!

We’ve had our snow. That’s enough winter; now can we move on to spring? Based on the intense twittering the past couple of days (nothing to do with the so-called president) I’d say the local birds are ready, too. While we wait for the flowers, there are always band names to bring us joy.

Basement Surfers

When your friends either take up temporary abode on your lower level, or make recreational use of your flooded cellar.

Ergo I Exist

It takes up Decartes’ formula in the middle, leaving the question open as to how you know.

Noisegasm

Creative soundmaking as ecstatic sensual experience. My external memory (AKA spouse) reminded me that we heard this group a couple years ago, but somehow I had missed including them in the blog until now.

Pkew Pkew Pkew

Someone took the time to figure out a spelling for a sound effect that has both aural and visual appeal.

Spooky Action

This name, a gift from quantum physics, also aptly describes this duo’s comically uncanny real-time art-and-music performance. I’ve hoped to include them since I saw them last month at Seattle Composers’ Salon.