Mark: My Words

Name Consultant and Freelance Namer Mark Gunnion on Names

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Speaking of band names, here’s some of the incredible names and logos of some Northern California “extreme metal” bands.  Yes, all the ones in the top picture are words, too. 

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A Tribute to Tribute Bands’ Band Names

Sure, it’s fun to discuss the origins and meanings of Band Names.  Just look at Minus the Bear! But to get *really* meta, consider the names of some tribute bands.  A tribute band is a group of musicians that decides to crack the nut of show business by giving a performance that is supposed to be a re-creation of another, more famous band.  The idea is not to deceive, but rather, to re-create an experience for the biggest fans, who can never get enough.  The circuit was pioneered by tributes to KISS, whose extreme visual stylings and full-face make-up (and easy-to-learn music!), combined with the most rabid fans on the planet,  made them a natural for visual and sonic re-creation.  I may do a whole post just about KISS tribute names, which are a genre unto themselves.  In the non-KISS caregory, here’s some of my favorites:

Petty Theft - a tribute to - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Stung  -  a tribute to The Police and Sting

AC/Dshe  -  all-female tribute to AC/DC :

image

Dressed To Kill - a tribute to - KISS

Clone Temple Pilots - a tribute to - Stone Temple PIlots

Crush - a tribute to - Rush

Bjorn Again  -  a tribute to ABBA

Man in the Mirror - a tribute to - Michael Jackson

Duran - a tribute to - Duran Duran

Night Moves - a tribute to - Bob Seger

Nearvana  -  a trubute to -  Nirvana

Stanley Dee - a tribute to - Steely Dan

Double VIsion - a tribute to - Foreigner

Cruella - an all-female tribute to - Motley Crue

Joy Revision - a tribute to - Joy Division

The Song Remains the Same - a tribute to - Led Zeppelin

TREZZ Hombres - a tribute to - ZZ Top

aRe wE theM  -  a tribute to  -  REM

The Nowhere Men - a tribute to - The Beatles

The Nguyens - a tribute to - The Smiths

Badness - a tribute to - Madness

AfterFAB - a tribute to - the Beatles SOLO works, 1970 on


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Need a name? That’s my day job. Go to Gunnion dot com, or

www.Gunnion.com  
www.MarkGunnion.com

Filed under tributebands

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Let’s look at some names of our favorite vehicles from science fiction. Of course, the first one many of us would think of would be one of several versions of the 19th-century-sounding Enterprise from the Star Trek universe.  The version pictured above is from the prequel series by that name with Scott Bakula - “Enterprise”. Check out this great report on building a model of the Voyager, from the animated spin-off from the film “Fantastic Voyage”http://polyvinylman.blogspot.com/2008/06/then-voyager.html If you’d like to suggest one, please comment!

Let’s look at some names of our favorite vehicles from science fiction.

Of course, the first one many of us would think of would be one of several versions of the 19th-century-sounding Enterprise from the Star Trek universe. 

The version pictured above is from the prequel series by that name with Scott Bakula - “Enterprise”.

Check out this great report on building a model of the Voyager, from the animated spin-off from the film “Fantastic Voyage”

http://polyvinylman.blogspot.com/2008/06/then-voyager.html






If you’d like to suggest one, please comment!

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The starlings have been gathering and doing their aerial art this week in the Alexander Valley where I live.  I’m not sure where these were taken.  It’s just about the most awesome thing I’ve seen in nature. 

kiransingh:

Murmuration…

(Source: steroge)

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Would you like to live in “The Stain”?  This apartment complex near Santa Rosa has always confused me a bit - la mancha, after all, is Spanish for “The Stain”.  The developers probably meant to suggest the romance and continental feel of the vast plains of central Spain, as they might have dimly recalled from the film version of the musical “The Man of La Mancha”.  An elevated plateau south of Madrid, La Mancha was chosen ironically by Cervantes.  As my friend Rusty the Linguist pointed out, it’s kind of like “the boondocks, without cattle or moonshine”.  Wikipedia notes, “Cervantes was making fun of the region, using a pun, a “mancha” is also a stain, as on one’s honor, and thus a hilariously inappropriate homeland for a dignified knight-errant. Translator John Ormsby believed that Cervantes chose it because it was/is the most ordinary, prosaic, anti-romantic, and therefore unlikely place from which a chivalrous, romantic hero could originate, making Quixote seem even more absurd.”This would be like a developer naming his fancy-looking place “Penzance”, since there was an operetta called “The Pirates of Penzance”.  But like Cervantes, Gilbert and Sullivan were making a joke, Penzance was a sleepy resort town, popular with tourists.  Its title was the equivalent of The Pirates of the Catskills, or the Banditos of Branson. 

Would you like to live in “The Stain”? 

This apartment complex near Santa Rosa has always confused me a bit - la mancha, after all, is Spanish for “The Stain”.  The developers probably meant to suggest the romance and continental feel of the vast plains of central Spain, as they might have dimly recalled from the film version of the musical “The Man of La Mancha”.  An elevated plateau south of Madrid, La Mancha was chosen ironically by Cervantes.  As my friend Rusty the Linguist pointed out, it’s kind of like “the boondocks, without cattle or moonshine”.  Wikipedia notes, “Cervantes was making fun of the region, using a pun, a “mancha” is also a stain, as on one’s honor, and thus a hilariously inappropriate homeland for a dignified knight-errant. Translator John Ormsby believed that Cervantes chose it because it was/is the most ordinary, prosaic, anti-romantic, and therefore unlikely place from which a chivalrous, romantic hero could originate, making Quixote seem even more absurd.”

This would be like a developer naming his fancy-looking place “Penzance”, since there was an operetta called “The Pirates of Penzance”.  But like Cervantes, Gilbert and Sullivan were making a joke, Penzance was a sleepy resort town, popular with tourists.  Its title was the equivalent of The Pirates of the Catskills, or the Banditos of Branson.