14 Band Names Inspired by Movies and TV
Is there anything harder than choosing a band name? Yes, obviously, millions. But it still poses a challenge, as anyone who has ever experienced this peculiar test of imagination and ingenuity will explain (often at length). Aiming for something original, enigmatic, instantly memorable, and richly redolent of a musical style and overarching ‘tood has no shortage of pitfalls.
But as soon as the perfect candidate presents itself — The Clash! Arctic Monkeys! Manuel & His Music of the Mountains! — many bands find it already taken. How best then to break this nomenclatural logjam? Like the artists below (and a host of others too numerous to mention) find band names inspired by movies and TV.
Misfits
Fronted by leather-lunged crooner Glen Danzig, New Jersey’s horror punk pioneers adapted their name from director John Huston’s melancholy 1961 western The Misfits, the swan song for all three of its stars — Clarke Gable, Montgomery Clift, and Marilyn Monroe. Gable died of a heart attack before the film was released, Clift from the same cause in 1966, Monroe, tragically, in 1962 from an overdose of barbiturates.
Wu-Tang Clan
Founder member Ol’ Dirty B*stard named Staten Island’s legendary hip-hop collective after mid-80s Hong Kong martial arts movie Shaolin and Wu Tang starring Gordon Liu, first encountered in 1992 with fellow Clan member RZA at the Cine 42 grindhouse theater on Manhattan’s 42nd Street.
Duran Duran
Although galactic temptress Barbarella first appeared in comic-book form, Birmingham UK’s peacock punks took their name from the 1968 film version. A lurid sci-fi spoof starring Jane Fonda, its antagonist is mad scientist Durand-Durand, played by Irish actor Milo O’Shea who, gamely, revised the role for DD’s concert film Arena in 1984. San Francisco’s electro duo Matmos is named after the film’s sentient lake of slime.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Providing fodder for discerning trivia quiz compilers, SF’s psychedelic stormtroopers borrowed their name from Marlon Brando’s biker gang in 1953 youth culture milestone The Wild One. Sample dialogue: “Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?” “Whaddaya ya got?”
Killswitch Engage
Raised from the ashes of defunct combos Overcast and Aftershock (worst Ben & Jerry flavor ever), Massachusetts metalcore veterans adopted the name of fifth season X-Files episode “Kill Switch,” written by none other than cyberpunk inventor and all-round sci-fi legend William Gibson.
Fall Out Boy
A minor character on The Simpsons (Radioactive Man’s juvenile sidekick) the name was shouted out at a gig when the Illinois, alt-rockers asked the crowd for suggestions on what to call themselves. At the time, not a single band member had heard of Fallout Boy.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Top marks to Montreal’s premier post-rock ensemble for mining their fantastic name from ゴッド・スピード・ユー! (God Speed! Black Emperor), a 1976 black-and-white Japanese documentary directed by Mitsuo Yaagimachi about Japanese biker gang, the Black Emperors. How many fans understand the reference: a band name inspired by movies and TV?
The Stooges
Proto-punk icon Iggy Pop’s industrial strength backing band pays tribute to slapstick trio The Three Stooges, stars of over 190 short films between 1922 and 1970 and the most successful big-screen comedy team of all time. In your face Laurel and Hardy! Permission to use the name was granted by chief Stooge himself, Moe Howard.
Black Sabbath
Inventing heavy metal? Not bad for a day’s work. The mighty Sabs’ eponymous debut album was recorded in one 12-hour session at Regent Sound studios in London on October 16, 1969. The name itself, originally the title of a song by bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, came from a 1963 Boris Karloff film showing at a theater across the street from the band’s rehearsal room in Birmingham, the epicenter of the UK’s early 70s heavy rock scene.
Mudhoney
One of the finest single-word band names of all time. Seattle’s grunge trailblazers christened themselves after sexploitation auteur Russ Meyer’s infamous 1965 southern-gothic assault on good taste, a film that makes Black Snake Moan look like A Streetcar Named Desire. What better title to include in band names inspired by movies?
Faster Pussycat
More Russ Meyer — the nudie movies answer to Orson Welles — provides the memorable moniker for the LA glam-metal veterans. Of all the band names inspired by movies and TV, Meyer's 1965 tale of murderous go-go girls on the rampage Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! feels the most appropriate.
They Might be Giants
Johns Flansburgh and Linnell, founders of Brooklyn’s seminal geek rock outfit, certainly know their early ‘70s comedy-mystery movies, lifting their name from a 1971 adaptation of a James Goldman (big brother of William) play starring George C. Scott as a man who thinks he’s Sherlock Holmes, and Joanne Woodward as his psychiatrist.
The Bloodhound Gang
Founded by Pennsylvania rappers Jimmy Pop and Daddy Long Legs in 1992, the acquired-taste comedy-rockers got their name from a trio of intrepid pre-teen detectives featured on the 1980s PBS kid’s show 3-2-1 Contact.
All About Eve
Say what you will about the 80s goth troubadours, most famous for their winsome 1988 single Martha’s Harbour, but you can’t fault their taste in movies. Formed in England in 1984, ABE share their name with the 1950 backstage drama All About Eve, starring Bette Davis on blistering form as fading Broadway diva Margot Channing. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture. Davis was nominated as Best Actress but lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday.
Travis
Exhibiting more subtlety than either LA hip-hop duo Paris Texas or Wisconsin emo-punks Paris, Texas, Scot-rockers Travis took inspiration not from the title of Wim Wenders’ redemptive 1984 road movie (Kurt Cobain’s favorite film and a big influence on U2’s Joshua Tree album) but from the late great Harry Dean Stanton’s character Travis Henderson.
Bonus Track — Indiecore stalwarts Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, who once adorned every adolescent bookbag in England, named themselves after a 1959 episode of The Goon Show, a hugely influential pre-Monty Python radio show specializing in bizarre characters, absurdist sketch comedy, and funny noises. The Neds had plenty of choice. Other Goon titles include “Lurgi Strikes Britain,” “Who is Pink Oboe?”, “Ten Snowballs that Shook the World,” and “The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill-on-Sea.”
