The CMJ festival rolls into town next week. While we'll have some number of posts about shows during the week, one of the best parts of these big festivals is looking through the list of bands for trends in band naming.
Colors
Black dominates this category with 10 bands. White is a strong second with 5. Blue defeats Red for third place with 3 bands claiming allegiance. (OK, one band is both black and white and another is both red and blue.)
- Black
- Another Black Day
- The Black & White Years
- Black Clouds
- The Black Hollies
- Black Ice
- Black Joe Lewis
- Black Milk
- Black Taxi
- Blackmarket
- Blackstrap
- Lucinda Black Bear
- White
- The Black & White Years
- Dances With White Girls
- White Lies
- White Rainbow
- White Shoes & The Couples Company
- Blue
- Red
- Brown
- Others
Animals
The number one threat to CMJ is bears! Or bands named after bears. 8 groups look to the bear for their names. Tigers have 4 band names. Various birds combine for 5 names. Horses, Apes and Whales also inspire multiple bands.
- Bears
- Bear Hands
- Bear In Heaven
- Bear Number 141
- Bearsuit
- I Wrestled A Bear Once
- Lucinda Black Bear
- Minus the Bear
- Mostly Bears
- Tigers
- Birds
- Horses
- Apes
- Whales
- Others
- As Tall As Lions
- Deerhoof
- Elk City
- Octopus Project
- Too Many Fish
- The Giraffes
- The Telepathic Butterflies
- Vancougar
- We Versus the Shark
- AIDS Wolf
- Animal Hands
- Party Animals>
- Hot Panda
Royalty
The king stays the king in the category
- King Darves
- The King Left
- King Reign
- King Tuff
- Prince Terrence
- Royal Bangs
- The Royal Chains
- Royal Vagabonds
- The Royalties
Food
- Bamboo Shoots
- Cheeseburger
- Lemonade
- Lieutenant Marscapone
- Peachcake
- The Poison Control Center
- Restavrant
- Salt & Samovar
- Wild Sweet Orange
Weather
Ringo Starr
Other People
Gender
Girls are more popular than boys who are more popular than men who are more popular than women.
- Girls
- Vivian Girls
- Arsonists Get All The Girls
- Bodega Girls
- Dances With White Girls
- Girls Like Cigarettes
- The Jealous Girlfriends
- Po' Girl
- Rich Girls
- Scouting for Girls
- Shiragirl
- Boys
- Lee Boys
- Pie Boys Flat
- Boy Genius
- Dieselboy
- The Friday Night Boys
- Homeboy Sandman
- The Jones Street Boys
- Men
- Women
Geography and Places
- Awesome New Republic
- Beach House
- The Broken West
- The Bronx
- Bridges and Powerlines
- Brighton MA
- California King
- Canada
- The Carribean
- The Coast
- Continental Divide
- Ex Norwegian
- Grand Avenue
- The Hong Kong Blood Opera
- High Places
- Hollywood Holt
- Home and Garden
- Iran
- Japandroids
- The Jones Street Boys
- Land Of Talk
- The Midway State
- Nakatomi Plaza
- The Northern
- Princeton
- Radio Luxembourg
- Oxford Collapse
- Palomar
- The Sea
- Tunnels to Holland
- Sunny Day Glasgow
- Vancougar
- Zimbabwe Legit
Modern Clothes
Punctuation
The explanation point wins this category by a landslide!
- 30H3!
- Cause Co-motion!
- Die! Die! Die!
- Dimitry!!!
- Elizabeth !
- Hey Rosetta!
- Simon Says No!
- Stook!
- Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!
- T!Katz
- DD/MM/YY
- Ki: Theory
- Kid:Nap:Kin
- pit-er-pat
Shhhh
So nice, they named it twice (or more)
- Die! Die! Die!
- Motel Motel
- Picture Picture
- Shout Out Out Out Out
- Takka Takka
- Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!
Other Notably Entertaining Band Names
- Arsonists Get All The Girls
- A BIG YES and a small no
- Check Out the Tits on Tituba
- Ex Norwegian
- Experimental Dental School
- French Horn Rebellion (FHR)
- Girls Like Cigarettes
- Good Times Crisis Band
- The Hong Kong Blood Opera
- Hooray For Humans
- I'm Not Jim
- Its Not You Its Me
- Miracles of Modern Science
- My Imaginary Friends
- The Naked And Famous
- Nathaniel Hoho and the Click Clack Boom
- The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
- The Phenomenal Handclap Band
- The Pimps of Joytime
- See You Next Tuesday
- Thank You For The Drum Machine
- The Toxic Avenger
- Tractor Operator
- Underwater Tea Party
- Wooden Nickle
Who are you looking forward to seeing? Who is worth checking out? Who is skippable?
Don Juan Dracula from Norway!