Band Name Origins Part I

15 06 2009

I’m a sucker for a backstory regardless of the medium. Movies, stories, even bands. For some reason I just have to know the history of whatever I’m watching, reading or listening to. That is probably the reason I’m such an addict to How It’s Made.

I came up with the idea for Band Name Origins after realized that some of the music we listen to is performed by artists bearing names such as KoRn. That got me curious as to how some of my favorite bands actually concocted their names. So here we go…

1.) Godsmack
Year Founded: 1995

Name Origin: Originally, many believed the band was named after the Alice in Chains song of the same name. According to the band, they arrived at the name after one band member made a particularly inappropriate comment and another remarked “God will smack you for that one”. Hence forth one would receive a “Godsmack” for bad behavior.

2.) Metallica
Year Founded: 1981

Name Origin: For a band that got really anal over the whole Napster fiasco, the way they picked their name is irony at its best. Lars Ulrish stole the name from “Mr. Metal” of San Francisco, Ron Quintana. He was getting ready to launch a metal fanzine and had a few names. He asked, as any good person would do, his friend Lars for help, and after hearing the name “Metallica,” Lars quickly suggested a different name and kept “Metallica” for himself!

3.) Breaking Benjamin
Year Founded: 1998

Name Origin: The band derived their name from an incident when Benjamin Burnley (vocalist)  was covering a Nirvana song during an open mic night at a club when he dropped the microphone, breaking it. The person who owned the microphone came on stage and said, “Thanks to Benjamin for breaking my fucking mic.” In 1999 the band changed its name shortly to plan 9 then in late 2001, after various line-up changes, the band changed its name back to Breaking Benjamin.

4.) Project 86
Year Founded: 1998

Name Origin: Andrew Schwab, vocalist of the band, always liked the sound of 86. He felt that “it meant to reject, separate, or dismiss. As if to say we will be ourselves despite what everyone else is doing, despite rejection.” Pretty deep.

5.) Red Hot Chili Peppers
Year Founded: 1983

Name Origin: Originally known as Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem (I shit you not…), the Peppers wisely decided to change their band name in light of their unexpected success. Flea and the other chose the name to represent their style of music. How that works exactly, I’m not really sure.


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Aural Assault

28 10 2008

I love music. I live music. I have some guilty pleasures (like listening to Godsmack) and I worship the sound of drums. I scavange the internet constantly looking for new bands to listen to. Sometimes they come from the unlikeliest of places such as Kent, Oh or Germany. So, here are some of my favorite bands that you’ve probably never heard of, but should. I’ll post Youtube videos if available, MySpace links if not.

1.) Butterfly Effect: An Aussie band with a serious kick. Their vocalist, Clint Boge, needs to improve on his live vocals, but their bassist more than makes up for it with crushing bass lines.

2.) Geist: Those of you who know me, know that I am huge fan of German rock. Not that progressive, industrial garbage, but real German rock. I suppose that could be construed as an oxymoron, but it does exist. I refer to this band as the Pearl Jam of Germany.

3.) Flypside: I don’t really know how to describe Flipsyde. A mix of rock, funk, and hip hop topped with a sprinkle of Caribbean beat. Their lyrics are the most impressive thing about them. Check out the song “US History” to find out exactly what I mean.

4.) Strata: I love this band, simple. Be careful though, their S/T album and their current album are two worlds apart. I mean, completely and totally different:

5.) Drop to Zero: Every morning, in the shower, I listen to 88.9 the AlterNation. Every once in a great while a song would come on  that I adored. I could never remember more than the line “walk these silver streets.” Inevitably, I would enter those words in google along with “lyrics” and turn up nothing. It was infuriating. Finally, after probably the 30th time I’d heard it play on the radio, the DJ said something akin to “and that was local band Drop to Zero.” I dug up their Myspace and bought their CD immediately. Listen to Silver Streets.

Drop To Zero

6.) Superheist: Like I said, I’ll search anywhere for new, good music. Sometimes those adventures take me to Germany, sometimes they take me to Australia. Suprisingly, there is quite a rock movement down under. Superheist has been around for quite some time. I love their drummer’s work on the high hat!

7.) Ours: This band is kind of hard to explain. Blending subtle hints of early Radiohead with latter-day Deftones. And perhaps a pinch of the Cure. Regardless, check them out:

8.) Dredg: I’ve heard them be compared to everyone from Tool to a hard rock version of the Dave Matthews Band. I shit you not. I couldn’t find an album version of this song on Youtube, but the live should suffice.

If you know of any bands I might like, please feel free to post them!

-Chad 2


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Wow. Amy Winehouse. Wow.

2 10 2008

Amy Winehouse is roughly my age at 25 years old. I have never in my entire life witnessed a more insane, publicized fall-from-grace ever. Ever. When she first came on the scene, I remember being fascinated with her performance at the 2007 VMA music Awards singing a modern version of Rehab. I was blown away by her incredible voice and even believed her to be quite sexy. Retro doesn’t aways work so well, especially with music, but Winehouse presented an invigorating take on 1950s swing.

After that, she sort of just disappeared for a little while. it didn’t take long for John Q. Public to find her. Of course, she didn’t really try to hide. At any rate, Amy reemerged as a dilapidated shell of her former self. It was obvious from the outset that she had been using drugs. A lot of them. But, with all the publications citing her readily apparent drug use, would it end there there?

Oh, no.

Beginning roughly around December 2007, Winehouse embarked on an insane journey that left many simply thinking “huh?” Winehouse admitted to harming herself to ease the pain of withdrawal, beating up on her boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil (a grammar school drop-out), and being checked into a hospital after overdosing on heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine and alcohol. Holy shit.

And then, whether you choose to believe the source (the Sun), there was that video of her smoking crack-cocaine and speaking of taking Valium and ecstasy.

The laundry list of “What the fuck?” moments continues. From showing up to her god daughter’s first performance to constantly losing her balance in public. A quick look through Google image search for “Amy Winehouse” can further illustrate how atrocious Winehouse’s life has become.

A Grammy-award winner, Winehouse still manages to sell records and win public acclaim. It is a sad thing to watch a person such as her, who could’ve been the white Diana Ross, sell herself so short. I’m not sure if her success is a testament to the perversion of American society or that people really don’t give a shit about a human being as long as they are entertaining. I’ll let you decide.

Hopefully she’ll clean herself up and get her act together. We’ll long to see a revamped Winehouse that looks a little more like this:

-Chad 2


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The Day That Never Comes

16 09 2008

Let’s face it, Metallica has been and always will be a mainstay of the metal music genre. Love them or hate them, Lars Ulrich & Co. are the proverbial figureheads of loud music. They have also been a constant source of derision among some fans for various reasons. The arguments are nearly endless: Master of Puppets vs. …And Justice For All? Cliff Burton vs. Jason Newsted? James with long hair vs. James with short hair?

Beginning with ReLoad, Metallica began to hemorrhage fans as more and more people moved away from the new sound the band had chosen to go with. Followed by Metallica S&M and the Garage Days Revisited, the group seemed to be reaching for something that wasn’t there. Many people even began to think Metallica was on the outs. That they were washed up and at the end of an illustrious career.

And then St. Anger was released. It was to be the pinnacle of the band’s existence. The CD fans had longed for since Master of Puppets. It was legendary.

Or not. The album was ridiculed by fans and critics alike. On Amazon.com, the album received 1500 1-Star votes opposed to just over 1,000 5-Star votes.

A five year hiatus would eventually lead to the release of Metallica’s ninth studio album Death Magnetic. The first single “The Day That Never Comes” combined with leaked images of the CD artwork instantly seemed to harken back to the days of yore. Back to the days of spandex and glitter. Okay, maybe not that far back, but certainly to the days before cell phones were a hot item.

Alas, all was not right with the world. Metallica released an album that, for all intents and purposes, is simply ten rock ballads. The fans gathered and ‘lo they cheered for the songs were not “radio-friendly” due to their length. And behold! their first instrumental in 15 years adorned the album. But the rock Gods refused to budge and have smited the fans with a long-winded attempt at career resurrection.

The music is good. The instruments are phenomenal. But I’ve never understood the point of making a song long just to make a song long. Inserting a two minute breakdown into an 8 minute song is utterly pointless in my honest opinion. A solo I can almost understand. When the shortest song on the CD is 5:01 and the average is around 7 minutes, is really takes away from songs that could be rock ballads. So much so that one fan took it upon themselves to edit the cd and release a new version called “Metallica: Better, Shorter, Cut” that has almost overtaken the true album in numbers of illegal downloads. That has to say something of both the fans and the band. What? I’m not really sure.

I managed to…uh…obtain a copy of the “Better, Shorter, Cut” version and I must say…if Metallica had released this they would be getting five stars all around. The mastering is much better than Rick Rubin could produce, which is pretty sad if you consider the guy who made the edited version did it with a PC and some off-the-shelf software.

Their first single “The Day That Never Comes” is a very good lead-off for the CD. It attempts to go where One once did, but those are big shoes to fill. If you take the song for what it is, you’ll enjoy it. The video, on the other hand, is wretched. Drawn out and pointless, the video is filled with imagery that is neither moving nor touching. Watching it is about as exciting as watching a Wendy’s training video. See for yourself:

All-in-all Death Magnetic is definitely a step in the right direction for Metallica, a band that seems to suffer criticism no matter what they do. It is always lonely at the top and the band just needs to endure that. No matter how epic their CD is, there will still be those that despise them regardless.

While we are on the subject, what is with the Lars-hate? You people are actually pissed because he is angry that people are ripping off the music his band created? Where does it say that you are entitled to something just because someone else is rich? “Well, we bought their CDs!!” By that logic, you deserve to share in the profits of your boss since you work there. I’m not against P2P or Bittorrent, hell I’m a user, but don’t bust up the band because they are irritated that something they worked for is being stolen. I don’t care if they sell 1 million albums, they still have every right to bitch at you for stealing their stuff. Besides, Lars is hilarious when he’s mad.

-Chad “Don’t Tread on Me” 2


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