another great divide

top five awful bands with great names

5. Wham!
Unadulterated enthusiasm.

4. My Chemical Romance
Some may disagree with me here, but I think this name screams promise. I want to state for the record I'm not so much agreeing with the "My" (after My Bloody Valentine, no one gets to do that anymore - and god, is there anyone that the name "My Morning Jacket" doesn't annoy?) as the "Chemical Romance." Too bad putting those two words together was the best poetry this band ever came up with.

3. The Killers
Their first album came out in 2004. How did a better band not already have this name by then?!

2. Creed
It's simple, it's memorable, it says who they are. It's even kinda cheesy... just like... well, never mind.

1. The Rolling Stones
Okay, maybe not an awful band, but certainly one of the most overrated bands of all time. What an iconic name though.


top five great bands with awful names

5. U2
They're named after a spy plane? It's a shitty pun? It's just plain fucking meaningless? This band, which has released some of the most sweepingly thematic and insightful music I've ever heard, deserves a better name.

4. Split Enz
Even before you get to the Z at the end, you're already naming your band after a fairly unprofound phenomenon. Why guys? Why?

3. Death Cab for Cutie
A couple of problematic elements here. First is the trend of naming your band after a song by a better band. I hate that. Second, it completely misrepresents the band's tone and image. (And yes, their cover of This Charming Man aside, they do qualify as a great band in my book.)

2. Barenaked Ladies
The band: Masters of painful ironic comedy and imagistic songwriting. The name: schoolyard immaturity.

1. Beatles
It's a pun for fuck's sake! Don't tell me it's not, I know a pun when I see one!


(For the record, the worst band name of all time is "...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead." I fell asleep three times typing that.)