Genre-specific band names - yay or nay?

[Mickeyboro]

 

Are genre-specific names a help or a hindrance?

 

My outfit is the Otis Jay Blues Band. Would dropping the Blues get us more gigs? Or is it a statement of commitment?

Edited December 28, 2024 by Mickeyboro

[Acebassmusic]

Round here if you mention "blues band" to most of the publicans / promoters it will put them off booking you as they think it's going to be "very-slow-blues-dirges-that-have-solos-that-go-on-foreveeeeeeeeer".......and they might be right. 🤣 Call yourselves "blues-rock" and you're fine and it gives you latitue to play stuff or arrangements that the "blues-chin-strokers" have less to complain about. "Blues" tends to go through periods of popularity cycles so personally I would not have "blues" in the band title as it may deter both publicans and punters. YMMV 🤷‍♂️

[Woodinblack]

I would say it is probably better to have that in the name if that is what you do, there are a lot of blokes who would go to something that had blues in the title.

Also it would indicate to people who didn't want to go to a blues night that it is worth keeping away - I certainly would not really call into a pub that had a band with the name blues in the title.

However, these are just people who don't know who you are, once people have seen you, the name doesn't really matter, as they know who you are. Also for landlords and bookings you can send videos etc to the pubs so they can see who you are and what you do.

[Leonard Smalls]

I think you can get away with it more in blues band...

You won't often see Evil Ernie's Rock Band, or Punky Joe's None-More-Punky Punk band. 

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

I'd say if you're playing in pubs that do that stuff already , then you'd be fine .

If on the other hand you're trying to reach out to different unknown venues , you may find it better to list yourselves as the  OJ band or something similar .

i doubt if you're doing anything like Bryan Ferry's son , but Otis Redding may be thought of by the potential beard scratchers .

possibly list yourselves as " in the style of Robert Cray " or whoever .  Just a thought ..

[SumOne]

It seems a rule that Ska covers bands need 'ska' in their name, it is for the one I'm in - at pub level it helps for a 'you know what your getting' sort of thing and getting punters that want to hear ska but haven't heard of us.

 

It isn't a very cool thing to do though, would be a bit lame if we were an originals band.

Edited December 28, 2024 by SumOne

[PaulWarning]

depends if that's all a band does, rather like a 'tribute' naming themselves so it leaves in no doubt who you are a tribute too, in this case, if all the band does is slow blues with long guitar solos then yes, keep blues in the title, if not, drop blues from the name.

Reminds me of a conversation I had with a fellow bass player many years ago, "What's your band called then?" I asked, "ZZ Birmingham he replied", "ZZ Top covers band then?" I asked, "No, we don't do any ZZ Top songs" 

Another band I knew called themselves Two Guitar Clash, after a Stiff Little fingers obscure B side because they did a lot of SLF songs, of course your average punter thought they did Clash covers

[police squad]

my 80s duo is called Miami Vice. Top 80s cop show but some people still ask what kind of stuff do we play.

'Just 80s' i tell them

[Boodang]

We called our Hendrix oriented band Purple Haze and seems to have helped get the appropriate crowd thru the door. We do qualify it on our poster as ‘psychedelic blues’. 
if it actually describes your music I think it can only help. 

[Leonard Smalls]

2 minutes ago, Boodang said:

if it actually describes your music I think it can only help

 Good thing my band is called The Sh!t band then!

 

 

[ossyrocks]

My band is called "The Out And Out Blues Band".

 

We like that it says what we do right on the tin. We don't struggle getting bookings either.

We are finding that we're increasingly being referred to as "The Out & Outs" though, and we like that too.

 

Genre specific names seem to suit blues bands more than anything else. 

 

@lee650 has a band called "Cold Fusion", who are playing tonight in fact, and you can sort of guess what they do from the name too.

 

Rob

[Bilbo]

Just don't call it a Jazz band. That's always a bad idea 

[SteveXFR]

I think most death metal bands make the genre clear with their names. You know Cattle Decapitation, Priest Crippler and Municipal Waste aren't going to be playing smooth jazz.

[Leonard Smalls]

9 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

I think most death metal bands make the genre clear with their names

It's usually a given from the names... But then you get other bands like Screaming Headless Torsos muddying the mix...

So perhaps a descriptive to add to the name would be useful, so we'd get Cattle Decapitation Death Metal/Borderline Djent Band, Priest Crippler plays Black.Death Metal and The Municipal Waste Death Metal Beat Combo.

And of course, The Screaming Headless Torsos Who Knows What It Is But It's Just A Bit Jazzy And Microtonal Sextet. 

 

[chriswareham]

This thread made me think of the excellent Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. And the Frank Spencer Blues Explosion.

 

[SteveXFR]

13 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

It's usually a given from the names... But then you get other bands like Screaming Headless Torsos muddying the mix...

 

If they were a metal band they'd be Headless Torso Bleeding from the Excrement Filled Neck Hole

[chriswareham]

Perhaps we also need a thread on misleading band names, album titles or artwork. Something like Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk Greats":

 

[tauzero]

We're called Dirty Roses - I think we've been asked twice if we're a G'n'R tribute (no) and we've never been asked if we're a Stone Roses tribute (still no).

 

A former band that I joined, The Lightning, had a Facebook page that the guitarist (not the most literate person alive) had titled "The Lightning\rock\blues band,,," (yes, that is what it said, including the punctuation). Mrs Zero and I took over the page and got shot of the blues reference (and the shit punctuation), and we got more gigs. I think we left the "rock" in but I'm not certain.

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, police squad said:

my 80s duo is called Miami Vice. Top 80s cop show but some people still ask what kind of stuff do we play.

'Just 80s' i tell them

 

Hopefully some Jan Hammer songs!

[Woodinblack]

We are named after a local road, it doesn't really tell you much

 

[AndyTravis]

38 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

We are named after a local road, it doesn't really tell you much

 

Yeah, a previous band was called The602 as we rehearsed next to the M602 (Liverpool to Manchester)

 

Not a huge fan of current band name, but it was in place before i joined…

 

I think the shoe has to fit…

 

“Slain Lambs Carcass” isn’t going to cut it if you’re a Latin Funk outfit etc

Edited December 28, 2024 by AndyTravis

[BillyBass]

6 hours ago, chriswareham said:

Perhaps we also need a thread on misleading band names, album titles or artwork. Something like Throbbing Gristle's "20 Jazz Funk Greats":

 

They look so wholesome don't they

[neepheid]

Oh, so that's why no-one wants to book us (or listen to us) - they think we play the spoons...

[uk_lefty]

I had an acoustic duo for a while called 'Not the Hoople' as a p take of all the shoddily named tribute bands that played in the most popular venue in town. We did not do any Mott the Hoople. Our poster had a picture of Mott the Hoople with a big red cross through it. One punter, long hair, leather waistcoat and Mott the Hoople t shirt came to me at the half time break and said while laughing "it's ok, not what I was expecting though" as he left. 

 

These days I wouldn't do anything other than stick the genre in the title, for a covers act. It's so hard for a venue to know what they're getting from a band, and equally their punters, that you need to get the message across quickly, and the best way IMO is in the band name. 

[Leonard Smalls]

8 hours ago, BillyBass said:

They look so wholesome don't they

Not Genesis... You can see it in his eyes!

😄