4 Bands That Got Their Names From Other Bands

A band name can come from anything and anywhere, even from another band. Here are just four bands and artists who took their names from existing songs and the interesting stories behind them. From Nick Cave, to New Found Glory, to the convoluted emergence of The Naked and Famous.

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Band Names That Came From Other Bands

All Time Low

All Time Low emerged in the 2000s pop-punk era and are still going today, although maybe not as strongly as they used to. Still, they’re worth mentioning because of their band name, which came from a song by New Found Glory. “Head On Collision” was released in 2002 on the album Sticks and Stones. It features the line “And it feels like / I’m at an all-time low,” which allegedly inspired Alex Gaskarth et al to name their band All Time Low. The fledgling band released their debut EP in 2004, after forming in high school the year before, with their first studio album, The Party Scene, dropping in 2005.

The Naked and Famous

Auckland, New Zealand electro-pop band The Naked and Famous formed in 2007, and released their debut album, Passive Me, Aggressive You, in 2010. While the band name comes from the Presidents of the United States of America song “Naked and Famous,” it’s origin is a little bit roundabout. According to a 2011 review in The Guardian, the band were inspired by the song “Tricky Kid” by British musician Tricky, early member of Massive Attack and The Wild Bunch. In that song, Tricky quotes the Presidents of the United States of America by stating “everybody wants to be naked and famous.” Essentially, the Presidents of the United States of America beget Tricky who beget The Naked and Famous.

Bad Brains

The story behind the band name Bad Brains—pioneers of the D.C. hardcore punk scene even though they reject the descriptor—comes from the Ramones’ 1978 song “Bad Brain.” Seems pretty cut and dry, but there’s a story there. Bad Brains started out as Mind Power in 1976, and they dabbled in jazz fusion to start. However, a few years later they changed their name and their sound, going from Mind Power to Bad Brains, and jazz fusion to hardcore punk. Later, the band would integrate reggae into their sound after hearing Bob Marley, but have stuck with the name all these years.

St. Vincent

While this isn’t technically a band name as it is more of a moniker for artist Annie Clark, it does come from another band. Namely, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Specifically, the song “There She Goes, My Beautiful World” from the 2004 album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. The song is allegedly about lacking inspiration, and there’s a verse near the middle of the song that depicts several notable figures dealing with the affliction. The verse goes, “Karl Marx squeezed his carbuncles / While writing Das Kapital / And Gaugin, he buggered off, man / And went all tropical / While Philip Larkin stuck it out / In a library in Hull / And Dylan Thomas died drunk in / St. Vincent’s hospital.” What’s interesting here is that a song which depicts only men of supposed creative genius would go on to inspire a notably creative woman.

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