These are the top 10 bands with pointless names that Top 10 List feel are just plain stupid. Bands occasionally pick the most absurd names and who knows what goes into their mind when they are picking that name. Hopefully others will not follow suit and learn from their predecessors’ mistakes. Let’s take a look at top 10 pointless rock band names.
1. Kiss The Anus of a Black Cat:
A WHAT! It’s no wonder that this rock band is not as famous as many other top 10 rock bands on this list. How does rock music relate to a cat’s balloon knot? This is beyond bizarre if you ask me.
Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat is a psychedelic neofolk band from Gent, Belgium, formed by Stef Heeren. Their music was inspired by religious and shamanistic music and rituals. The name comes from a medieval witchcraft ritual.
2. Suffocate for Fuck Sake:
Shouldn’t it be for Fuck’s Sake? Again a rock band is underestimating its intelligence making itself look like a child in a garage playing this music. Why use the derogatory language? Not necessary if you ask me.
3. Smashing Pumpkins:
Smashing Pumpkins is an American alternative rock band, originating from Chicago Illinois. It was formed in 1988 by the frontman Billy Corgan, and James Iha, the rhythmic guitar player. Over the years the band has had a diverse, densely layered guitar heavy sound that combined elements of heavy metal, pop, psychedelic and gothic roc and even a touch of progressive rock as well.
Why pointless? Fans are not the only ones to believe the name is stupid. The band itself thinks the name was stupid and a bad idea. The name has nothing to do with squash as smash was meant to mean great (a British slang). Band members were quick to dissolve so that they can get on with their careers and lives. Where’s the pride? If you ask me…
Interestingly enough, the band is still active. Billy Cogan and Jimmy Chamberlin (left in 2009) reconvened to record the album Zeitgeist. The new members, which still include Cogan, have just released a new album Oceania and are on tour again.
4. Puddle of Mudd:
Puddle of Mudd is an American post-grunge band that has sold over seven million albums and had a number of No. 1 rock singles in the United States. Their song,”Blurry” was played three times in the video Ace Combat 5: The Unsung Way.
Critics cannot understand why the added the extra d in Mudd and “of” in their name. It does not really make sense, if you ask me. It’s like saying sandwich of tuna. The band would have been fine with just Mud Puddle as their name. Still original – if you ask me…
The name origins came from the 1993 Missouri River flood which left the band’s space a big muddy mess. They couldn’t name themselves the Missouri River Flood, so they thought of the current name.
5. Def Leppard:
Def Leppard was a British band that was formed in 1977, featuring members like Rick Savage, Joe Elliot and Phil Collins. The band’s success came between the early 1980s and 1990s. Their most popular album was High ‘n’ Dry which was produced by Robert Lange, the man who defined their style.
Singer Joe Elliot thought of the name while he was in high school. This makes it easier for me to understand why they misspelled their name to mean that can’t hear sounds. They might as well have called themselves Dreadful, Rotten Music and saved themselves the trouble of fan mocking them.
Despite their bad name, Def Leppard is a good band, selling 100 million albums worldwide. They are one of 5 rock bands with two original studio albums selling over 10 million copies in the United States.
This is a very popular song from the high selling Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon. The released in 1973. The distinctive sound of the song depends on the clever splicing of several different sounds into one track. The different sounds are of coins clinking, cash registers ringing, currency notes being torn and the clear hard sounds of the guitar. This was one of the songs which made the album such a super hit.
This song written by Axl Rose who is also the lead singer of the band Guns n Roses was released in 1992. It is a very long song with lengthy orchestral arrangements. The ending guitar solo by Slash is considered one of the best amongst guitar solos in a song. The popular video of the song shows Axl getting married to his girl friend before a storm ruins the wedding.
The authenticity of this ranking cannot be disputed by anyone in the world on a top ten chart. There might be demands of placing it at number one. The song was released in1977 and was written by Don Henley, Don Felder and Glenn Frey. The song sold a million copies within three months of its release. The Eagles also won the album of the year Grammy in 1978. The song’s solo is ranked number eight.
Have you seen the rain was released in 1971 and was written by John Fogerty for the band Credence Clearwater Revival. It records the end of personal idealism of the band a nostalgia for the good times that do not last too long. The song keeps getting revived and replayed in movies and televisions shows. It is from the album Pendulum.
This is an example of alternative rock and the British invasion of the American Rock scene. Viva la Vida is the collective writing effort of the entire band of Cold Play. The song was released in 2008 and won the Grammy for the Song of the year in 2009. It was a hit in both the UK and the USA. It is one of the few songs which have had 4 million paid downloads. Viva la Vida means ‘long live life’ in Spanish.
The song is brilliant and Jeff Buckley’s voice is beautiful, to say the least. However, the lyrics are so depressing that you will want to kill yourself before the song ends. It’s a pretty song which mixes breakup with a breakdown and talks a lot about loneliness.
Pink Floyd is known to have created some of the best songs ever and this one is not an exception. If you come out alive after listening to Lover, You Should Have Come Over, make sure you listen to the lyrics of this song which talk about having an unresponsive and indifferent attitude towards the world.
The fact that Ian Curtis had unmistakable suicidal tendencies becomes apparent in this song. The lyrics talk about how ‘we’ knocked on hell’s doors and forced ‘ourselves’ in. It is quite a breaking taking ode to suicide.
This song is laced with every depressing theme you can think of- mutilation, annihilation, alienation and deprecation. Richey James Edward was clearly emotionally unstable and the fact that he disappeared without a trace in 1995 makes it easy to understand why he wrote such mind-numbingly depressing lyrics.
When this song was released, it became clear that the band was a part of the ‘goth pop’ genre. The lyrics centre around a woman who is stuck in a dark society and how she drowns herself to make it end. The atmosphere surrounding the song is dark and depressing enough to make you want to cry yourself to sleep.
This was the band’s last album but the fact that the EMI London Recording Studio changed its name to Abbey Road Studios, should give you an idea about how amazing the recording sessions were. After the release of the album, this studio became the most sought after studio and those who worked there were treated like celebrities.
This was the first song recorded by the band when they decided to stop touring and were told to pull up their socks. Needless to say, they followed it up and the final recording session was remarkable. However, Lennon did not like it as much as the rest of the band members. It influenced the likes of Jeff Lynne and ELO.
When this song was first recorded, none of the band members were happy with it. McCartney and Lennon felt that that they needed to change the sound in such a way that it would be at par with their debut hit single. The two members then vanished for about 15 minutes and came back with a much better version of the song. Mick Jagger says that he was greatly influenced by this song.
Brian Wilson was significantly influenced by this song even though the band felt that the original sound was not at par with the quality they were known to produce. If The Beatles did not perform this song at a concert, the audience would beg them to until they did- at least 4 times!
This single was not accepted by most recording studios in the United States. However, Columbia Records finally released it and it became the band’s first hit single. The song raised the bar for the band and all their subsequent songs were made to match up to its superior sound. Needless to say, all the contemporary bands were forced to see what they were up against and had no choice but to work even harder!
This band made it to the Billboard countdown for four consecutive years from 1997 to 2000 – but you never hear them on the radio, rarely get to see their videos on TV, and almost none of the people you meet have heard them. Yet, when you pick up their debut album, you are blown away by their music.
This Finnish band was formed in 1977 and they continued to play for around eight odd years, before disbanding after a series of misfortunes in 1985. They never made it to the big labels but their music has its own cult following, swearing by their offbeat melodies and sound tones.
Тhis band is synonymous with the hit ‘Love Hurts’ but no one knows any other song by them. This typical rock band of the seventies has several great numbers which have even been covered by other artists like the Guns N’ Roses. Yet, you don’t hear of any die-hard Nazareth fan who has their complete discography.
Debuting in 1995, this American band cannot be called a rock band, for their music defies genre. They have released only a handful of albums in the past fifteen years and have remained media shy. Although their tracks are all too familiar (what with them being used in TV shows and movies all the time) very few have heard of them and really heard them.
This band has explored almost every type of music there was to explore in the eighties. They have had Billboard numbers almost every year starting from 1979, and have had several hit albums. Yet, they never gained celebrity status, and seemed to disappear into oblivion.
