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The band's name is taken from a fictional entertainment device described in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
"311 is an Omaha, Nebraska, police code for indecent exposure. One rainy day, 311 bassist P-Nut and some friends went skinny dipping in a public pool. They were apprehended by police. One of P-Nut’s friends, Jim Watson, was arrested, cuffed (naked), and taken home to his parents. He was issued a citation for a code 311 (indecent exposure). The band found the incident amusing, so they based their name on it."
"Bassist Terry Corso said the name was a day dream he had about how Earth is just an experiment for aliens from other planets."
"The spoken form of the band ∆, alt + j is the keyboard shortcut used to type ∆ on a Mac computer. ∆ is a symbol used to show change in mathematical equations."
Named after a flea market in Orlando, FL.
Steven Page and Ed Robertson were bored at a Bob Dylan concert and turned to amusing each other, pretending they were rock critics, inventing histories and comments about the Dylan band. They made up various fictional band names, one of which was "Barenaked Ladies." Later, Robertson agreed to perform with a cover band in a battle of the bands, but his band broke up and he forgot about the gig. When he received a call a week before the show, asking him to confirm the gig, he improvised that the name of the band had changed to "Barenaked Ladies", recalling the name from the Dylan concert. He then called Page and asked if he wanted to do the gig; Page reportedly couldn't believe Robertson had given that name, but agreed to do the show. They arranged 3 rehearsals and missed them all. The two finally played the show on October 1, 1988 but instead of competing, they played while the other bands set-up, playing every song they could think of that they both knew. The show went well and the two went on to write songs and perform together for years.
Has the backronym "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence"
Suggested by guitarist Greg Ginn's brother, Raymond Pettibone, because "if a white flag means surrender, a black flag means anarchy."
When the duo grew up in Akron, Ohio, a schizophrenic man residing in a halfway house used to call their homes to ask for crayons, Diet Coke and cigarettes. His messages would always end with him saying "...don't be a black key. Don't be a b-flat."
The "Blink" was thought up by Tom DeLonge when the band consisted of DeLonge, Mark Hoppus, and their friend Scott Raynor. (They previously called themselves Duck Tape.) An Irish electronica artist was already using the name Blink, so they added "182" to the end.
After one of their shows, a mentally ill man approached frontman Matt Shultz, hugged him and said "you have to cage the elephant".
"Founder Will Toledo chose the name 'Car Seat Headrest' as he would often record the vocals to his early albums in the back seat of his car for privacy."
"Donald Glover used a Wu-Tang Clan name generator in his sophomore year of college at NYU, inputting his real name and coming up with Childish Gambino."
"Being heavily influenced by The Beach Boys, they originally recorded songs under the name Darlin' (a Beach Boys single off their 1967 album Wild Honey). However, a negative review in the UK's Melody Maker described the band's effort as "a daft punky thrash", which depressed the pair but unwittingly gave them a name for their next project."
According to lead singer Travis Morrison, this Washington, DC band's name was inspired by part of a line in the movie Groundhog Day, in which "[t]here's a guy who chases after Bill Murray and tries to keep selling him different types of insurance and 'the dismemberment plan' was one of them. It just stuck."
"Nameless for their first two shows as a band, at the end of their second show they asked the audience to yell out their ideas for a name. One audience member suggested "Fallout Boy", a reference to the sidekick of comic book superhero Radioactive Man from The Simpsons."
"Named after the fictional martial arts move called the "five point palm exploding heart technique" from the movies Kill Bill, which kills its victim by causing their heart to explode once they take five steps after being struck."
The name comes from his ideal superpower. "When I was a kid I would always bother people about super heroes and I was like, 'Ok if you could have any superpower in the creation of comic books what would you have, x-ray vision, you could be like invisible, what would you do?' I wanted to fly. That’s it. That’s all."
"Jimmy" is guitarist Tom Linton's younger brother, who had a weight problem. Lead vocalist Jim Adkins' younger brother drew a picture on Jimmy's door of him putting a globe in his mouth, and wrote on it "Jimmy Eat World." It eventually inspired the band's name.
Derives from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story "The Mark on the Wall", which reads, "...and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people..."
"After the song "Phoenix" from Daft Punk's debut album Homework. It has also been speculated that the band named themselves after actor Joaquin Phoenix, who, like the two main guitar players/brothers, has a scar left over from cleft palate surgery in childhood."
Originally known as "On a Friday", the band was given two weeks after signing to Parlophone to change their name. The band renamed themselves after the 1986 Talking Heads song "Radio Head" on the album True Stories, claiming it was the "least annoying song" on the album.
"Originally named the Impediments, the band changed its name to the Replacements following a June 1980 church hall gig in Minneapolis in which they were banned due to disorderly behavior."
Named after the little sister of the band's vocalist, Jón Þór Birgisson (Jónsi), whose name is Sigurrós (without a space). It translates to "victory rose."
Derived from a liquor store located across from Silverlake Lounge in Los Angeles, where they often played in their early days. A band member would often arrive at the store late at night to buy liquor, making a "Silversun Pickup". In interviews, the band has said its name is more of "a state of mind".
The band started 41 days into the summer.
Named after a song by the Long Island band The Waiting Process, who were inspired by their grandmother, Tina, that they "should take back Sunday from the Christian people in Long Island."
"Lead vocalist Rivers Cuomo needed to come up with a name when the band received a big break to open for Keanu Reeves' band Dogstar in 1992. Cuomo quickly nominated Weezer, a nickname given to him when he was a kid by other children who were teasing him about his asthma. Afterwards, the band had a long meeting and kicked around many more names, but nobody could come up with anything better."
After the CB radio Radiotelephony procedure for "Will Comply", a choice which lead singer & guitarist Jeff Tweedy has called "fairly ironic for a rock band to name themselves."
"The band's name was inspired by typing two lower-case "X"s together in Microsoft Word."
"The name is a reference to a story about the 1962 US MLB expansion team, the NY Mets. When two players chase the same batted fly ball, customarily one yells "I've got it" and the other then retreats to avoid a collision. But infielder Elio Chacón didn't understand the English term, so he and outfielder Richie Ashburn collided a few times while chasing fly balls. Another teammate suggested that Ashburn yell the words in Spanish instead—"yo la tengo"—so Chacón would understand. After that Ashburn and Chacón no longer ran into each other. But another teammate, Frank Thomas, didn't understand the Spanish term. So one day while chasing a fly ball, despite hearing Ashburn call out "yo la tengo," Howard ran into Ashburn."
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