Feelies - Sit back, relax and feel the flight

New wave and college rock band from Haledon, New Jersey.

According to band member Glenn Mercer his fellow guitarist Bill Million conceived the band name, handed to him by Aldous Huxley through his futuristic novel Brave New World (1932).

In that book Feelies are movies you can not only see and hear, but also feel by means of buttons built into the cinema seats.

Active: 1976-1992; 2008-present, USA
Site: http://thefeeliesweb.com/

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Beaver Brown - Paint shop humour

Full name: John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, a rock band from Narragansett, Rhode Island.

Brooding over a nice band name – at that moment the group was in a storage room – one of the members saw a row of paint pots, color: Beaver Brown. Eureka!

For the sake of the story behind the name it is a pity that they didn't take the matter a bit further, to a strong ale by that name: Beaver Brown Ale.

Active: 1972-present, USA
Site: http://www.myspace.com/johncaffertyandthebeaverbrownbandreal

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Peach of Immortality

Hardcore punk songs and gogo-music dominated the setlists of this band from Washington. Confusing highlight was the album Talking Heads! - confusing because to our knowledge there is nor was any relationship between Peach of Immortality and the famous band of David Byrne, The Talking Heads.

In Chinese tradition and culture the peach plays an important role: in particular Zhang Guo, one of the eight so-called 'Immortals', is associated with the peach and especially with eating it. Zhang is believed to be the true founder of Taoism.

The Chinese reverence for peaches seems to be due to the fact that peach trees are in bloom before they are in leaf. Mysterious, indeed.

Active: 1984-?, USA

See also: Talking Heads

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Massada

Dutch band with Moluccan roots that often - because of its specific blend of guitar and percussion - is compared with Santana.

The double 's' in the band name is something of a luxury, because Massada is a reference to the palaces and forts on a mountain in Israel that are world famous by the name Masada.

In any case the 'misspelling' was not made to avoid confusion with jazz and klezmer band Masada (with one 's'), because that formation - led by John Zorn - only exists since the early 1990s.

Active: 1973-present, NLD
Site: http://www.massada.nu/

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Beautiful South - Where it's always warm and sunny

Alternative rock group, its members having the Housemartins as their home band and grey, boreal Hull, England as their home base.

According to one source Beautiful South wanted to make fun of the Housemartins, sturdy northerners who are not known for doing the conga and stayed behind.

According to the BBC website however the story is quite different: there the choice for Beautiful South is called 'ironic'. Singer Paul Heaton is said to have said that he chose the name to sarcastically voice his past and present dislike of the south of England and its inhabitants.

Active: 1988-2007, GBR
Site: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beautiful_South

See also: Housemartins

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Ghoti Hook

Wonders never cease: Ghoti Hook was a band that managed to catch Christian principles in punk music.

These relipunkers, who came from Fairfax, Virginia, chose a name the first word of which was artificially constructed. Not by the band itself, but by someone who wanted to ridicule English spelling; in this context the names of William Ollier and George Bernard Shaw are often mentioned.

What it comes down to is that in English it is possible to pronounce ghoti as fish. Make the first two letters sound like the 'gh' as in tough, the 'o' as in 'women', and 'ti' as in 'nation'. Applied to the mysterious name Ghoti Hook the result is an ordinary Fish Hook.

Remarkably the band members did not pronounce the name like this at all: it sounded more like Goatee Hook. A goatee often goes together with a mustache, a combination sometimes called a talkong putiy.

Active: 1991-2002, USA
Site: http://www.myspace.com/ghotihookmusic

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Raspberries - A deflation case

When this pop rock band from Cleveland, Ohio still had no name, special sessions were organised to supply that want.

The suggestions that came forward were sometimes outrageous, bringing lead singer Eric 'The Kid' Carmen to a point of desperation in which he cited a favorite expression of Froggy from the classic comedy The Little Rascals: ‘Aww, strawberries!’. A real find without a doubt.

Please note that the group is called Raspberries, not The Raspberries!

And for the sake of completeness: blowing a raspberry is a denigratory (or rather deflationary) action: making the sound of a fart by sticking out the tongue and blowing hard.

Active: 1970-1975; 2004-present, USA
Site: http://www.raspberriesonline.com/band_bio.shtml

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Champs - A horse with a name

In 1957 Challenge Records, a company owned by film star and 'singing cowboy' Gene Autry, recorded the song Train To Nowhere; it was sung by Dave Burgess, also known as Dave Dupree.

To fill the B-side of the planned single three of Dupree's accompanists (working as the Flores Trio for a different label) registered a jingle. They were mentioned as The Champs on the record; title of the song: Tequila.

The rest is history of almost epic proportions: while Dupree's number was literally a train that never arrived, Tequila took the charts by storm all over the world.

It may seem as if the name Champs was thought up on the spot, but the choice of the Flores Trio was not entirely coincidental: in his films and television shows Gene Autrey rode a beautiful horse called Champion. Champ was so popular that even a comics series was dedicated to it.

Active: 1958-1965, GBR
Site: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p16381

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Ratt - Mickey's dark nephew

Especially in the 80s of the last century the American heavy metal band Ratt (called Mickey Ratt until 1981) saw its greatest successes.

The original band name is borrowed from a underground comic, drawn by Robert Armstrong. This comic was entitled Mickey Rat (written with one 't' however), which in turn was referring to Disney's Mickey Mouse.

Robert Armstrong nor the band Ratt were persecuted by Disney's exterminators of plagiarism and infringement of the trademark laws, which is noteworthy.

Active: 1976-1992; 1996-2010, USA
Site: http://www.therattpack.com/

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Charged GBH - And still not behind bars

The hardcore/crossover trashband Charged GBH from Birmingham is usually called GBH in calm corridor chat.

These pioneers of the British hardcore scene derive their name from a code used by the English police force meaning grievous bodily harm. Charged GBH therefore means as much as 'accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm'.

There is no evidence for the assumption that GBH refers to 4-hydroxybutyric acid. That case would be hard to make anyway, because the abbreviation of this acid is GHB.

It is a substance found in man's central nervous system and can also be synthesized by obtaining it from, for example, wine, meat or minor citrus fruit. The active ingredient – considered an illegal drug in many countries - is used to treat narcoleptics (people who suffer from 'sleeping sickness').

Active: 1978-present, GBR
Site: http://gbhuk.com/

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