CKY

This West Chester, Pennsylvania based American post-grunge band could have tried to become popular with an intellectual audience if the group name would have referred to the algorithm by Cocke-Kasami-Younger (CKY).

For the inquisitive among us: this algorithm determines whether or not a string can be generated by a given context-free grammar; if this is the case, it tells us exactly how the string is generated, which is called parsing the string. The algorithm is an example of dynamic programming.

All good and well, but regrettably we must disappoint those readers who are still awake by now: the band was not inspired by Messrs Cocke, Kasami and Younger. We owe it to the obsessive interest lead singer Deron Miller has for horror films that the band is called CKY.

The movie Sleepaway Camp (1982) made Miller decide to adorn his band with the name Camp Kill Yourself.

Somewhat controversial of course and that will be the reason that the band mostly goes through life as CKY, Camp, cKy or ckY.

Active: 1998-present, USA
Site: http://www.ckyalliance.com/

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CCC Inc.

Dutch folk and blues formation and breeding ground for such talent as Joost Belinfante (later joined reggae band Doe Maar, world famous in the Netherlands), Ernst Jansz (ditto) and Appie Rammers (before and also after member of the Outsiders) - to name just a few.

The three C's in the band name make clear that this is an Amsterdam affair: the letters represent Capital Canal City.

Unless the band members wanted to be cynical; in that case CCC could mean Cash Cash Cash.

Active: 1967-1974, NLD
Site: http://www.cccinc.nl/

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Dayglo Abortions

Canadian punk band from Victoria, British Columbia producing lyrics that stand out by a total lack of respect for social standards.

The band was originally called Sic Fucks, but when the members (wrongly) suspected that that name possibly had been claimed by legendary punk rocker GG Allin (1956-1993) - probably this concerned the name The Scumfuc - they did not want it any longer.

Their promoter had sent them out on the streets with a whole box of Dayglo paint spray (to announce the next concert by airbrushing texts on walls everywhere with fluorescent paint) and they liked the name Dayglo. They did agree though that the noun they saw printed most frequently in the newspapers the next day needed to be added to Dayglo. Incidentally one newspaper featured a big story about a doctor who had carried out abortions. That lead to Dayglo Abortions.

Active: 1979-present, CAN
Site: http://www.myspace.com/officialdaygloabortions

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Dashboard Confessional - Open your heart to ... your car

Acoustic indie music, but mainly emo compositions characterize the works of Dashboard Confessional, written to a large extent by frontman Chris Carrabba.

The band from Boca Raton, Florida owes its name indirectly to the text of one Carraba's creations, The Sharp Hint of New Tears, the second track on the album The Swiss Army Romance (2000). That song opens with

'On the way home
This car hears my confessions
I think tonight
I'll take the long way'.

A detour to be able to open one's heart to a dashboard - that apparently appealed so much to Carrabba that he called himself a dashboard confessional.

Active: 1999-present, USA
Site: http://www.dashboardconfessional.com/

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Bathory - Dracula's better half?

Heavy metal band considered pioneers of the black metal and Viking metal style.

The band name refers to notorious Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory (1560-1614, dubbed 'countess Dracula', also described as 'the bloody countess').

Active: 1983-2004, SWE
Site: http://www.myspace.com/bathoryofficial

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Barbed Wire Noose

The progressive metal band from sunny Palm Springs took its musical inspiration from such acts as Alice in Chains, Dream Theater, Rush, Boston and Judas Priest.

The source of inspiration for the band name may well have been a Three Sixes song, Possession. The track is not too carnivalesque judging by this small quotation:

'My lust to mutilate, subjugate and abuse
I satisfy with torn flesh from a barbed wire noose'.

Meat torn off by a barbed wire noose? Yuck.

A somewhat more literary inclination could have swung them round to the title of a Harold Adams novel (Barbed Wire Noose – a Carl Wilcox Mystery).

Active: 1998-2011?, USA
Site: http://www.myspace.com/barbedwirenoose

See also: Alice in Chains, Judas Priest

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Airborne Toxic Event - Putting it mildly

Rock band from Los Feliz (near Los Angeles), set up by Mikel Jollett who originally operated as an author.

Little wonder, then, that the source of inspiration for the band name is a literary one: it comes from the postmodern novel White Noise by Don DeLillo, winner of the 1985 American National Book Award.

In the book a toxic cloud leaks from a railway carriage, euphemistically described by army authorities as an airborne toxic event.

Active: 2006-present, USA
Site: http://www.theairbornetoxicevent.com/

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Alabama Thunderpussy - Eureka!

Metal band from Richmond, Virginia that, according to oral tradition, is drinking beer one day while watching a cheap seventies sex movie.

A black transsexual prostitute with a small part has the line: 'I am the Alabama Thunderpussy'.

The group doubles over with laughter and promptly makes a call to the record company (Relapse Records) to let them know: we have a new name for the band!

Active: 1996-2008, USA
Site: http://www.relapse.com/artist/artist.aspx?ArtistID=10004

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Say Anything

The indie punk band from Los Angeles, California was first called Sayanything, but in 2002 a space was added and see what happens: legibility of the name increased by one hundred percent.

There are two possible explanations for the band name, but only one of them really means something. It must have been the romantic film Say Anything from 1989 that provided the much needed inspiration.

Because the other candidate, an American board game with exactly the same title, was only brought on the market in 2008.

Active: 2000-present, USA
Site: http://www.sayanythingmusic.com/

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Death Cab for Cutie

Indie pop band from Bellingham, Washington, the early music of which Rolling Stone magazine characterized as being 'emotional thanks to the lack of emotion'. Oh well, they have to fill their pages too.

Lovers of conspiracy theories would like to have seen a reference to the supposed death of Paul McCartney in 1966 in the name Death Cab for Cutie. 'Beatle cutie' Paul is said to have died in a car accident (with a cab?), after which his place in the Fab Four was taken by a look-alike.

But in this case reality is not quite as gloomy as that: Death Cab for Cutie was inspired by a number with that title by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (also known as Bonzo Dog Band) that occurs in Beatle film Magical Mystery Tour (1967).

Active: 1997-present, USA
Site: http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/

See also: Beatles

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