What's in a name?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

"JanetShareRoxyGina"

"Janet Shares Roxy's 'Gina" was recently nominated for an AVN Award. True story.

The sequel will be called "MILFN."

Satan to Blind Fury (love that Out Of Reach album) to Pariah (big time want on those) then back to Satan. All of it great.

Surprised no one mentioned Roxx Regime to Stryper yet.

Others: Soft White Underbelly to Blue Oyster Cult

Vengeance to Vengeance Rising

Wicked Lester to KISS

I think his example is less, bands changing names and more bands that are already big, changing their sound/membership and with it their name. Like if Van Halen would have changed their name when Hagar joined, or Sabbath when Dio joined the first time.

As people have mentioned before, Alter Bridge and Audioslave I think are good examples.

I think for the most part it kills the band. Do you think Queensryche would be doing well under the name Rising West right now?

I could also see it hurting the band though. Anthrax might of done better if they renamed the band after John Bush joined up.

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I could also see it hurting the band though. Anthrax might of done better if they renamed the band after John Bush joined up.

In the liner notes of the 1994 Motley Crue reissue CD w/John Corabi on vox, Nikki Sixx comes right out and sez that they shouldn't have released that album as Motley Crue and should've changed the name.

thejokeriv wrote:

Surprised no one mentioned Roxx Regime to Stryper yet.
Wicked Lester to KISS

Aside from maybe a demo or 2, there was never "official" releases from either one of these was there? The name changes came about before success.

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I think for the most part it kills the band. Do you think Queensryche would be doing well under the name Rising West right now?

I think it's a no-win situation for most bands. No matter what a band does, there will always be fans (especially in this day & age) unhappy with it. It they change the name, but basically sound the same, folks will complain "Why didn't they just stick with the name 'Band X'? If they keep the name but alter the sound even in the slightest bit, it's "Dude, they should just change the name and not tarnish the legacy of Band X".

Scott Gorham basically said the same thing about releasing new material under the Thin Lizzy name. "Damned if we do, damned it we don't".

jstate wrote:

Satan to Blind Fury (love that Out Of Reach album) to Pariah (big time want on those) then back to Satan.  All of it great.

Thats the best I cant think of quality wise, and probably the only one.
Maybe Cacumen to Bonfire. And Jester's March (from this) to House of Spirits (to this). Not a radical shift in style, but at least they remained exceptional.

The Alarm pulled a classic temporary name change when in 2004, main man Mike Peters figured British radio wouldn't give his latest composition a fair shot if he released it under The Alarm moniker (too old) so...

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In February 2004, Peters' new line-up of Alarm MM++ carried out a hoax on the British music industry by issuing "45 RPM" under the fictitious name The Poppy Fields. Peters, having garnered positive feedback for the song, decided to disassociate it from his veteran band to have it judged on its own merits, and recruited a young Welsh group called the Wayriders to lip-sync the song in the video.[3] The so-called Poppy Fields took "45 RPM" into the UK Top 30 before the hoax was revealed, setting the stage for the album, In the Poppy Fields.

And they went back to using the name The Alarm.

tohostudios wrote:

The Alarm pulled a classic temporary name change when in 2004, main man Mike Peters figured British radio wouldn't give his latest composition a fair shot if he released it under The Alarm moniker (too old) so...

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In February 2004, Peters' new line-up of Alarm MM++ carried out a hoax on the British music industry by issuing "45 RPM" under the fictitious name The Poppy Fields. Peters, having garnered positive feedback for the song, decided to disassociate it from his veteran band to have it judged on its own merits, and recruited a young Welsh group called the Wayriders to lip-sync the song in the video.[3] The so-called Poppy Fields took "45 RPM" into the UK Top 30 before the hoax was revealed, setting the stage for the album, In the Poppy Fields.

And they went back to using the name The Alarm.

and the press and record buying public went back to ignoring them  

Chairman_Smith wrote:

As people have mentioned before, Alter Bridge and Audioslave I think are good examples.

I actually wouldn't consider them good examples. In both cases the bands officially broke up but the musicians formed another group with a new singer, and especially since Creed and Rage Against the Machine have both reformed (although I think the latter haven't released anything since then) I would regard them as separate bands rather than ones who changed their name. Although maybe that's a bit of a technicality.

Would Jefferson Airplane to Jefferson Starship and then Starship count? I'm not familiar enough with them to know whether the name change marked a change in their sound.

Gardian to Guardian

Love Life to Fear Not

Red Alert to Steelheart

Legacy to Testament

Chicago Transit Authority to Chicago

Most importantly The New Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin

All wise changes.

EDIT: thinking about it, I'm not sure if these meet the criteria of Kurt's original post or not. Most of these had at least a demo floating about or were somewhat established with a small fan base prior to the name change, so I'm supposing they're valid?

Listening to No Fuel Left For the Pilgrims this morning made me think...

Disneyland After Dark? Did they every have official releases under that name or was it changed to D.A.D. due to legal pressure from the Mouse House before they could release any albums?

And remember the novelty band Green Jell-o? They became Green Jelly after a cease & desist from the Kraft Foods people.

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Disneyland After Dark? Did they every have official releases under that name or was it changed to D.A.D. due to legal pressure from the Mouse House before they could release any albums?

The original "Disneyland After Dark" name was on the initial pressing of No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims.



When the House Of Mouse objected the album was withdrawn and reprinted with the D.A.D. name on it instead.

Yea, I have the D-A-D version of that album. Looks like they had a few albums out as Disneyland After Dark in their native Denmark before the forced name change in the American market.

Great band, but they could also be added to the "Stupid Band Names" thread. The Disney or DAD name. Take your pick.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Yea, I have the D-A-D version of that album. Great band, but they could also be added to the "Stupid Band Names" thread. The Disney or DAD name. Take your pick.  

Those Disney folks have no sense of humor, and their legal beagles don't screw around.

Around this same time as the D-A-D brouhaha, there was also a band called "Bomb Disneyland" who were forced to change their name to "Bomb Everything" after a legal threat from Mickey Mouse's lawyers.

...then Ugly Kid Joe, who were supposed to have a song on the soundtrack of the Disney flick "Encino Man," got kicked off when Disney found out about their song "Madman," which is about a crazed gunman going on a killing spree in Disneyland.

Sheesh, Mickey, lighten up.

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Those Disney folks have no sense of humor, and their legal beagles don't screw around.

I know 2 guys that have worked for the Disney Corporation (one in the art department and another in the park) in the past and they can tell some stories. The Disney Company take EVERYTHING seriously. Childhood whimsy is nothing to f**k with.

You won't find a more extreme style shift than this. And they kept the name the same.

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The debut EP, Ignis Creatio, is one of the best doom-death albums I own. Sweet X-Rated Nothings and Twinaleblood are solid goth-metal/rock albums, but not even close to the quality of what came before. And what came after...well, I'm sure you can hear the problem.

More of a side project than a name change I think but these guys



are also the core of this band

Not sure if this fits:
Death Angel to Swarm
Death Angel to the Organization

Grave Digger changed their name to Digger for one album to bring a more commercial style and then went back to Grave Digger. Maybe that  album should be re-issued under the Grave Digger name one day.

Also, the band Avenger became Rage after their debut album and they are one of my favorites, although the style was basically the same.

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When the House Of Mouse objected the album was withdrawn and reprinted with the D.A.D. name on it instead.

I bought an import copy with the full band name Disneyland After Dark.  It was a complete impulse collector buy because it was pretty cheap.  One of those that afterward in a right state of thinking I'm like "did I really need another copy just for the full name".  Luckily I do really like that album.

Another example of Disney crying foul was alternative band DaDa's song "Dizz Knee Land".