Band Name O'Clock

[Lean]

My band used to have Undefined as a name, as it was our favorite Math term.

Uhh, how about Nick and the Dicks, or Nick and the Penetrators?

The only good name I could think of is Riff Off, if your band is cool on the guitars.

[Patr1ck]

An artist isn't commercially successful from the get-go.

Worst comes to worst you can always use that synthesized voice like Zapp & Roger and keep your mate.

[shadowgrin]

Synthesize or go the Milli Vanilli route.

Lean, Nick's band already settled on the name Beavercore.

[The X]

if the band is happy with the singer, then you should keep him....see how he develops & see how the band develops....

[Lean]

I wasn't reading, shadow

[Nick]

A bit of news on the Beavercore front. We've been talking to a local guy, and he's gonna be our new lead vocalist / frontman.

I gave him all of our material, and he has started learning the songs. We're having our first rehearsal this Saturday and seeing how it goes. If it doesn't work, we'll go back to normal, if it does, we'll have a new singer!

And this guy is a much better vocalist. Good tone to his voice, and a good screamer. PLUS he's pretty much already in our social circle. (slightly different but whatever). I'm excited! The guy's a cool as dude so it should be sweet vibe.

Our current singer plays guitar aswell, so he will just play guitar and do backup vocal instead. He is fine with it.

So yeah, exciting times for me and my band! We're gonna sound completely different, and i can't wait to see what it's like.

P.s. We have new recordings up of the same songs if anyone's interested. www.myspace.com/beavercore.

[The X]

sweet, I guess you sorted the lead singer issue out....he'll make for a good backup vocalist

[shadowgrin]

What happened to the old lead vocalist, wasn't he a close friend of yours Nick? How did he take the rejection, did he went nuts on all of you?

[Nick]

Nah he was fine with it. We didn't actually replace him, we just added a lead vocalist and our old singer still plays guitar and does backup vocals.

It's actually really really good having 2 vocalist, cos the vocal harmonies make the music sound heaps more powerful.

Jordan (old singer) looks a lot more comfortable in his new role now. He's not really suited to the front man kind of role, he's much more himself when he's harmonising vocals and doing his guitar doodlings.

Anyway, everything with the new singer is going really well. We've been rehearsing with him over the past 2 weeks and he's learned all the songs and he's enthusiastic and the vibe is good and fun. I'm just really excited. Last night was actually our first gig with the new singer, and it went down so fucking well. I've never felt so excited musically. Everyone was so excited for us cos we've improved so much. I've never heard so many positive reviews and loud cheers. It was probably the best gig we've done. Not only were the vocal better, but musically we played tighter, and apparently seemed more like a "whole" as a band in terms of energy. The vocal was the weak point of the band before, and now it's one of the forte's. The energy of having 2 singers on stage is great, and the energy from every single member of the band on stage is always so intensely awesome. I can't wait to play more gigs. I'm excited. I have an erection.

Our goal this year is to save enough money for a professional recording. When we do i'll upload it to myspace and post here if anyone's interested in hearing 'the new beavercore'.

P.s. We're going to change our band name as soon as something comes up. So if there's still any epic suggestions out there, don't be shy now, come forward.

[shadowgrin]

It's actually really really good having 2 vocalist, cos the vocal harmonies make the music sound heaps more powerful....
....
....The energy of having 2 singers on stage is great,[/b][/color]

Like the Beatles and end up arguing who has musical control, like the Beatles.

Good to see you excited Nick about the way things are going, I have a request though.
Do a cover of Tribute. If your band can't play the tribute to the greatest song in the world then all of you don't deserve to have a band.

[Lean]

Or you could do a cover of "Come Together" by the Beatles. Since shadow opened about them anyway.

[Nick]

Was browsing NLSC and thought i'd make a bump post in here.

The latest is that, for any members from melbourne around here, we played at the Hi-fi Bar about a month ago. (For any internationlists, this venue is waaaaay above our standards. Premier entertainment venue in Melbourne)
Anyway, it was probably our biggest gig ever. We had the chance to play at a popular city venue, on a Saturday night. Our chance to play to a new crowd. It was a good turn out (most of the crowd our friends however), and we sounded rad (thanks to the professionals), and in whole it was a great gig. We've never been so praised before. People were genuinely surprised at how much they loved it. It got me really excited about everything.

One of the guys who saw us at the gig (our singer's family friend), was real impressed and has offered to record us (independently. he's a professional). And he also came to the conclusion that he's do it for free for us! He said his reasoning was that Vyv's dad* (who's now dead - RIP) did so many favours for him back in the day, that he's willing to do this for us for free.

* - For any of the older, and more knowing, Australians out there: Our singer, Vyv, is the son of Lobby Lloyd. Lobby Lloyd, the australian rock icon from the 70's. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_Loyde). It has already been an advantage to us in a few different situations now. Actually the reason why we got this gig was because it was halfly a tribute to Lobby Lloyd, so they asked us to play. And Vyv has already quite a few connections due to networking around people around his dad.

Anyway, so yeah, we're recording in like December. Gonna go the whole shebang for an EP - Cover art, printing/pressing, professionally recorded (for free ), It's just going to be fucking rad. And my [s]erection[/s] excitement level is extremely high.

I'll make a post when the recordings are up on the myspace.

Other news is, we're still looking for a new band name. For us Beavercore seems a bit too playful, and we're kind of over it. When i tell someone the name i'm not proud of it. I think we need somthing more brand-name-esque. So, we're going to think of a new name before we record and promote.

[cyanide]

Congrats on your growing success! I'm glad you're having second thoughts about the band name, as well. Beavercore is kinda lame.

[Dan's Brain]

That's really freaking cool. Im a bit of a frequenter of the Hi-Fi Bar. Didnt see you guys though. Did you wind up changing your name?

[Oznogrd]

hmm how about Legless Wonders? Or Horny Fat Black and Joe?

[Cartar]

Maybe this site would be helpful on the name: http://www.bandnamemaker.com/generator/?cw=

[Andrew]

That's great to hear Nick, sounds exciting. A friend of mine has an album launch in October, he's been playing regular gigs here in Newcastle since he got back from New Zealand a few years ago and has been booked down in Melbourne a couple of times.

As for the band name, based on a disturbing news story in early September about an elephant that had been constantly drugged and subsequently went through a form of rehab, I'd suggest Cocaine Addicted Elephant, Cocaine Elephant or the more generic Drug Addicated Elephant (or DAE). Or at least write a song with that title.

[Nick]

Ah, swoit. It's cool to see some replies.

@ Cyanide: Thanks man! I wouldn't say we're a success story yet though (not that you did). Our ability is increasing. We're connecting with the crowd really well, we're really energetic on stage (thanks to our over-the-top energetic bass player, who we feed off mostly), our new songs are better, and our friends love us. But when it becomes real is when people we don't know personally start to follow us. We'll see what happens with that after we've recorded and promoted (be it independently. )

And yeah, Beavercore is pretty lame. The reason we initially chose it was because it was relevant to us. It started out an inside joke between me and jordan and some friends in like 2005 (Actually, we even used to be called 'Nick and the Beavertown Band', thanks to a joke suggestion by a member at NLSC, actually. (Anyone remember Steve-O?) ), that sort of snowballed to the point that when we were drunk we'd add 'core' to the end of everything we'd say. One night (on schoolies), drunk, we all ran around the kitchen at night while everyone else was sleeping and wrote on everything we could see with a permanent marker. It's extremely unfunny, but it was at the time, you gotta understand. Things like, Milk became "Milkcore", Spoon became "Spooncore", Beer became "Beercore" Corn flakes became "Core flakes", Sugar became "Sugcore", Hard Liquor became "Hard Liqcore", and my favourite, Apple became "Apple core".

Anyway, our stupid name derived from stupidity. Thus my overwhelming desire to change the fucking thing.

@ Joakim_Noah13: Ah, that's cool. Well we played on sat august 23rd, listed as "BC" and not Beavercore. (That was vyv's doing. We probably should have remained Beavercore for the sake of recognition). were you there that night? We played at like 9pm.

@ DrGonzo: How about no.

@ ratrac: Would you believe, over the past few months i've pushed the generate button on that site a ridiculous amount of times. I've actually used that site quite a lot. Hoping it would solve everything. It hasn't.

@ Andrew: Thanks! It's interesting that you suggest a name based on a news headline, as it is something i've consciously thought that i should do to help aid coming up with a name. A few things that i think might be useful to help aid with coming up with a band name are: References from a song title/concept from a band we admire, References from a favourite book, references from a favourite movie, references to a headline in the media ( ), Cryptic names which allude to our musical style/personal concepts.

Actually, you know what, i actually made a word document involving all this mumbo jumbo. For the sake of journalistic purposes, i'll post it here:

Band names:
- A band name is brand name. Be mindful to make it as "brand-esque" as possible.
- Original / Or even unconventional / Creative
- Memorable
- Intentionally evokes a specific connotation.
- What name-types are popular these days? Let's do the opposite. Let's "zig" while everyone else is "zagging"


- Names referenced from song titles/lyrics/concepts from bands we admire:
One Armed Scissor (At The Drive In)
Memory Lane (Elliott Smith)
Colour Bars (Elliott Smith)
Roulette Dares (Mars Volta)
Take The Veil (Mars Volta)
Televator (Mars Volta)
Auto Pilot (QOTSA)
Suture (QOTSA)
Down Rodeo (RATM)
Peace Of Pie (Stone Temple Pilots)
Lounge Fly (Stone Temple Pilots)
Peephole (System)
Aerials (System)
Idiot Box (Incubus
Antics (Interpol)
Cosmonaut (At The Drive In)
Invalid Litter Dept. (ATDI)
Sour Smoke (Comets On Fire)
At The Hop (Devendra Banhart)
Everlong (Foo Fighters)
Union Man (Neil Young)
Rapid Transit (Neil Young)
Mystery Train (Neil Young)


- Cryptic names which can allude to our music or other personal concepts:
(the) Mess Order
(the) Mess Array
Small Trips
Trips
Headspace
Antics Of Impulse
Antics Of Swoon
Mess Antics
Colour Antics


- Names referenced from a headline from media:
Mid Year Resolution
Drive By
A-List


- Names referenced from a character/concept/line/title from a favourite movie:
Cunningham’s Secret Room (Donnie darko)
Tangent (Donnie Darko)

- Names referenced from a character/concept/line/title from a favourite book:
Sdkfjsdf
The god delusion?


- Random Names/Phrases and tangent names:
Small Steps
D-List
Shots
Sharp
Primo
Prime
Mess Primo
Tricks
Mess
the hairy combs
Mess Arrest
Relentless Expenses
(the) Trivial Contenders
The new disguise
Radminton
Left Right and Center
Adaptation
Trial and Error
Sit
Ism
Loco
Antics Of Amoeba
Bite The Bagel
Peppertoe
Dot dot dot

Most of these are just brainstormed crap. I eventually plan to have this filled with heaps of names, both good and bad. If you guys want to contribute some names, you're more than welcome. This was useful: http://www.namepistol.com/band/names.html

Also, if there's anything there that stands out to you, let me know.

(Cheap plug before i go: www.myspace.com/beavercore . The song that's up there ('Milk Slum') isn't a good representation of us. It's old, with our old singer, and recording makes us sound underwhelming. BUT live, that song is fucking rad to play when it's overwhelmingly loud, with our new singer going nuts, and sounding good at a professional venue. Can't wait to have new recordings up, with our new songs etc.)

[el badman]

Any reference to At The Drive-In is good stuff, you guys should call yourselves "Rolodex Propaganda" or "Enfilade"...

[Nick]

Oh, i just saw that the new song is up. 'Auto Pilot'. I added it about 2 days ago, but it never showed up, so i assumed it didn't work.

Alright, so there's 2 songs on the myspace right now. One is Milk Slum, which i mentioned above. The other is 'Auto Pilot'. Alright so Autopilot is our first recording that's ever been up with our new singer singing on it. I've had the file of this song on my computer for months, but never put it up cos the instruments in it are MIDI (I.e. not real instruments), but i put it up anyway cos i figure it's a better representation of us than anything else.

So, if you want to hear our new singer's voice, check out Auto Pilot! But remember that it's not the real band (these aren't real instruments. It's written exactly the way we play it live though, and we're pretty tight now). Keep in mind that this was recorded on a regular dynamic microphone in declan's house on his computer at about 1am at night, and vyv had a sore throat, haha. Also we recorded this with the intention of me submitting it as a school assignment, rather than for the band. All the while, declan's family are in rooms around the house trying to sleep. So the point is, he's normally even better than this. He's not belting it out as much as he usually would. (you can tell he's sorta holding back the volume a bit at times). And in parts, he's straining than he normally would because of lack of warming up and energy. But alas, with this recording you'll get a good feel for his tone etc. And i brightened it up with some track EQ, compression etc, so it sounds reasonably professional anyway.

Anyway enough rambling. This is our 2nd newest song in our repertoire, and is the first recording we've put up with the new singer. www.myspace.com/beavercore

@ el badman: ATDI are fantastic. As for your suggestions, I actually quite like Enfilade. I'm gonna add that to my list. Benji also came up with a good ATDI reference - "Hail of Contraband". (Lyric in Invalid Litter Dept), which i really like the sound of, and is in my top 5 now i reckon, if not top 3. I'm going to put it forward to my other bandmates and see what they think.

[Andrew]

Nice list for brainstorming, it's interesting how bands draw inspiration for their names. I guess the challenge is to come up with something that's unique and catchy without being just plain stupid. Therefore, I will refrain from seriously suggesting Duck Billed Alligator (or DBA), but make mention of it anyway.

And of course, there's this method.


"We need a name that's witty at first, but that seems less funny each time you hear it."

[Nick]

Haha, Andrew. I bet if you had a band, the name would be some sort of simpsons reference.

But yeah, it is a challenge to think of a band name. Because it's something you can't really force. You can't just think of one. You have to put yourself into the position where you can accidently think of one.

Sometimes that accident will happen instantly, or it might happen a year down the track.

It's fucking tricky!

[Andrew]

Quite likely, though Fallout Boy has already been taken.

[Dan's Brain]

The hairy combs is my favourite. I love that actually, I shotgun it if you dont want it.

August 23rd was my friends birthday. We'd actually planned to go into the city, but it didnt wind up happening. Bummer. Let us know if you're back on again soon. Even if its only for my benefit.

[Andrew]

How about Mess Transit?