Happenings on the Scene – Not always sweet harmony when picking band’s name

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/04/2014 (4367 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Are all the really good band names taken? Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Aerosmith, Rush — all legendary bands with very cool and catchy names. Names you can utilize clever marketing techniques with through print, video and so much more.

When you get to thinking of what your band name should be, you get to thinking how many bands there must be on the planet Earth. You also thinkof conjuring up a name that will, in effect, be out of this world.

So you toil through the process with your bandmates and try to come up with one that everyone can agree with … or at least live with.

It’s a process thatcan be about as much fun as trying to juggle flaming bowling balls; then just when you’re getting the hang of it, somebody throws in a snapping turtle.

Throughout the course of my 25 plus years of playing, I’ve been in many bands — The Barnburners, The Attic, The Whip, Dagnabbit, DEZL, Stepping on Mars, Groove Kitchen, Misty Street and Ruckus to name just a few — and I found myself mired in the naming process for all but a few of those bands … mired being the operative word in this time-consuming process.

Some of you who’ve in a band may consider it to be a necessary evil. I mean, anybody can start up a band but if you’re going to try and market yourself and subsequently play gigs, you need a name.

But let’s face it, when you look at the big picture, how many of us will become famous musicians? Not to dissuade any of you aspiring rock stars out there, but let’s be realistic: an aspiring rocker in these parts thinking they’re going to be the next big thing is comparable to a hockey player in Division 2 of the WWHL thinking they’ll make the NHL.

However, we can all dream. There are a handful of western Manitoban artists who went on to sign recording contracts. Out of that handful, not many are still recording albums or playing gigs for that matter, and some were fortunate enough to sign different deals. There are still a few who are working on deals and I suppose it all depends on how bad you want it and how hard you are willing to work for your share of success in the ever competitive always demanding music biz.

That said, we’re in this to play music we enjoy and above all have fun. That’s why when it came to my new band’s name, it had to be something that wasn’t serious sounding but rather, loaded with levity.

That reasoning must explain why we arrived at calling our band Fargen Gruben. That’s right, we named our band Fargen Gruben.

Now before you throw this paper into the recycling bin or use it for a bird cage liner, just let that name sink in but think of it as a positive expression — Fargen Gruben!

Before you completely dismiss Fargen Gruben, let me ask you this, does the name make or break a band? Tell that to the Goo Goo Dolls or The Sheepdogs — and what was with Pink Floyd or Jethro Tull? Even Led Zeppelin took a few shots from their detractors in their day and not just because of the name of their band.

My point is the band name can mean everything or absolutely nothing. In the case of Fargen Gruben, it can mean whatever you want it to mean. If you Google “Fargen”, you may find the link to the German guitar manufacturer.

It’s also fun to say, especially if you use it like a conjunctive adverb. Essentially it means “very good” as in, “We went to that concert last night — it was Fargen Gruben!”

By the way our first paid gig is coming up next weekend (April 25-26) at the City Centre on 10th & Pacific. If you’re going to the Kenny Shields and Streetheart show set for Saturday, June 14 in Virden, you may catch our opener set if you arrive early enough.

The democratic process in picking a name:

It goes without saying solo artists have it easy when picking a name. With a band, however, it’s the classic scenario of a group decision. So we went with a democratic method.

We wound up choosing our band name after rehearsal last week, and our democratic method was quite simple really: Each of us took a week to come up with five of our favourite name suggestions. We then submitted those suggestions to the other members of the band, which gave us a list of 20 names.

They were all fairly good in their own right and sure, there were some cheesy ones that popped up but that is to be expected. The 20 names were then put through a grading system: five points for firstst, four points for second and so on … This way we could weed out the least favourite ones and wind up with the top five names.

Then we used the same point system on the final five. For the record, out of all our top suggestions my top five were: Rockology, Fargen Gruben, Sonic Landing, Routes Hotel and the Imperatives. Fargen Gruben edged out Rockology by a few points.

So far the name has been met with mixed reaction. What I enjoy and consider a valuable reaction is when people ask what it means. Although when I mention Fargen Gruben to some people, they gaze at me like I have three heads and one of them is speaking Swahili.

So if you’re thinking of starting a band, remember you’ll need a name. You’re totally welcome to use my democratic method or there is always the “Band Namer.” You’ll find it online.

Here’s a little info on it: The Band Namer is an advanced random band name generator that helps you fight your creative slump by generating one of more than 17 billion band names. Bands are encouraged to use this random band name generator as a brainstorming tool to jump start their band-naming session.

It uses a dictionary of more than 38,000 band name-related words that have been hand-tuned to be biased toward dangerous poetry. Also with its custom phonemic autocorrelation algorithm, the Band Namer has been designed to cut though the random band name junk and deliver better results.

Do you really want your band name to be 11 syllables long? No. The Band Namer will increase the odds and speed of getting a usable random band name.

I wonder if the Band Namer would have come up with Fargen Gruben. Not likely. What makes a great band name anyway? Most of the good names may be taken, but even with those, I imagine there were some people who would beg to differ.

Frank McGwire is a radio personality and booster of the music scene in Brandon and Westman.

» Frank@961bobfm.ca