Welcome to the first installment of the All Consonant All Star list. In this list are the most obvious and most well known of the All Consonant bands.
LYNYRD SKYNYRD:
The southern rock legends were originally called My Backyard then changed to Leornard Skinnerd named after a gym teacher Leonard Skinner at Robert E. Lee High School, a legendary antagonist of longhaired students. According to a brief band history they changed their name to the legendary spelling before winning a battle of the bands compeition in Jacksonville, FL. Years after the plane crash they reformed and still perform to this day. in 2007 they performed as part of the Pep Rally in Gainesville, FL for the Florida Gators.
NSYNC:
The name is derived from the last letter of the members names: Justi-N, Chri-S, Joe-Y, JasoN and J-C. Originally the ‘N’ came from an original member named Jason before he was replaced by Lance. There is another story that the group got their name after Timberlake’s mother, Lynn Harless, commented on how “in sync” their voices were.
X:
The legendary california punk group still performs today. Their myspace lists gigs all over the east coast before heading back to their homestate. Their is no definite story behind the name but in fashion with other punk bands their name most likely derived from a 12 to 24 hour beer fueld session of trying to figure out a name for their then unknown motley band. Unfortunately their name doesn’t lend well to websites so their offical website is of the vowel variety, XTheBand.com.
BYRDS, the:
Can you get any more legendary than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Before being signed to Columbia Records this outfit was originally called The Beefeaters. Roger McGuinn was inspired to form this band by the Beatles. So it is not a large stretch to imagine that Byrds is merely another animal that is purposely spelled differently. McGuinn’s site has this to say about the name:
The band was having Thanksgiving dinner at Ed Tickner’s house. Ed was Jim Dickson’s partner in management. They all tried coming up with new names for the band. Gene Clark offered “The Birdsies.”
Nobody liked that name and Ed said, “How about the Birds?
“Birds” was slang in England for girls at the time and the band didn’t want to be called “the Girls.”
Tickner asked, “What if you changed the spelling? How about B-U-R-D-S?”
Everyone hated that one.
Then McGuinn came up with B-Y-R-D-S.
Dickson loved it because it had the magic “B” sound as in Beatles and Bobby. He thought little girls liked the “B” names because they felt less threatened by them. So the group was called “the Byrds”.
TLC:
From “The Girls” to the Grrlz. TLC was a formidable trio of lusty ladies, not The Learning Channel. Originally called 2nd Nature, when they signed their record deal, one of the original members was dropped and Rozanda “Chili” Thomas was brought in. Named before Chili joined the group,TLC was the acronym of Tender Loving Care, by Perri “Pebbles” Reid. Of course the name has stuck because it is also an acronym of the three girls’ names, T-Boz, Left Eye and Chili. They must be big in Japan as the remaining two members are planning to tour.
DMX:
Earl Simmons is not named after the ubiquitous communications protocol DMX512 used in stage lighting and effect, but rather a shortened version of his original rap name Dark Man X. Learn more about his life in his autobiography E.A.R.L.: The Autobiography of DMX.
STYX:
Early formation of the band in Chicago was called Tradewinds. They added and subtracted members for years while another band called Trade Winds made it big on the national scene. They changed the name to TW4, which could have still gotten this band a spot on this list. In 1970 getting a record deal drove the band to change the name to STYX. Dennis DeYoung says “It was one of the hundred names we tried, and it turned out to be the only one that none of us hated,” in the magazine Circus, dated December 11, 1979. Most likely based on the mythical River Styx.
B-52′s:
With or the without the apostrophe this band makes this list. The band’s debut album was named B-52′s leading this investigation to assume it was their original name. Born in Athens, Georgia they are named after the beehive hairdo that the two lead females wore. The beehive hairdo is named the B-52 because it resembles the nose cone of a B-52 bomber. The apostrophe is mentioned because in 2008 the apostrophe was apparently dropped. Why? Who cares? It’s not a vowel nor a consonant.
MxPx:
Their named takes a long train of downhome marketing to development. Originally named Magnified Plaid. Their posters would have a swatch of plaid underneath a magnifying glass. Their original line up played in Churches. Eventually shortened to M.P. for shirts and posters that were handdrawn. These handdrawn posters would use periods that resembled exes. Eventually the band became known as MxPx. This smalltown pop punk band from Bremerton, Washington was discovered by Tooth and Nail records and sent into the homes of millions of little punks now becoming a pop punk legend.
D.M.C.:
Darryl Matthews McDaniel’s moniker of D.M.C. is easily recognizable as his name shortened but seems to have taken him years to figure out himself. After listening to Grandmaster Flash records he began as the seemingly childish Grandmaster Get High. He sold his turntables but then his friend Run encouraged him to rap instead of DJ and adopted another seemingly ripped off name Easy D. Except that Easy E debuted in 1987 and Easy D was before 1981. In 1981 he decided to drop the Easy D and went with his childhood signature of DMcD before finally switching to the current D.M.C.. It alternately stood for “Devastating Mic Controller” or his nickname since childhood, “Darryl Mac.” He too has written an autobiography, King of Rock: Respect, Responsibility, and My Life with Run-DMC.
More bands names are decoded in BST BNDS 2. and BST BNDS 3
This List created with the help of Jamison, Andi and Danny.
This list is awesome!