SCVNGR: It’s a game about doing things in planes.  Check out their website for more details but basically as far as I can tell is that it’s a app in which you input where you are and some activity you are doing there.  Then someone else on some other day goes and does that same thing.  Like a big fun scavenger hunt thing that takes up the entire world.

So far this is WTHTVWLS’ favorite website, iPod app, and game.

For all things Miami check out Dwntwn.com now a favorite WTHTVWLS web destination.

BY and MY:

Commonly used words that every normal blooded scrabble player from novice to ace will know and live by.  Both have an un-bonused score of 7.

ST:

This is not an oft used word because it uses two of the best tiles in the game.  These two tiles along with REAINER has two possible 9 letter combinations of RETAINERS and TERNARIES.  The 9 letters also allows for a lot of  8 letter words with a possible 18 different iterations. If you don’t have the extra E:  RETAINS provides 9 iterations.  ST itself is allowed in the British SOWPODS dicitionary but not in the U.S. used TWL dictionary.

FY:

Without bonus FY gives the player 8 points, the second most points for an all consonant two letter word. FY is an interjection, which expresses blame, dislike, disapprobation, abhorrence, or contempt according to dictionary.com. Allowed in SOWPODS play but not TWL.

NY:

An acronym of New York.  This proves to be another controversial word as it’s allowed in SOWPODS play and not TWL.  Gets the player a mere 5 un-bonused points.

SH:

An interjection used to quiet someone. You might use the longer version: SHHHHHHHH, but official longer version is merely: SHH. The two letter combination gives a nice score of 5 points. While the three letter version gives 9 points, but you’ll be hard pressed to play it because there’s only two H’s in the entire set.

CH:

Another two letter words used in SOWPODS and not TWL.  Will give you a total of 7 points.

KY:

The final word on this list that is used in SOWPODS and not TWL: Gets you an uppercut of a score of 9 points without the use of any bonus spaces.   Not to be confused with the brand name KY but rather the plural of KINE which itself is a plural of COW.

MM:

The un-bonused score of 6 points, if you can make it happen as there are only two M’s in the entire scrabble letter bag.  Used in TWL and SOWPODS play, has many meanings from the acronym of millimeter to an interjection meaning good.

HM:

With an un-bonused score of 7 lands right in the middle of all the scores on today’s list.  An interjection meaning thoughtful absorption, doubt, or perplexity.  Also allowed is the longer HMM but not that even longer HMMM nor the absurdly long HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, meaning extreme doubt or perplexity.

EXTRA BONUS TRIVIA:  Did you know the only letter not to appear in any two letter word is the letter V?

XTC:

The core duo of Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding went through a few band names of Star Park and then in 1973 did some gigs as Helium Kidz, they changed their name to the much shorter XTC in 1975 because “we liked to think we were playing quick, short-hand, 3 minute pop songs; just as XTC is short-hand for ecstasy.“  Their recordings are chronicled in their history along with the reason for their mysterious ceasing of live tours.

MG’s, the

Short for Memphis Group. Booker T. and the MG’s were made of up members of the house band for Stax records.  the MG’s had been two of the original members of Booker T and the MG’s who released a few unacclaimed songs.  Shortly before their supposed reunion with Booker T. Jones and Guitarist Steve Cropper, Cropper was murdered in Memphis.  The name is under heavy scrutiny as Producer Chips Moman claims it’s named after his car.

MC5:

A hard rock band from 1964-1972, the name reflects their roots in Detroit.  short for Motor City Five, also echoes the Dave Clark Five of the time and MC5 sounds like a classic car along the lines of the GTO.

RJD2:

Ramble John Krohn’s alias sounds like a version of r2d2. That idea is not far off. “The very first rapper I ever worked with was this guy named Gomer who would freestyle while I was spinning records,” RJD2 recalls. “He just started calling me RJD2 because my first name is RJ. And the name stuck.”  He began as a DJ with the Columbus rap group MHz, an All Consonant All star contender.  He releases under the solo name of RJD2 or a side project called Soul Position, beyond that he is a producer of many bands and musicians we all know and love.
MSTRKRFT:

This electronic music group started by Jesse F. Keeler and Al-P started in Canada were veterans before coming together to form the All Consonant All Star known as MSTRKRFT.  Pronunciations seem to vary as much as the group’s music.  Ian Ferguson says Master Kraft through out his review.  While a commenter at a Chicagoist review thought “Em-Ess-Tee-Are-Kay-Are-Eff-Tee.” like fellow All Consonant All Star band KMFDM. While yet another pronunciation is found at a smaller blog youaintnopicasso.com in the form of “Mister Kraft,” as in the Kraft Mac and Cheese patriarch.  While I like to imagine they command you to gather up skills, “Muster Kraft.”
KMFDM:

This German industrial rock group’s original name of Kein Mehrheit Fur Die Mitleid had to be shortened in 1985 if they ever imagined they wanted a following.  The nonsensical German phrase translates loosely to No Pity for the Majority but a literal translation is No Majority for the Pity.  During their tour of America the band would mess with reporters and said that their name was short for “Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode.”

Two KMFDM side projects could be contenders for inclusion in the All Consonant All Star list.  In 1999 KMFDM broke up with some of the members forming a band called MFDMK.  In 2006 side project created by Sascha Konietzko, Lucia Cifarelli was named KGC.
MGMT:

Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden formed a musical group in college named The Management.  In 2006 when they were signed to Columbia Records they changed to MGMT. Seems to be some controversy over how to pronounce the moniker.  David Letterman pronounces it as Em Gee Em Tee. Rolling Stone claims it’s pronounced “Management.” But it seems the argument ends with Andrew from the actual band pronounces it EM GEE EM TEE in a video nonetheless.
XBXRX:

A Punk band formed in 1998 in Alabama who moved to California to hit it big.  Guitarist Steve Touchstone says

“There’s absolutely no true significance to the name. When we came up with it, basically, the two main things we were working on was that we wanted a name that we knew no one would already have because basically every one- or two- or even three-word names that you would come up with — especially when we were 13, 14 years old — anything that we would come up with was something that someone, somewhere in the world, was already using. And we didn’t want something that would be dumb and regrettable — nothing that had too much meaning or that we thought was funny or cool… having that in mind, I woke up one day — having been sleeping on it — and I had this random combination of letters.”

Vocalist Vice Cooper goes on to say:

We also didn’t realize the combination of three X’s meaning pornography. We were too young to really realize all of the different symbolic meanings of X ::laughs::. So we kind of regret that area a little bit, we could have used a “y” or something.

CSS:

A Brazilian band from Sao Paulo, not short for Cascading Style Sheets but rather Cansei de Ser Sexy which means “I got tired of being sexy,” in Portuguese.  This SubPop signed band has similar beginnings to the Talking Heads.  A group of females and one gay male who met in art school.   The meeting in art school part being the only similarity to the Talking Heads. “People in Brazil ask how we can be tired of being sexy when we are so ugly,” says Ana Rezende.

BLK JKS:

This South African punk outfit with merely a few songs under their belt have made a name for themselves among the blogosphere.  Linda Buthelzi, the lead vocalist and guitarist is also it’s graphic designer. The reason the name is written BLK JKS instead of Black Jacks isn’t purely a nod to the SMS generation. Robert Laing at joeblog.co.za says

Linda the graphic designer developed the band’s name with its T-Shirt logo. He picked a font where the starting B has a hand, the next four letters emoticons representing each band member, and the final S has a teardrop with a map of Africa in it.

The band’s brief history is chronicled on their blog. Formed in 2000, but just now releasing albums to the world.

24-7 Spyz:

A Soul, funk, Heavy Metal fusion band compared to Living Colour and Fishbone, formed in 1986 clearly had their roots in eclectic music.  Lead guitarist Jimi Hazel takes his name from Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Hazel, two guitar legends. I can assume many things about this eclectic band, but if you know of anything about the origins of the band’s name please let me know.

If you haven’t read the other two lists of Best Bands go now and read list 1 and list 2.

This list created with the help of Jamison, Andi and Danny.

Do you know of more bands with All Consonant names, or want to discuss the ones listed here? Go ahead and Discuss!

MFSB:

The shortened form of Mother Sister Father Brother. The group of over 30 studio Musicians in Philidelphia’s Sigma Sound Studio.  You might know the acts they did the music for: The Bluenotes, O’Jays, Stylistics, Jerry Butler, Wilson Picket, and Billy Paul.  Also believed to be the originators of the Disco sound in 1974.   Contributed a song in Saturday Night Fever, found on the D side of the soundtrack.  The group disbanded in 1981, splitting up and going their separate ways to different studios.

SWV:

SWV is the shortened version of Sisters With Voices. The three lovely ladies were Cheryl “Coko” Gamble-Clemons, Tamara “Taj” Johnson-George, and Leanne “Lelee” Lyons.  The rumor is that their original name of TLC, an acronym of Taj, Lelee and Coko was taken merely two weeks prior by the already mentioned TLC.  So they decided to one up TLC and jump in front of them in the music racks by taking the SWV acronym and thus getting alphabetized before TLC. They have broken up and then reunited recently to tour and also made a special appearance at the 2008 BET awards.

Y&T:

I’ll let their website tell you who they are, because to be honest I had no idea.

Before Motley Crue, before RATT, even before there was a Metallica, when Y&T formed in the early 1970s, they set the standard for hard rock bands that trailed. Many of the most popular heavy rock bands of the ’80s, at the birth of their careers, opened shows for headliners Y&T; and they all cut their teeth on Y&T, as evidenced by the Y&T mentions in the tell-all books by acts such as Metallica and Motley Crue.

Their original name was Yesterday and Today, not a hard hitting rock kind of name.  But they were popular.  It seemed the audience had an easier time of shouting “Y AND T, Y AND T, Y AND T.”  At that urging, in 1980 changed their official name to Y&T.  With 5 top 100 albums and a handful of hits, I guess these guys are mostly known as pioneers, not superstars.  They are touring still to this day as evidenced by a long list of tour dates from North America to Europe.

M83:

This french electronic act mystified me.  I was going to make a joke that they were named not for the Meissner 83 Galaxy, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, but a video of the frenchman has him explaining his name.  He simply said he was a precocious little teenager when he saw this M83 Galaxy in a book and thought it would be a good idea to name his act after it.

MJG:

Gangsta rapper, said to be undisputed rap royalty along with his Rap partner 8-Ball, comes along the same line as DMX and DMC.  His original name,Marlon Jermaine Goodwin, is found along with nearly every other Rappers’ real names. From Memphis and apparently living Southern rap legends, they are releasing albums all the time.  Their “not trying to save the world. Just doing us.”

LSG:

A short lived super group of R&B artists.  The name is derived from the last names of each member: Gerald Levert, Keith Sweat, and Johnny Gill.  Their hit song “My Body” is an official double platinum.  They had only released two albums together, 1997′s “Levert.Sweat.Gill”  and 2003′s “LSG2″ with only their first hitting the charts.

SNMNMNM:

This Rochester, NY to L.A. and now based in Chapel Hill, NC powerpop group derives their name from the members names:  Seamus N Matt N Mark N Matt. CMJ says they are quirky indie-pop with eclectic instrumentation (accordion, amplified tuba) and an ambitious dose of wit, the quartet is sure to draw immediate comparisons to They Might Be Giants and Ben Folds.

CFCF:

Mike Silver is the Canadian remixer producer one man show that is CFCF.  Named after the early name of CTV Montreal, a Canadian television station.  You can find plenty of his music at his myspace page.

6PM:

A Spanish duo consisting of Ivan Oubina and Raul Mon.  Named 6 Post Morning as per their myspace page but really goes by the shortened version of 6PM.  Music blog Cable and Tweed briefly discusses their music putting it in line with postal service, four tet and Blonde Redhead.

3LW:

An acronym of 3 Little Women.  Started in 1999, years after TLC and SWV took the first and 2nd place of Three letter ladies singing groups championships.  You might know two of the ladies from The Cheetah Girls. in 2003, two of the group’s girls, Bailon and Williams, starred with Raven Symone in the TV musical The Cheetah Girls.

3T

Debuted in 1995, This is the R&B singing group made up of three sons of Tito Jackson.  Their names were Tariano, Taryll and Tito Jackson.  Their mother Delores, Tito’s former wife, was murdered by her lover the year before their debut album, thus they dedicated it to her.  In 2005 it was announced that they would star in a Television reality TV show that never apparently happened.  There is a teaser on their website 3t.com asking “Can you feel it?” advertising for some sort of product called “Living with the Legacy.”

L.T.D.:

An R&B group from the 70′s formed in Greensboro, North Carolina. Stands for Love Togetherness & Devotion. Their bio says they began life as members of Fantastic Soul Men Orchestra back up band to Sam & Dave. Arthur Jake Carle and Abraham packed a car and went to New York as Love Men LTD. After two years they drove to L.A. and got signed to A&M records in 1974 changing their name to just LTD. Their website 4realltd.com hints to the fact that there was a copy cat band in the late 90′s who were successfully put out of business when the original band sued them.

JFKFC:

Intentionally using the famous three letters from both JFK and KFC, this super-group band from Atlanta, Ga makes it a point to say they are making a point.  They use the Colonel’s image many times.  And they have a song about JFK and KFC called JFKFC.  It seems they are a supergroup made up of various Metal veterens of Atlanta.  Find their metal-tastic brand of humor at their blog or their myspace or even their fan site.

Tomorrow we tackle some more famous bands, and some that aren’t acronyms. But be sure there will be some more acronyms.  If you like the bands above and know more about them, or know that I am completely wrong, go ahead and discuss!

This list made possible with the help of Danny, Andi, and Jamison.

Did you read the first list of the most obvious bands?  If not go do it now.

Want to read the third and final list of All Consonant All Stars? Go ahead.

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.

1. BB
2. CL
3. RM
4. WH
5. YS
6. DV
7. KG
8. DD
9. XX
10. TT

Answers at CNSNNTS NLY

A debate rages on over this Quiz. Read about it after the jump

Thanks to Jamison for help on this post.  In compiling this Quiz we came across a bevy of wonderfully close bands.  The Go-Go’s were the closest,  if it were merely one of them named Go-Go they could have made it into the quiz.  Hootie and the Blowfish would have made it if they had only gone with Hootie as their band name.  Same goes for the Goo Goo Dolls, if they had only stopped at Goo Goo. Another band that was close is THE THE.  In many cases including this quiz we’ve chosen to take the the out.  For the use of ordering lists of items the THE is taken out.  So this band would be the THE, but it’s inherent in the name of the band to be called THE THE.  not The THE.  I use the case of Mr. Mister to prove my point.  They make it a point to not say Mister Mister but rather Mr. Mister. So the first Mister is actually officially Mr.   Both of the THEs in the bands title are treated the same.  If one were in all caps and the other not in print or in adverts it would be different.  They are not listed as The, The as maybe Vines, The would be.  They are listed in most instances as The The.  But on their website  TheThe.com they have an illustration of a large THE with a little THE in the upper right corner. Are these two Thes being treated differently here?   I propose they are being treated the same because they both contain a capital T and lowercase h and e.  Even the underlined e is the same in both.

A debate raged on for hours over MOBY.  Does Y count as a vowel in this case or does it count as a Consonant?  In the interest of self preservation and ultimate rebuttal over this.  Here at WTHTVWLS we use Y as a Consonant. There are no cases.  We understand that the “sometimes Y” debate will always rage on, except for here.  SKY? All consonants, do you want to CRY? all consonants.  WHY? All Consonants.  Just because we know we will be compiling many lists and using Y as a Consonant in nearly all of them.

Got any objections? DISCUSS!

Here we have 10 Singers without vowels.  Can you guess them?

1. L GRN
2. MDNN
3. TT JMS
4. BN
5. L RD
6. SM CK
7. LC KYS
8. NN LNNX
9. C-L
10. FN PPL

Answers at CNSNNTS NLY

Did you get something else? Discuss!

This time the quiz is filled with bands where the first letter is a vowel.
Can you guess them?

1. SS
2. 2
3. GLS
4. RSMTH
5. RYTHMCS
6. RN MDN
7. L TGR
8. F
9. TRB CLLD QST
10. TKST

Answers at CNSNNTS NLY