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The Etymology of 10 Famous Band Names

By Margaret Eby on

On Monday, Coach Leonard Skinner — the beloved high school teacher and namesake of Lynyrd Skynyrd — passed away at the age of 77, and a little piece of frat rock died with him. A sad event for lovers of Southern jukebox-jams everywhere, to be sure, but also a reminder of a pretty good band name back story. It got us thinking about our favorite, unexpected band names and where they come from. Virginia Woolf stories, slang terms for speed, poorly understood foreign terms: all are fodder for some pretty excellent handles. So, in memory of Coach Skinner, we’ve compiled the etymology of 10 famous band names. … Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: Dean & Britta

By Doug Levy on

Double-disc set 13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests collects the tracks that Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips wrote and performed live to accompany the Pop art icon’s legendary films.

Dean & Britta were originally commissioned to soundtrack the silent films by the Andy Warhol Museum, which allowed them to select their 13 favorites from the vast Screen Tests archive. Their final selections included clips of Factory regulars Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, and Nico, with the resulting music ranging from new compositions to a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Not a Young Man Anymore.” … Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: The Hot Rats

By Doug Levy on

Taking a cue from David Bowie’s classic covers album Pin Ups, Supergrass’ Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey team up with uber-producer Nigel Godrich to put their own spin on music history as the Hot Rats.

Lifting their band name from a Frank Zappa album, the Britpop heroes dove into their influences head-on, covering tracks from the Velvet Underground, Gang of Four, the Kinks, Elvis Costello, Sex Pistols, and Bowie himself on the Hot Rats’ debut, Turn Ons. In addition to the album, the band also recorded a standalone single and video offering its take on the Beatles’ “Drive My Car.” … Read More

Music

Spoon’s Transference and the Best in Fine Album Artwork

By Adrian Muniz on

Further fanning the flames of anticipation surrounding their recently-bumped-up forthcoming album, Spoon has released the cover art for Transference, which is due out January 19, 2010 in the US. Finally. The photograph itself is one from 1970 taken in Mississippi by renowned photographer William Eggleston, a photographer accustomed to having his work featured on an album cover or two. It was originally published in Eggleston’s Guide back in 1976.

It’s lovely and it makes us a bit nostalgic for other great album art that came out of the gallery world as opposed to a record company’s art department. … Read More