Dec 302009
Bands so unique that they required two or more adjectives. I’ll start with Fine Young Cannibals. (Note: The use of the same adjective does not qualify, see Mighty Mighty Bosstones.)
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Bands so unique that they required two or more adjectives. I’ll start with Fine Young Cannibals. (Note: The use of the same adjective does not qualify, see Mighty Mighty Bosstones.)
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Deep Blue Something
My Chemical Romance
Plastic Ono Band.
Admittedly, it is not clear whether ‘Ono’ is being used adjectivally or substantively. I am opting for the former. My reasons may be best conveyed by this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9fFnVudKSI
For the record [adjusts Pince Nez] “my” is not an adjective, is it?
Okay, does “Oyster” count when used to describe a type of Blue Cult?
Average White Band
Indeed “my” is not an adjective. Any 5th graders out there that can tell us what it is?
Judges in The Back Office have also disqualified “Ono” due to lack of evidence.
Some sort of possessive noun? For the record, I never claimed to be smarter than a 5th grader.
To head off any more “Oyster Onos” let’s try this as a rule of thumb…
You should be able to fill in the blank below with your adjective and have it make reasonable sense.
“My bike is ______.”
Sammymaudlin, surely you jest! If ‘Ono’ does not possess descriptive qualities, then you must have your hands over your ears. Which, of course, is the whole point. And, having tried that, I can still say it doesn’t work.
OK, so some hefty research tells me that “Ono” and “Oyster” are attributive nouns or noun adjuncts but not adjectives. From the never-wrong Wikipedia:
Far be it for me to argue with Wikipedia, but, still, I beg to differ! I present in evidence the following overheard snippet of conversation, the transcript of which I chance to have at hand:
Speaker 1: Dude, shut that crap off!
Speaker 2: Whaddya mean?
Speaker 1: That is the most Ono sounding thing I’ve ever heard!
Speaker 2: You mean it’s screechy, annoying, and yet people with of a knee-jerk contrarian bent will convince themselves that it is actually brilliant and visionary?
Speaker 1: Precisely, my friend, precisely.
So, someone alert the OED.
Super Furry Animals
My bike is Ono.
So does Deep Purple count?
Deluxx Folk Implosion
Puff Head Do!
Big Audio Dynamite
hr: I’m afraid that “Head” and “Audio” and perhaps even “Puff” fall into the noun adjuncts territory and thus are not qualified. But we do have a case of Turtle Wax for you.
Soft White Underbelly
Neutral Milk Hotel
All American Rejects
Billy Riley and His Little Green Men.
Rrrrrrock!
Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Nice one Big Steve.
Old Dirty Bastard
Old Dirty Bastard is not a band. Anyway I’ll use my twofer — pub rock band Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers.
The Rolling F-ing Stones.
Buena Vista Social Club
Stiff Little Fingers
All the Tired Horses
Great White
Dog Faced Hermans
The Good, the Bad, and the Queen
Screaming Blue Messiahs
Royal Crescent Mob
Got a two-fer here:
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks
My Morning Jacket?
Shocking Blue
Guys, guys, ‘my’ and ‘his’ are not adjectives, but the possessive form of a personal pronoun.
Damn the rules that prohibit me from suggesting either Hot Hot Heat and Wet Wet Wet.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Nice one, BigSteve. THAT’S the competitive spirit!
Young Fresh Fellows.
LAST MAN STANDING!
Fast ‘n’ Bulbous (Capt. Beefheart tribute band)
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
stone temple pilots
The New Lost City Ramblers
Great Lake Swimmers
Big Black
The Jolly Green Giants.
(AndyR would back me up if he weren’t still in the holy land)
New Radiant Storm King
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
New Riders of the Purple Sage
Swinging Blue Jeans.
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Last Man Standing!
Neither squirrel, nut, nor zipper is an adjective. Those are all nouns. Squirrelly and nutty are adjectives.
German electrodub jazz band The Tied & Tickled Trio. I, the Last Man Standing, am not making this up.
While Squirrel and Nut are describing the Zipper at hand, I will submit that there was a rule in place which ignored that little quirk of the English Language.
Squirrelly Nutty Zippers does have a ring to it!
Blood Red Sun
Ok, one more time, a noun, like say ‘blood,’ may modify another word, but that does not make it an adjective. An example of an adjective would be ‘bloody.’
Signed,
The Last Man Standing
Sunny Day Real Estate
You beat me to it, cdm. I was just about to post that before I saw yours.
Anyway, here’s mine.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Now hand over the belt. 🙂
Not so fast Mr Grabby. Check 12/30/09 @ 23:15 as you are handing the belt back.
I honestly missed that one. Sorry! How about the Murder City Devils?
The Strawberry Alarm Clock
LMS!!
Great Speckled Bird.
Nice on misterioso!
But I’ll add…
The Incredible String Band
The Chocolate Watch Band!
Pince-nez, please: If we are splitting hairs–and it appears we are–then I believe that “String Band” is a compound noun. Likewise “Alarm Clock.” Thus, “Incredible” and “Strawberry” would be the adjectives modifying the respective compound nouns.
The Holy Modal Rounders
Them Crooked Vultures
A great Philly bar band from the 80s-90s:
Johnny O and the Classic Dogs of Love!
Hand over the belt, please.
1. Super Furry Animals
2. Fuzzy Bunny Slippers
Pre-Fab Sprout.
I am the Last Man Standing!
I, soon to be the Last Man Standing, am tired of playing parts-of-speech policeman, however needed my services may be in this blog of adjectival lawlessness. So I’ll just mention Old and New Dreams, the band formed by Ornette Coleman’s former sidemen.
I hear you Big Steve.
Big Brother and the Holding Company
Now hand it over.
Yes, carrying the cross of grammatical punctiliousness is a heavy burden.
Plain White T’s.
Gimme.
Members simply throwing names with two nouns in a row, and then justifying it by saying one noun is describing the next noun MUST be just trying to tweak us. There’s no way this many people don’t know what an adjective is.
Unlike a name like Bitter Bitter Weeks.
chickenfrank, you are so right. However, “The use of the same adjective does not qualify, see Mighty Mighty Bosstones.”
I don’t make the rules, I just point them out.
You’re right, I didn’t see the disqualification. And, I’m submitting a protest. If anything, I think using the same adjective is worthy of a bonus. It’s harder. I did see Hot Hot Heat earlier. I’m submitting my protest to Boutrous Boutrous Ghali.
Speaking of Big Brother, I guess the news has gotten around that guitarist James Gurley died last week. That band’s reputation has not held up well in rock nerd circles, but I’ll go to the mat for his lead playing on Piece of My Heart. I think it’s a classic slab of psychedelia that found a home on millions of AM radios. R.I.P.
Altered Images
Doh!!
Sadly, I really wasn’t tweaking everyone with my 2 weak attempts.
Stupid college education!!!
I’ll attempt some sort of redemption with this one:
Cool Blue Halo
The Dead Milkmen
Belt feels good. Real good.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Come on!!
Please tell me the 2 adjectives in
Altered (adj) Images (noun)
Dead (adj) Milkmen (noun)
Creedence (noun) Clear (adj) Water (noun) Revival (noun)
When did Mowgli put you all up to this. Is it 12/31 today or 4/1???
I also question CCR’s adjectival legitimacy, but you’re gonna have to use complete sentences in maligning “altered” and “dead.”
Dirty Projectors
The game is TWO adjectives per band name! I think you are only supplying one adjective band names. Or you just don’t like me.
Hey, Chickenfrank: does “Kajagoogoo” count?
Afro Cuban All-Stars
We appear to have reach an impasse…
I’m one errant noun away from charging down a flaming hall ala Mad Man Mutt from Barton Fink taking out as many rock nerds as I can.
I WILL SHOW YOU THE LIFE OF THE MIND!!!!!!
Human Sexual Response
I’m slow on the take, but the “Prefab” in Prefab Sprout is one word.
Do “Shadowy Men on a shadowy planet” count? One adjective, used twice, but not quite in the way described in the challenge.
Broken Social Scene
Carter the unstoppable sex machine.
Grand Funky Railroad
Is ‘sex’ an adjective? I think not.
I’m beginning to get discouraged from going forward with my LMS contest asking for song titles using the pluperfect tense.
two adjectives, gotcha. that changes things a little.
legendary pink dots
Ok, ok… West Coast Experimental Pop Art Band
Dead or Alive
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
in this glorious and hopefully-bountiful new year we all deserve a little clarity on important matters, so i’d like a ruling on whether…ah, nevermind. i got nothin’.
Public Image Ltd.
Amazing Royal Crowns
Welcome bostonhistorian and congrats on having a literacy level superior to many here. Sadly I need to trump you with:
Big Bad Voodoo Daddies
Assuming they mean “light” the way I want them to:
The Electric Light Orchestra
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft
But if you’re not down with that, I am *still* the Last Man Standing with Japanese lounge popsters:
Fantastic Plastic Machine
I AM THE LAST MAN STANDING!
Dirty Pretty Things
New Main Street Singers
The artists behind Analog Africa’s excellent compilation The Kings of Benin Urban Groove 1972-80 — T-P Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey. (T-P stands for ‘tout puissant’ or almighty.)
New Christy Minstrels.
LMS!
The New Rising Sons
The New Christy Minstrels doesn’t count. They’re named that because they were founded by someone names Edwin Pearce Christy.
In any case — Young Marble Giants.
Damn you, BigSteve! How about American Analog Set?
Townsman Rickmassimo’s own Neo-90s Dance Band. They qualify because they actually put out a very good album back in the day.
I am the LAST MAN STANDING!
Unknown Mystery ’60s Group
American Music Club
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Which was the name of the band, since their frontman used his own name when he went solo.
American Music Club? Last time I looked, which was just now, ‘music’ was a noun and not an adjective.
Note the use of TWO adjectives in a band name such as Simian Mobile Disco.
LMS!
“Music” is being used as an adjective. It’s not any old American Club, but an American MUSIC Club. At one point, I maintain that I WAS INDEED Last Man Standing! Now you are, BigSteve. Enjoy the view.
Sorry to nez you Mod but Music in this case is a “noun adjunct” and previously determined foul territory. Weren’t you an English major?
The Savage Young Beatles
sammy, I appreciate the English lesson, but I’ve decided that they’re wrong. That’s just the way I feel about it, and for having such feelings you can blame my Quaker education.
More importantly, though, if alexmagic’s going to stand tall with “The Savage Young Beatles” I’ll stand taller with The Angry Young Them!
Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers
The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which I know wasn’t really a band but neither were Savage Young Beatles or Angry Young Them. Plus it’s got THREE adjectives.
I blame the Quakers for a lot.
BigSteve just wants to win one of these things, doesn’t he? I envision him cranking up some primo Winner Rock with a handful of 2-adjective band names stuffed in his hip pocket. The sad thing is, no matter how hard he works at winning this contest – or any of us – the master of Last Man Standing competitions, Townsman cherguevara, will wait until this thead falls off The Main Stage and then strike with a decisive blow:) Watch it, cher, BigSteve’s holding a 4-adjective tie-breaker band name! Me? I’ve got at least one more band name:
Thin White Rope
LMS!
In 1965 L’Orchestra African Fiesta split into two factions, one being Rochereau et l’African Fiesta National and the other Dr. Nico et l’African Fiesta Sukisa. I’m only going to take one credit for this, because I’ve never been able to determine what Sukisa means and therefore cannot vouch for its adjectivity.
“Sukisa” may mean “I love you,” otherwise known as Mr. Mod Still Stands Tall!
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~leon/mi/lyrics/sukisa.html
Big Bad Wolf – I’m sure such a name has been used
Even if Sukisa is not an adjective, that still leaves l’African Fiesta National, and both African and National are both adjectives.
Can I get a ruling on Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band? Thanks.
Who cares Mr. Moderator! I’ve got one — Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. LOL!
Airborne Toxic Event … I know, it’s such a cliche to name your band after something in a Don DeLillo novel.
Sorry, BigSteve, I gotta swipe the belt with Sun Records’ own:
Little Junior’s Blue Flames
I *am* the Last Man Standing!
HVB
Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch
(Marky being a somewhat obscure, music-centric adjectival phrase used to describe frontman Mark Wahlberg. It had historical precedence, having previously been used to describe members of The Ramones: one of their drummers was often referred to as the “marky Ramone.” I will only accept a ruling from Maudlin on my use of this archaic term, since The Mod has a strong and well-known anti-Ramone bias.)
More than one band has used this name, since it’s a good one — The Full Grown Men.
alex- the judges have ruled on “marky” here.
On a similar note, how about The Royal Crown Revue and The Amazing Royal Crowns (a rockabilly-ish band who were around in the ’90s and based in Rhode Island, if memory serves), who had to change their name to The Amazing Crowns when Royal Crown Revue threatened them with ligitation. They called their 1st album under their new name Royal, so you gotta love that.
Sorry if they’ve already been mentioned!
Damn, and I was going to call my new band Diet Rite Cherry Cola Revue!
The Electric Soft Parade
LMS!