25 Bands with Food Names

Founded by rappers will.i.am and apl.de.ap and originally called Black Eyed Pods, this ensemble evolved into a pop-rap group and launched the career of Stacy Ann “Fergie” Ferguson, who joined the Peas in 2002.

Formed in Wichita Falls, Texas, this punk/pop/power band took its name from a Steve Martin routine on the 1978 comedy album “Wild and Crazy Guy.”

John McCrea, founder of this Sacramento-born alt.rock band (not to be confused with the ’60s girl group The Cake) once explained to the Chicago Sun-Times that its name wasn’t about dessert. It was like, he said “when something insidiously becomes a part of your life…something that cakes onto your shoe and is just sort of there until you get rid of it”.

An alt.rock band from Ireland, with Irish folk influences, was originally called The Cranberry Saw Us (pronounce it quickly to get the joke). The name morphed into simple The Cranberry, but a tape sent to them as The Cranberries led to their eventual moniker.

This bluesy classic rock trio, consisting of guitar star Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker, was so-named because the three were considered the “cream of the crop” among British blues musicians when the group formed.

A soft-rock band from L.A., Bread was originally called Pleasure Faire. One apocryphal story is that while they were trying to come up with a better name, one of the members saw a bakery truck drive past.

Originally formed in Stony Brook, Long Island, as Soft White Underbelly, this influential hard rock/metal band took its better-known name from a poem written in the 1960s by their manager, Sandy Pearlman. The superfluous umlaut is said to have been added to the “O” as an allusion to the “Wagnerian” aspects of heavy metal (see Motörhead and Queensrÿche).

At first called simply The Apples — a name they borrowed from the Pink Floyd song “Apples and Oranges” — this indie rock band hails originally from Denver. After “in Stereo” was added in the mid-1990s, co-founder Robert Schneider at first said that the group’s name was still just The Apples but they recorded “in stereo.”,

This psychedelic-powered garage band came up with its nonsensical name as a joke, probably riffing off other curious band names of the period (see, for instance, the Electric Prunes, below).

A strongly political psychedelic folk rock band founded by Joseph Allen “Country Joe” McDonald and Barry “The Fish” Melton, the group got its name from Bay Area music business personality ED (sic) Denson, co-publisher of a left-wing alternative magazine called Rag Baby. The inspiration wasn’t culinary. It was a reference to Mao Zedong’s description of revolutionaries as “fish who swim in the sea of the people.”

Like many other band names, “the Electric Prunes” started off as a joke among members of this L.A.-based psychedelic rock group. Co-founder James Lowe liked the name because it was unique. “It’s not attractive,” he once said, “and there’s nothing sexy about it, but people won’t forget it.”

When the subsequently legendary Gram Parsons added country influences to his International Submarine Band, the other two members left amicably and founded something they called the Flying Burrito Brothers, for reasons unknown. When Parsons and Chris Hillman, formerly of The Byrds, formed a new band of their own, Parsons’ former colleagues offered him use of the name.

An alt.country group from Texas, The Gourds were once known as “the national band of Austin.” Their name might be an agricultural reference, or could reference a slang term for “brains” or “heads.”

Heading up a band known for its Latin and disco hits, August Darnell took the title of the 1958 Elvis Presley movie “King Creole” as inspiration for his stage name. Group co-founder Adriana Kaegi added “the Coconuts” — presumably to evoke the band’s tropical flavor.

A psychedelic-tinged “sunshine pop” ensemble, the Alarm Clock was formed by members of two earlier groups, Thee Sixpence and Waterfyrd Traene. According to the band’s bio, they wanted to use the word “strawberry” in their name in tribute to “Strawberry Fields Forever,” but didn’t know what words to put with it. Then somebody noticed the ticking of an old-fashioned alarm clock in the room, and that was it.

International avant-garde-rock diva Björk came to prominence in this Icelandic band. The name is assumed to be a reference to LSD-soaked sugar cubes.

A pioneering electronic and ambient band from Germany, Tangerine Dream owes its name to a misheard Beatles lyric: Members heard “tangerine trees and marmalade skies” from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” as “tangerine dreams…”

This Long Island acid rock band was originally called the Electric Pigeons, and later just The Pigeons. When the group got signed to Atlantic Records, though, the label didn’t like the name and asked them to come up with a new one. An employee at a Long Island club they were playing happened to mention that her childhood nickname had been Vanilla Fudge, and suggested that the band adopt it.

A Chicago-born alt.rock band, The Smashing Pumpkins (or just Smashing Pumpkins) has never revealed the origin of its name. However a one-time bass player for the group, D’arcy Wretzky, has declared that “smashing” is an adjective meaning “great” — not a reference to the Halloween-period prank of destroying jack o’lanterns.

The great ragtime and pioneering jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton had a band called the Red Hot Peppers, but this funky alt.rock band’s similar name is apparently not related. In fact, when the website BandNameExplained asked Chili Peppers co-founder Anthony Kiedis about the name, “All he brought out was a flavorless comment about ‘a psychedelic bus with the band’s name on it’.”

Jeff Mangum, who launched this indie rock band out of Louisiana and gained a cult following across the country, has said that the origin of the group’s name is something he wants to keep to himself. He did record originally as simply Milk, but added a couple of words after somebody told him that there was already a group by that name.

This off-again, on-again folkish psychedelic band out of San Francisco took its name from the punchline of a joking ’60s riddle that asked “What’s big and purple and lives in the ocean?”

A Boston-born punk and alt.rock band, this group was originally called The Whelps. Lead singer Evan Dando changed it after encountering the hard candy called Lemonheads — which Dando described as sour outside and sweet within. He may have meant that as a metaphor for the band’s music.

In culinary history terms, humble (or umble) pie is a medieval savory pastry filled with minced organ meats, and metaphorically, to eat humble pie is to be forced to apologize in a humiliating way. When Steve Marriott announced that he was leaving the Small Faces to form a band with Peter Frampton, the UK music press hailed it as a potential “super-group.” Marriott chose to give his hard-rocking band this self-effacing name as a way to manage expectations.

The name of this blues-rock band founded by two former members of Jefferson Airplane was inspired by a line from a song the founders liked to sing. “Keep on Truckin'” was their version of old-time blues singer Blind Boy Fuller’s song “What’s That Smell Like Fish,” and incorporated Fuller’s title in the lyrics. As they sang the line one day, somebody in the audience answered “hot tuna!”