The Name-Changers

The other day I was casually scrolling through my twitter feed when I stumbled upon this little gem.

Excuse me, what?

At first I was all confused. Then I was all ohhh, I see. But then I was all really? Pop ETC?

It turns out The Morning Benders changed their name because the term "bender" is slang for "gay" in the UK and Europe. They were barraged with criticism on their world tour – lead singer Chris Chu stated, "We were told our band name was the equivalent of ‘The Morning Fags’ in America." The band felt that it was time to make a change after a solid five years as The Morning Benders, and I suppose I can see why. They want to make music, and they don't intend on offending people in the process. It's actually a pretty respectable thing to do in this PC day and age. There are, of course, countless other bands with questionably offensive and/or disturbing names (The Fags, Butthole Surfers, Sex Pistols...and many, many more). But none of these bands changed their name to 'Pop ETC.' Really? Couldn't come up with something better?

I'm going to dedicate the rest of this post to the best and worst 'before and afters.' There are TONS of bands who started out with one lame name and ended up with another, equally cheesy/embarrassing one. Some bands made the right choice. Others did not. We're going to take a close look at some of these legendary name-changers, as we attempt to understand why they made the change.

1) Before: The Pendletones, After: The Beach Boys

Clearly they got over it.

Ah yes, our ancestors of surf. Before they were The Beach Boys, they were known as The Pendletones – a play on words of sorts. Pendletons were actually a style of shirt, and the boys decided to make their name even more ironic by changing the spelling to 'tones' in order to make it clear that they were a band that played music, not a shirt manufacturer. What's most interesting about this name change is that the band members were unaware that the change was even being made until the put out their first single. Their label, Capitol Records, change the name without asking their opinion. Those sneaks! 

2) Before: Mookie Blaylock, After: Pearl Jam

Mookie Blaylock? What the....I honestly have a hard time pronouncing that and I'm not even wearing my retainers right now. I had to look up what these cRaZii words meant, and it turns out that that's actually someone's name! Mookie was an All-Star basketball player...totally relevant, right? I can see how basketball closely ties in with the lyrics in nearly every Pearl Jam album. No, really, I have no idea what Eddie Vedder was thinking when he decided on this name. Then again, Eddie is keen on the old name-change, his name, after all, is really Edward Louis Severson III. But who'd keep that name when you can have one that has four d's in it and kind of rhymes! Moral of the story is that they had to make the  switch because Mookie was still playing bball and his name was considered a brand, thus not up for grabs by some dirty little rock group. 

I just started a new rock group.

3) Before: The Sex Maggots, After: Goo Goo Dolls

The thought of 'sex maggots' makes me want to throw up. I don't even know what sex maggots are but I do know that I want nothing to do with them. What a vile name! And what a change, to the innocent-sounding Goo Goo Dolls. Cute things say 'goo,' and maybe that's what they were going for, but it seems to be a stark contrast to the once grotesque Sex Maggots. Apparently a club owner refused to let them play as The Sex Maggots, so they drunkenly chose a new name by picking a random phrase from an ad in a True Detective magazine. Pure genius. Stars were born. 

These are goo goo dolls. If you put your finger in their heads they change expressions!