I was playing the very fun game "One Degree of Separation: A Song Name Game for GeekGold" (which you can play, too, here: One Degree) and posted a song by a band called Hüsker Dü. I had heard an "urban legend" that they got the name from the boardgame, so I used some Google magic to find out more....
Got me wondering how many more bands I could find who had names in common with boardgames. So I did some more digging and found a bunch!!
Here is what I found. The text is generally quoted from their websites or Wikipedia. I have tried to embed links to more information in case you are curious....
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
Hüsker Dü was an American alternative rock band formed in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota in 1979... "Hüsker Dü never achieved mainstream success, but attained an influence far larger than its modest sales figures would indicate.... They owed their new name to a rather sloppy rehearsal of the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer". Unable to recall the French portions sung in the original ("qu'est-ce que c'est"), they began shouting any foreign-language terms they could remember, when someone said "Hūsker Dū?", a board game that had been popular in the 1970s. The term, without the umlauts, means "Do you remember?" in Norwegian and Danish. The group added Heavy metal umlauts to complete the name... "
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
The Checkers was a Japanese pop/rock band famous in the 80s. ... "They made a debut on 21 September 1983 and split up on 31 December 1992. All of their single releases entered top 10 in Japanese charts, many of them making it to No 1."
West over water I fared bearing poetry's waves to the shore of the war-god's heart; my course was set. I launched my oaken craft at the breaking of ice, loaded my cargo of praise aboard my longboat aft.
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
Pandemic is a Sonoma County, California based metal band ... "Their style is a combination of the more traditional Iron Maiden heavy metal, mixed up with some of the thrash and melodic death metal."
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
The Fjords "Since forming in 2002, The Fjords have maintained a loyal following in Saskatoon. ... The Fjords combine a wide range of musical influences to create a tight-knit, charismatic, and intensely melodic sound that we just can't seem to find a good comparison for."
There's also Queens of the Stone Age. They are a rock band from Southern California. They are a band that evolved from Kyuss, which is a band that evolved somewhat from Fu Manchu. There was a little parallel evolution between them all as time went by, but the most common ancestor was an early form of Fu Manchu back in '87.
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
Battlelore is a band from Lappeenranta, Finland. "Their style takes elements from gothic metal, power metal, folk metal, death metal, and, to a lesser extent, industrial music. All of Battlelore's lyrics concern J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth."
Very good band! Listen to "War Of Wrath" song for example!
Furthermore, their female singer's name is Kaisa! (Chess' goddess and also the brand name of the biggest franchise of boardgames stores in Greece. Kaissa is also a Russian chess program which became the first world computer chess champion in 1974 in Stockholm).
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
El Grande There are at least 2 bands called El Grande. The Portland, Maine Reggae, Funk, Ska band: El Grande and Jono El Grande the Norwegian composer, band leader, guitarist and dancing conductor, inspired by Captain Beefheart, '60s Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Igor Stravinsky and art rock.
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
Alex Cuba Band "Alexis Puentes, better known by his stage name Alex Cuba, is a Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter who sings in Spanish. ... Cuba was born in Cuba, spending his childhood in Artemisa, the son of guitar player and music teacher Valentin Puentes. He started playing guitar himself at age six. As an adult, he shifted into jazz fusion styles. He immigrated to Canada in 1999 after marrying a Canadian in Cuba."
While the band in this case does not have the same name as the game, it's one of the few actual cases where the band name comes from a game, as opposed to coincidence. The Human League is named after a faction in StarForce:
Quote:
With this new line-up, the group decided to change their name. After briefly considering ABCD, they chose The Human League, a name taken from a science-fiction board game called Star Force.
Martyn: "There were all these scenarios in the back for various wars in the future, and one of these, for a stage 'round about 2180, where there were two main empires - The Pansantient Hegemony and The Human League. The Human League centred around Earth and the scenario was called The Rise Of The Human League. So we stole it."
Martyn: "There were all these scenarios in the back for various wars in the future, and one of these, for a stage 'round about 2180, where there were two main empires - The Pansantient Hegemony and The Human League. The Human League centred around Earth and the scenario was called The Rise Of The Human League. So we stole it."
[quibble] 2180? Not in the 25th Century. The Rise of the Human League takes place in 2415.
The Pansantient Hegemony? Let's see: Pan-Human Hegemony (aka PHH)...check Pan-Sentient League (aka PSL)...check Pansantient Hegemony... [/quibble]
I know it's a stretch, and they're really inspired more by the Call of Cthulhu RPG than any Lovecraftian board game, but how about the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets?
Great pick! Alas, they pre-date the game by quite some time ...
Your Rock Trivia Tidbit of the Day: check out the back of The Mekons' first LP for a fine pic of Gang of Four! The two bands used to share rehearsal space, and, apparently, their mutual record company got confused ...
West over water I fared bearing poetry's waves to the shore of the war-god's heart; my course was set. I launched my oaken craft at the breaking of ice, loaded my cargo of praise aboard my longboat aft.
THE MEEPLES
A urban techo-punk band based in Milwaukee was founded by a friend of mine, and a boardgamegeek, Andrew Sampers.
He's careful not to use the gamepiece as a logo, despite asking for permission to use the name for his band of the publisher and the gal who came up with the word Meeples.
I've taken some low-rez video of one of their earliest performances, and you can see that above. They've evolved a bit since then, but you get the idea about who they are from it.
I helped design this logo for them, for their concert buttons, a piece of flair available on Facebook's app:
Uhh, so they're actually named after a song by the band Can, not a boardgame. But I think that rule's been broken enough times on this list that it doesn't really matter.
Arguably more of a "new age" sort of band, Oregon was formed by former members of the Paul Winter Consort and performed improvisational chamber music featuring instruments such as oboe, guitar, and Indian drums.
The first 3 bands clearly got their names from the boardgames. Are all the other bands just coincidentally named the same as boardgames, or do you know of any others that intentionally named themselves for games?
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
Yes, the whole “named after” concept is rather tongue-in-cheek. “The List of Spurious Relationships” might be a more accurate title… But you never know…
It has grown into a pretty interesting list, though, just the same…
I am a Talking Aviator? I say, whatever shall they think of next? Anyone up for a game, then? Tally Ho!!
Absecon
New Jersey
The first 3 bands clearly got their names from the boardgames. Are all the other bands just coincidentally named the same as boardgames, or do you know of any others that intentionally named themselves for games?
Toronto
Ontario
Who really knows for sure, but it is growing into an interesting list.
Stuttgart
Baden-Württemberg
Mol
Toronto
Ontario
It has grown into a pretty interesting list, though, just the same…