Forgive Durden, Atreyu, and Other Band Names Stolen from Pop Culture

In 1996, Chuck Palahniuk wrote a novel about a pussy tormented by our consumerist society who creates a fight club and, in order to get over his aforementioned lack of balls, a badass alternate personality called Tyler Durden. Years later, four dudes from Seattle named their band Forgive Durden for no apparent reason other than that they thought it sounded cool. The band, scheduled to perform Saturday, November 1, at the Clubhouse, wasn't alone in finding inspiration for their band's name in pop culture, either. We actually see this as an annoying trend, one that seems to support an almost self-reflexive admission of pop-irrelevancy and pop-indifference in music today. Don't believe us? Check out these unfortunate band monikers.

Atreyu is the name of the boy-warrior from The NeverEnding Story. Why name your screamcore band Atreyu? Well, 'cause it sounds only slightly less lame than Falkor, the name of the talking, white-haired luckdragon Atreyu flew around on — duh! To be fair, the movie rocks. Atreyu the band doesn't even compare.

The Devil Wears Prada was formed in 2005, two years before the release of the 2006 romantic comedy of the same name but two years after the release of the famous chick-lit novel the movie was based on. In other words, someone was wandering around Borders one day, saw a book on the shelf, and said, "Hmm, this sounds like a lame name for a metalcore band. Why not?" When the movie came out, the name got even lamer and, worse, embarrassing.

It doesn't come as much of a surprise to find out Gwen Stacy, a band that stole its name from Spider-Man's first girlfriend, is good friends with the equally name-challenged The Devil Wears Prada. This isn't the worst name on this list, given its relative obscurity outside of comic circles, but it certainly doesn't elevate the band's respect level from "jeerworthy."

The Destro is ot to be confused with Destro, the G.I. Joe super-terrorist with a metallic disposition and a penchant for hot Eastern European girls with baronial lineages. We actually like this, despite our better judgment. Makes us think of our childhood and how much Destro's main squeeze turned us on. Speaking of Baroness . . .

The guys in Baroness like to be coy about where they got the idea for their name, as if no one else can guess. Maybe they feel stupid because they went with Baroness over The Destro.

Han Solo was a scruffy-looking nerf herder, according to Princess Leia. Nerf Herder, the band, dug the reference and, for about one week, we did, too. Then every other wanna-be pop-punk band in America decided to steal their name from the Star Wars trilogy. Another one pops up every 16 seconds. Hell, six popped up while we were writing this blurb about Nerf Herder. Shit, another two while typing that last sentence . . .


Tue., May 26, 7 p.m., 2009