Greatest Prog Band Names
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Top 10s and lists
Forum Description: List all your favourites here
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=55254
Printed Date: May 19 2025 at 14:48
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Topic: Greatest Prog Band Names
Posted By: hawkcwg
Subject: Greatest Prog Band Names
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 19:08
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What are the greatest Prog Band Names Invented in your opinion? I love Ping-Pong (very original haha) My new band and I were trying to come up with a good band name and came up with some funny ones we finalized on the name "Mirrored Reflection" Myrid Reflektion. My bands- Nicomachean (Still In Process), Chrono Breaker (Rip) and Myrid Rlektion (current 2008- ) ------------- 
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Replies:
Posted By: OzzProg
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 19:48
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I like the meaningful, yet mysterious one word names. Surprise, a lot of Top notch prog has names like these (although I could really care less about the names, it adds a nice touch). The one word tens to describe the music very well in a compelling way. There are other great one word name bands, but these represent the music the best. Yes Can Caravan Genesis Focus GonG Gryphon Renaissance Rush Now, here is a list of names that just stick in my head for some reason, and they obviously have a psychedelic tendency to the sound of them, or the thought they give you. Beardfish Camel Gentle Giant Happy the Man King Crimson Porcupine Tree Premiata Forneria Marconi Yezda Urfa My all time favourite band name is Yes. It is most likely this because they are my favourite band, but it is so simple and concise, with a nice sound. It also fits on T-Shirts nicely :P -------------  |
Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 19:51
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Yes
Porcupine Tree
Pain Of Salvation
Dream Theater
Tool
King Crimson
Genesis
Beardfish
Pink Floyd.
btw OzzProg, what is your avi? Looks listen-worthy.
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Posted By: Equality 7-2521
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 20:04
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Explosions in the Sky only really good one I can think of right now. Maybe Protest the Hero ------------- "One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. " |
Posted By: Epignosis
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 20:05
Epignosis isn't bad. Too bad it's kind of taken. 
------------- https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays" rel="nofollow - https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays |
Posted By: King Crimson776
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 20:56
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Yes Genesis King Crimson Gentle Giant Soft Machine Transatlantic Spock's Beard Frost* Porcupine Tree Dream Theater Tool Pink Floyd The Mars Volta Glass Hammer Van der Graaf Generator and of course: Emerson, Lake & Palmer (their names are just plain cool, goddamit :P) Prog bands just have awesome names in general.
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Posted By: hawkcwg
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 21:01
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YES I agree. I like Gong a lot they are my favorite Canterbury band, and Hatfield and North, and Soft Machine, And Camel, and Caravan.
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Posted By: POSW
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 21:13
Fuzzy Duck. I win.  I scanned through Prog Archives and found some other good ones: Moving Gelatine Plates Pure Reason Revolution Pye Fyte - Quyte Altair - I'm a bit of an astronomy buff Disen Gage - and Finneus Gauge, too Gnidrolog - How do you pronounce this? The Gourishankar - I have no idea what it means, but for some reason it's memorable. Lucifer Was - Lucifer Was what? Always leaves me wondering Mannfred Mann's Earth Band - Gotta love the assonance Black Bonzo - always makes me think of John Bonham, aka Bonzo Crack The Sky - Very vivid imagery for just three words Jonas Hellborg - I bet 90% of the Swedish metal scene wishes they had Jonas' last name Two Siberians - Right to the point. Giraffes? Giraffes! - Makes me smile every time Mullmuzzler - I like the way it sounds Hawkwind Ozric Tentacles - You'd have to be stoned to come up with this odd conglomeration of two words. Art Bears - Brings to mind a big, furry woodland creature with a paintbrush Wha-Ha-Ha - Ha-ha-ha-ha? Karmakanic - ...I get it! It's a pun! Car Mechanic! Why did this take me weeks to realize? Rocket Scientists - Proving that music is rocket science since 1993 Arcturus - See above Meshuggah - Because Yiddish is metal, dude ------------- I'm http://www.metal-archives.com/userprofile.php?user=PriestofSadWings - PriestofSadWings at Metal Archives. "Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?" - George Carlin |
Posted By: hawkcwg
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 21:17
You've got quite a bit of time on your hands haha, Great commentary as well haha. -------------
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POSW wrote:Posted By: keiser willhelm
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 21:35
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The Mars Volta - straight up kick ass. Giraffes? Giraffes! - best math rock name around, perfect description for the sound. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band - LULZ! Soft Machine - one of my favorite names of all music Omega Massiff - again, just a perfect name for the sound dillinger escape plan - madness. Metallica - Prog right? regardless, the name is so metal. Explosions in the Sky - perfect. ------------- http://www.last.fm/user/KeiserWillhelm" rel="nofollow - What im listening to |
Posted By: moebius
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 21:42
| FANTÔMAS |
Posted By: AlexUC
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 22:36
Godspeed You! Black Emperor  ------------- This is not my beautiful house... |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 22:45
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Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: February 02 2009 at 23:29
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Hmm, off the top of my head:
Giraffes? Giraffes!
Godspeed You Black Emperor!
A Silver Mt. Zion
Behold... The Arctopus
Anglagard (Sounds so awesome to me, I was surprised to find out they weren't metal)
Casualties of Applied Metaphysics
Cynic
Psychotic Waltz
An Endless Sporadic
Wolves in the Throne Room
These are just names. I haven't heard all of their music, though I plan to get as much as I can of them.
Haha, Protest the Hero's name sounds like some crappy hardcore band to me.  ------------- 
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Posted By: tszirmay
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 00:32
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Brand X, Be Bop Deluxe, obviously Roxy Music, Curved Air, Glass Hammer, Gongzilla, Blue Oyster Cult, Nice Beaver (LOL), Vulgar Unicorn (yup) , Pineapple Thief, Quasar Lux Symphoniae (?), Split Enz, Spooky Tooth, Tangerine Dream and Taal ------------- I never post anything anywhere without doing more than basic research, often in depth. |
Posted By: Petrovsk Mizinski
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 00:56
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To be honest, I think band names like Yes, Renaissance and Caravan are some of the worst and most cheesy band names ever. Univers Zero and Shub-Niggurath spring to mind as some of the coolest band names ever. |
Posted By: poslednijat_colobar
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 01:17
| I think Gentle Giant is very original as well as these long italian names like Premiata Forneria Marconi and Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and all others. |
Posted By: poslednijat_colobar
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 01:18
| I don't want to forget Pink Floyd. Very interesting is the way it have been invented. From the names of two bluesmen. |
Posted By: mikedies
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 02:00
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not necessarily the greatest, but i like these names quite a bit.
Meanwhile Back in Communist Russia.
Necronomicon.
The Samuel Jackson Five.
Tangerine Dream.
The Spacious Mind.
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Posted By: el dingo
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 02:21
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I tend to like the two-word names with impossible connections (not all prog):
Happy Mondays
Inspiral Carpets
Half-man, Half-biscuit
Curved Air
Matching Mole
Arctic Monkeys
Glass Hammer
Ozric Tentacles
Iron Butterfly
Led Zeppelin
and "funnies" like
The Armitage Shanks Band (a p***take of the Lynyrd Skynyrd style bands). For those who don't know, AS is a popular brand of crapper here in the good old UK.
Timbucthree
The Cocteau Twins (there's at least three of them)
The Thomson Twins (as above, plus TinTin derivation).
Megadeth (surely you're not supposed to take this seriously?)
one-word in-yer-face names like
Yes
Clash
Buzzcocks
Blur
Tool
Man
and things that just grab you, like Manic Street Preachers, Kings of Leon, My Chemical Romance, Alice in Chains, Pink Floyd, Jane's Addiction.
I was once in a band called Up Uranus, not really all that funny then or now, I guess. No-one's version of All Along the Watchtower could have been as bad as ours
 ------------- It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough. |
Posted By: el dingo
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 02:35
 Anyone crazy enough to take my handle can have it.
Los Lobos, maybe. El Dingo, don't think so! ------------- It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough. |
Posted By: Vompatti
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 02:44
| King Crimson. |
Posted By: harmonium.ro
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 03:01
a few more of those: Moody Blues Jefferson Airplane Spastik Ink Blotted Science Subterranean Masquerade Collegium Musicum etc. |
Posted By: b_olariu
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 03:05
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Pagan's Mind
Tsunami
Rousseau
Book of Reflectoin
Triumvirat
Elegant Simplicity
Ivory Tower
just the one's I can think right now
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Posted By: el dingo
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 03:20
Yeah it's funny how names come about.
I used to work on the same newspaper as Phil Knight of the Legendary Pink Dots.
They got the name when someone's girlfriend spilled pink nail varnish all over Phil's keyboard!
My personal favourite was Monty Python's Flying Circus. When asked by a reporter why it was called that, one of them replied:
"Isn't it obvious? There's nobody in it called Monty, there are no snakes, it doesn't fly and it's sure not a circus." ------------- It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough. |
Posted By: fusionfreak
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 03:51
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King Crimson
Anglagard
Magma
Yes
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Guru Guru
Amon Duul 2
Kalacacra
Atomic Rooster
Eloy
Sinkadus
Genesis
Modry Efekt
SBB
Caravan
Soft Machine
Dedalus
Cincinnato
Garybaldi ------------- I was born in the land of Mahavishnu,not so far from Kobaia.I'm looking for the world of searchers with the help from crimson king |
Posted By: SouthSideoftheSky
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 04:04
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Return To Forever is the best band name ever! I hate it when they destroy it by adding 'featuring Chick Corea' or when they call it 'Chick Corea's Return To Forever'. Keep it short and snappy and mysterious, it is almost like a three word riddle.
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Posted By: ClemofNazareth
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 06:45
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tszirmay already mentioned Nice Beaver, which has to be one of the coolest prog band names ever. Also, Uncle Dirtytoes is right up there; so is Pussy. How about a double-bill with the Future Kings of England opening for Meanwhile Back in Communist Russia? ------------- "Peace is the only battle worth waging." Albert Camus |
Posted By: Toaster Mantis
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 07:01
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Captain Beyond. That name's got the exact same trippy underground sci-fi comic book vibe as their music. ------------- "The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook |
Posted By: Roj
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 09:04
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Two great names from bands I've not heard at all are:-
Giant Squid
Big Big Train
The first is really great and the latter I also find absolutely hilarious too.
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Posted By: Equality 7-2521
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 09:37
Totally agree. Most classic prog names were terrible. ------------- "One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. " |
Posted By: Equality 7-2521
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 09:38
You point was nullified when you chose the sounds like some crappy black metal band name. ------------- "One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. " |
Posted By: TheCaptain
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 17:20
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Procol Harum Return To Forever Le Orme King Crimson Gentle Giant The Tangent Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso Premiata Forneria Marconi ------------- Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal. |
Posted By: valravennz
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 17:30
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Split Enz; God Speed You! Black Emperor; Star One; Ozric Tentacles; Behold...The Arctopus; Pineapple Thief; Porcupine Tree; King Crimson; Harmonium - just for starters. ------------- 
"Music is the Wine that fills the cup of Silence" - Robert Fripp |
Posted By: crimson87
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 17:43
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Emerson Lake & Palmer.
King Crimson
Tangerine Dream
Ash Ra Tempel
Ars Nova
But the coolest of them all would be MIKE PORTNOY'S EXPERIENCE. Dt needs this name!!
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Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 19:54
Point taken. But I'd take a crappy black metal band over a crappy hardcore band any day. Hell, I'd take a crappy black metal band over a DECENT hardcore band.
To make my post fit the thread, I'm going to add King Crimson and Meshuggah to the list. -------------
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Posted By: martinprog77
Date Posted: February 03 2009 at 20:16
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usually most prog metal bands have good names like
pian of salvation
shadow gallery
dream theater
after forever
pagan's mind
anglagard
stream of passion
nightwish ------------- Nothing can last there are no second chances. Never give a day away. Always live for today. |
Posted By: sleeper
Date Posted: February 04 2009 at 05:44
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Dream Theater Pain of Salvation maudlin of the Well King Crimson Genesis The Mars Volta Mastodon In Lingua Mortua Wolves in the Throne Room Arcturus Abydos Brand X Cynic Dark Suns Fates Warning Grayceon Indukti Opeth Psychotic Waltz Saens Sieges Even Threshold To-Mera Watchtower ------------- Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005 
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Posted By: The Whistler
Date Posted: February 05 2009 at 02:23
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What?!? C'mon guys! ATOMIC ROOSTER! That name's so stoopid, it MUST be cool! Also a fan of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, described by one music reviewer as sounding like the offices of a law firm. Schweet. ------------- "There seem to be quite a large percentage of young American boys out there tonight. A long way from home, eh? Well so are we... Gotta stick together." -I. Anderson |
Posted By: el dingo
Date Posted: February 05 2009 at 03:25
Talking of Nice Beaver and Pussy, I saw Tull on the Warchild tour and they were supported by all-girl band... Fanny. ------------- It's not that I can't find worth in anything, it's just that I can't find worth in enough. |
Posted By: tamijo
Date Posted: February 05 2009 at 08:14
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Getting away with taking simple names like Yes or Tool before anyone else, is cool.
But if it comes to names that trill the mind, think i like these most:
Grateful Dead
Gentle Gaint
The Mars Volta (would be even better without "the")
Acid Mother Temple
Balck Sabbath
------------- Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours |
Posted By: tamijo
Date Posted: February 05 2009 at 08:15
------------- Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours |
Posted By: TheCaptain
Date Posted: February 05 2009 at 08:49
There's an "edit this post" function listed under the "post options" menu next to the quote button. You should have edited your first post to add "Sunday all over the World" instead of quoting yourself and adding it. ------------- Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal. |
Posted By: ten years after
Date Posted: February 07 2009 at 04:25
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"Van der Graaf Generator" is my favourite. The name sounds full of power and mystery (like their music).
"Curved Air" is quite brilliant too - a lovely description of what music is.
"Public Foot the Roman" is a name that has always caught my imagination, but i don't know much about them.
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Posted By: Anirml
Date Posted: February 07 2009 at 04:55
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King Crimson
Gentle Giant
Van der Graaf Generator
Comus
Fleur De Lis
Triumvirat
Witchfinder General
Faust
+ many others
there are so many!
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Posted By: manofmystery
Date Posted: February 09 2009 at 22:51
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Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
King Crimson
Van der Graaf Generator
Yes (really, aren't we all glad a deserving band carried this name)
Nektar
Gentle Giant
Atomic Rooster
Procol Harum
Captain Beyond
Rare Bird
Änglagård (rolls right off the tongue)
Beardfish (i'm no fan of fish but bearded ones, now thats a different story)
Egg
Grobschnitt
Gryphon
Hatfield And The North
High Tide
Jethro Tull
Pink Floyd
Richard Wright (this is the most solid name an Englishman can ever have)
The Robert Fripp String Quintet (Robert Fripp you say, I'm listening, with his own String Quintet you say, I'm sold)
Soft Machine
Vanilla Fudge
Tool (not because it is a good name but because its fitting
 ) http://www.comcast.net/slideshow/music-worstbandnames/30/ - http://www.comcast.net/slideshow/music-worstbandnames/30/ these are the names that tickle my fancy (there once was a day and age in which that line wouldn't be giggled at)
-------------  Time always wins. |
Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: February 10 2009 at 02:11
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For all of Prog's brilliance, the band names are notoriously bad. The one's that stick out as good to me are: Present The Resident's Antidepressive Delivery Ruins Theory in Practice Eskaton ------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow">  https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |