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Our Band Needs a Name


SeniorBlues

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I like that.


May I tweek it a bit?


"The DC Soul Revue"

 

 

I like it except a "revue" tends to have multiple acts with a single backing band. Check out Donald Fagan's "New York Rock and Soul Revue." We have multiple lead vocalists, but they're all part of the band.

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I think you're making it too hard on yourself - as long as your gigging area doesn't overlap with theirs I don't see why a name needs to be unique?

 

 

You really only need to be unique to your gigging area. Philly may be too close to DC? Or maybe not if the two bands don't plan on overlapping.

 

IMO, a good corporate/private event band name is easy to remember and tells people as much about the band as possible. It's part of the sales-pitch since you're going after new audiences constantly rather trying to build a following. So it needs to be somewhat common.

 

When I was researching the ridiculously-common sounding name "JumpStart" I found bands with the same name in Colorado, Texas and the East Coast. So I figured that was close enough. Not long after we started using the name, a band in Southern California using the same name popped up. Either they didn't bother to do a search, and did or didn't care. We've gotten a couple of calls asking if we're available to travel to So. Cal and I've wondered if they were looking for the other band. Doesn't really matter since it would be very unlikely we'd travel that far for a gig anyway. (Unless they paid some really big money.) I'd rather that other band doesn't exist, but I don't really see it being a problem. It's a big 500 miles between the two.

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You really only need to be unique to your gigging area. Philly may be too close to DC? Or maybe not if the two bands don't plan on overlapping.


IMO, a good corporate/private event band name is easy to remember and tells people as much about the band as possible. It's part of the sales-pitch since you're going after new audiences constantly rather trying to build a following. So it needs to be somewhat common.


When I was researching the ridiculously-common sounding name "JumpStart" I found bands with the same name in Colorado, Texas and the East Coast. So I figured that was close enough. Not long after we started using the name, a band in Southern California using the same name popped up. Either they didn't bother to do a search, and did or didn't care. We've gotten a couple of calls asking if we're available to travel to So. Cal and I've wondered if they were looking for the other band. Doesn't really matter since it would be very unlikely we'd travel that far for a gig anyway. (Unless they paid some really big money.) I'd rather that other band doesn't exist, but I don't really see it being a problem. It's a big 500 miles between the two.

 

 

We felt that way, too, but the agent sees things differently. Since available content of our EPK isn't as strong as we'd like at this point, we're trying to follow her lead as much as possible to keep up her level of interest in the group.

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We felt that way, too, but the agent sees things differently.

 

 

Well, I'd definately suggest doing what the agent says. Especially if she's going to be booking you a lot.

 

"DC Soul" sounds cool. Or "DC Rock 'n Soul" perhaps? "Soulville" maybe? (A loose play on being from Rockville...) "The Soulville Sound Sensation"? I'm just riffing now, but you get the idea. Keep it simple, descriptive and fairly easy to remember. Which means it is probably (but not necessarily, of course) going to verge on being corny.

 

FWIW, one of the agents we're listed with also had another "JumpStart" on their roster, so they list us as "JumpStart Your Party", which has kind of become our de facto name anyway since it's our web address. I've also seen bands use different names with different agents in different markets -- although I'm not always sure why. I think it has less to do with name-conflicts than with agent-conflicts.

 

Bottom line--I don't care what they call us, just as long as they call us!

 

But I'd definately play "Agent Knows Best" on this one. Does she have any suggestions?

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The one we had chosen was already taken by another up-and-coming group. We are an eight-piece classic soul band. Lots of singers and horns. Targeting the private events market within a 100 mile radius of the DC area.


The musical director/vocalist and featured vocalist are both named David and both played for Wilson Pickett, if that triggers any ideas.


I'll try to check back, as I always do, but expect to lose power in a few hours as Sandy passes through.

FREE BEER

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No Sam

Samless Dave

The Associates

The Aristocrats (or not, look it up
;)
)

Midnight Hour

Right Track

All That



I don't think anything with the "2 Dave's" aspect would be a good idea, as there is a band in this same area called "Too many Dave's and the brass soulution."

FWIW DC Soul gets my vote.

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Soulvation

Soulvester and the Tweety Birds

Capitol Soul

Uncle Soul

The Capital Hill Soul Kings

The Vessels of Soul

Summer Soulstice

The Soul Olympics

The Soul Mates

The Menders of Soul

 

My favourite so far is The Congressional Soul Caucus.

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Whatever you choose, you definitely need to get the word "soul" in there, so people know ahead of time what kind of music to expect.

Not that it'll do any good. I named my oldies/classic rock trio "Rock This Town" and I still have people coming up the bandstand and asking for top 40 country songs so they can line dance. I give them "Pink Cadillac"; seems to work.

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