what the heck should i name my new jazz band?

July 17, 2008 2:15 AM

help me name my indonesian-jazz-band-with-a-dj!

i know i'm not the first to ask for bandname suggestions on askmefi, and i probably wont be the last, as you guys are good at this! while i, unfortunately, *suck* at coming up with band names. and as the marketing dept for the hotel we play at is asking for a name and description by the end of the day (we started the day before yesterday) i could sure use your help! :)

the description part was easy:

"********* mixes dj beats with traditional jazz instruments and vocals to make a sophisticated urban sound thats both funky and easy on the ears."

we sound not entirely unlike united future organization, but we're a band, rather than to 2 djs sampling jazz tracks. personnel: me as the dj, a female vocalist, standup bass, piano, and a percussionist on bongos, congos and shakers.

finding a servicable-but-generic-hotel-band name isn't impossible ("bali beats quintet" is the best i've come up with so far, eh), but one day i hope to take this project to somewhat better things (jakarta jazz festival seems quite plausible for example, and we'll probably release a cd fairly soon) so i'd like to have a somewhat decent, clever, descriptive-but-not-too-obvious name.

oh! we're based in bali! and as we're playing the tourist circuit, incorporating a bali/indonesia/asian sort of theme to our name is *almost* (but not strictly) neccesary.

i know this much: it's a quintet, and if you stick "quintet" at the end of the name, everyone knows it's jazz - i'm not married to that idea, but it's a starting point anyway.

posted by messiahwannabe to media & arts (26 comments total)

Play Bali!
posted by troybob at 2:27 AM on July 17, 2008

Hello, Bali!
posted by troybob at 2:41 AM on July 17, 2008

DJazz
DJ Urban
Beats Working
Urban Fuse
... four brain flashes is my current limit
Good luck! Are you playing in Ubud in the next couple of weeks?
posted by Kerasia at 2:50 AM on July 17, 2008

ha ha, "play bali quintet" could work, theres already a store called "hello, bali" though.

keep em coming y'all! :)
posted by messiahwannabe at 2:51 AM on July 17, 2008

Balineasy
Bali Dance
Jazzonesia
Jazzonesian 5
posted by MarvinJ at 3:19 AM on July 17, 2008

The Krakatoa Quints
posted by troybob at 3:24 AM on July 17, 2008

unfortunately Djazz is taken, that's a good one. we're not playing in ubud, just jimbaran for the moment.

i'm gonna keep hitting "reload" till i head for my gig in a 10 minutes :)
posted by messiahwannabe at 3:30 AM on July 17, 2008

coup d'bop
posted by troybob at 3:44 AM on July 17, 2008

Banda Gypsies
posted by misteraitch at 5:12 AM on July 17, 2008

DJ Akarta
posted by ROTFL at 5:26 AM on July 17, 2008

Reformasi
posted by i_cola at 5:42 AM on July 17, 2008

or Reformasi Jazz Quintet
posted by i_cola at 5:43 AM on July 17, 2008

I've always thought that Bintang Besar would be a good name for something. It literally means "big star" in Indonesian, but Bintang is also the name of the most popular local brand of beer, so "Bintang besar" (a large (22oz?) bottle of beer) is the standard drink order.
posted by dfan at 6:26 AM on July 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

Jimbaran Jazz Quintet has a nice sound to it.
Other ideas:
Bali Baluga
Jazzmatazz
Bali 5
Denpasar Dainty Quintet
Bali Bali Brouhaha
Coffee Quintet

That's about all I've thought of.
posted by Kattullus at 7:02 AM on July 17, 2008

Gamelan-a-ding-dong
posted by LionIndex at 7:05 AM on July 17, 2008

Jaya Jazz 5
posted by lukemeister at 8:42 AM on July 17, 2008

Not sure if you know this, but in Bali there are only four names. They're unisex and assigned by birth order. The firstborn is "Wayan" (pronounced "Why-yan" or Yan, for short), second is "Made" (pronounced Mah-day), third is "Nyoman" ("Nyoh-mahn" or Man for short), and fourth is "Ketut" ("Keh-tut," often elided to Tut). The fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth will be another Wayan, Made, Nyoman, Ketut and Wayan again.

I think you guys should all take one of those names as your alteregos. As for band names, here's a brainstorm:

Monkey Forest
Monkey Temple
Kuta Cowboy/s (that's what they call the male gigolos in Kuta, the touristy area)
Barong Dance
Spirit House
Funky Bat Cave (they have 'em. doesn't have to be a batman reference.)
posted by miss lynnster at 8:50 AM on July 17, 2008

hey, great ideas so far! i'm considering a few, but keep em coming!

Gamelan-a-ding-dong won't work really, but it made me laugh :)
posted by messiahwannabe at 8:50 AM on July 17, 2008

Well, Java Jazz or some version of that might be fun:

The Java Jazz Five
Jazzjava

There's a coffee pun in there somewhere but I'll be damned if I can think of it.
posted by Kattullus at 9:02 AM on July 17, 2008

"There's a coffee pun in there somewhere but I'll be damned if I can think of it."

the java od quintet?
the java jitters?

heh, on the other hand, i'm in bali, a friend of mine in a balinese punk bank has "fuck java" tatooed on his back; it's an old inter-island rivalry thing. but then again, i think everyone in the band is actually javanese.

anyway... wow! good stuff guys! i love it! my band name is in here somewhere.
posted by messiahwannabe at 10:48 AM on July 17, 2008

the bali 5! i just caught that!

blatant drug references. good or not? hmmmmm.

goddamn, you guys rock! great ideas!
posted by messiahwannabe at 10:53 AM on July 17, 2008

Well, if you're into drugs, you could call yourselves... Bali High.
posted by miss lynnster at 10:57 AM on July 17, 2008

This doesn't have much to do with anything, but I've always thought Flimsy Pretext would be a good band name.

Maybe that's why I'm not in a band.
posted by rossination at 11:30 AM on July 17, 2008

flimsy pretext is a great name! for another band, but still.

ok, it's morning, i've thought about it, and i believe we're called "the reformasi jazz quintet"

thanks to everyone for their fantastic ideas, i really had a hard time choosing from all the great suggestions!
posted by messiahwannabe at 8:28 PM on July 17, 2008

i don't think the name would have to be bali-specific. A lot of famous brand in Indonesia simply plucks a random word to be their band name :P
posted by joewandy at 8:53 PM on July 17, 2008

oopss ... should be band, not brand
posted by joewandy at 8:54 PM on July 17, 2008