Sometimes bands have trouble settling on a good name. Quite apart from the usual problem of co-ordinating agreement between a bunch of opinionated musical extroverts who are only just friendly enough with each other to share the stage just long enough to earn the the typical modern band fee of a generosity sufficient to keep the band in rice and beans for one or two days at the least, there is the more mundane problem of finding a cool name that hasn’t been thought of by somebody else out there in the tintinabulists aether. If you are still reading after the last sentance – congratulations – you have just passed the band fan test!
In our case, for instance, after months of bantering around all sorts of unsuitable names (like Rusty Gates and the God Botherer Botherers) we settled on “The Cutouts”. In the self-delusoryexcitement of actually agreeing on something … sort of … we thought this was an excellent name as it had a ring to it and also referenced a bit of 1920’s musical lore.
A cutout, we had discovered, was a record that had been stopped from being released and all the extant unsold copies had had a physical cutout, or a punched hole, put into them so as to make then un-sellable.
Unfortunately, after a little while it became clear that we had been preceeded in this truly awesome choice of name by many other forward thinking bands. So with blatant spinnercise, and since we did not anticipate our current extravagent international success, nor any concomittant legal challenges, we settled on a simple solution and renamed ourselves as “The Original Cutouts”. Problem solved!
Interestingly, since then we have met a group of local performers also toying with the idea of calling themselves “The Cutouts”. After consultation with us, and due deliberation, they have decided to call themselves “The First Original Cutouts” (FOC’s). Problem solved … again!
Now, if for some strange incomprehensible reason your newly minted folk-roots-grungeabilly band does not want to use some version, anagram or permutation of “the Cutouts” as a band name … I have a suggestion …
How about an endangered species name? There is a bunch of articles about Australian endangered species on “the Conversation” – check em out!
Your band could call itself after one of these highly charismatic species: Fire Corals, Desert Gobies, Torrent Frogs, Western Swamp Turtles, Christmas Island Shrews, Christmas Island Frigate Birds, Hairy Nozed Wombats, Mountain Pygmy Possms, Northern River Sharks, Katydids, Hairy Marrons, Red Finned Blue Eyes, Murray Cods, Tasmanian Torrent Midges, Sea Snakes,Gilbert Poteroos, Rain Crayfish, Lord Howe Stick Insects, Southern Blue Fins, Beautiful Nursery Frogs, Spiny Crayfish, Regent Honeyeaters and my very favourite The Retro Sliders!
So … here is looking forward to jostling for busking position at Salamanca Markets with some new bands on the block, sometime in the near future, including “The First Original Cutouts” and the “The Retro Sliders”!
Now … if you still prefer to see the very original, almost very first, “The Original Cutouts” in concert soon – check us out on Friday evening July 5th at the Fern Tree Tavern from 8pm and then again on Sunday July 7th at the Republic Bar from 9pm.
We’re also playing a couple of private gigs as far afield as a largish Secret Island just off Triabunna but, unfortunately, you’ll have to be able to swim well and know the secret handshake to gain admittance!
ciao4niao,
fred
The Original Cutouts 