Strange Names of the Avant-Garde Quiz

Answer: Mac Sabbath

Mac Sabbath are a parody band that cover various Black Sabbath songs with McDonald's inspired lyrics and stage presence. Their name is a parody of the band Black Sabbath, substituting the word "Mac" for "Black" as in a McDonald's "Big Mac". While their music and lyrics might seem to encourage the act of eating fast food, their concept actually addresses the issues associated with the fast food industry including its negative health effects and lack of nutritional value.

The band rarely do interviews with the media, intending to keep their anonymity. With parodies such as "Pair-Of-Buns" (a parody of "Paranoid") and "Frying Pan" (parody of "Iron Man"), they are sure to bring out the humor in their listeners.

Answer: Buckethead

Brian Patrick Carroll, known to the music world as "Buckethead", was once ranked as one of the 25 all-time weirdest guitarists by "Guitar World" magazine. His music is classified as heavy metal, progressive, or avant-garde metal. His persona is quite simple.

He wears an expressionless white mask over his face, a bumper sticker that says "Funeral", and a KFC bucket on his head (hence the name "Buckethead"). In 2017, he released his 293rd album "Glacier" which over the course of his recording career brought his total recording time to over 150 hours of recorded music. That is dedication.

Answer: Cattle Decapitation

To the average listener, their music is loud and most likely not understandable without a set of lyrics in front of them. Cattle Decapitation were formed in 1996 in San Diego, California and the majority of their songs protest mistreatment of the environment, the slaughter and consumption of animals, and human genocide.

Their band name is a take on the sometimes controversial process that occurs when cattle are take to the slaughter (ultimately butchered and decapitated in many cases). In fact, many of their songs actually place human beings into the situations that animals would be subjected to on a daily basis. Over their history, many of the band members claim to be vegetarian.

This is an NSFW (not safe for work) band. Listen at your own risk.

Answer: Die Antwoord

Die Antwoord are a South African rap group formed by rappers "Ninja" and "Yolandi Visser". While not necessarily that strange of a name in their home country, to North American or English speakers, the name may come across as something dealing with "death". Die Antwoord is an Afrikaans phrase that translates into English as "The Answer".

Their music incorporates elements of the "Zef" culture of South Africa. Visser has been quoted as saying that Zef means "You're poor but you're fancy. You're poor but you're sexy, you've got style." Most of their music videos are designed for the "shock value" associated with them and are dark and aggressive in nature. Uniquely, the lyrics to their songs are performed in three major languages of South Africa (English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa).

Answer: The Residents

The Residents are an avant-garde band at its finest with all of their art forms and quirky performances. While the bands name itself is not necessarily strange, it is the way they came up with the name that is unusual. After sending a reel-to-reel tape to Warner Brothers in 1971 to be evaluated, they did not leave a name on the return address.

Instead, when the reply from Warner Brothers was sent back, they simply sent the return letter to "The Residents". It was this letter of rejection (as Warner Brothers rejected their tape) that the band named themselves after. Little of their early history is known.

While they have given some biographical details about their early lives, very little has been verified. What is known, however, is that the members met in high school in the 1960s in Louisiana and while making a trip to the West Coast, their truck broke down and they remained in San Mateo, California as a result.

They experimented in the arts including photography, music, tape machines.

In 1971, their first performance as a band occurred. Over the years, they have become famous for performing in tuxedos and eyeball helmets with a top hat. Their most noted album, the 1980 "Commercial Album", featured forty songs each a minute (roughly) in length. In an unusual feature, the liner notes on the album state that playing the songs three times in a row is intended to give the listener a "pop song".

Answer: Dir En Grey

During interviews, Dir En Grey have stated that they came up with their band name "because it sounded right". It is a composition of several words from several languages. It is likely derived from the German word "dir" meaning "you, yours", the French word "en" meaning "in", and the English word "grey" representing what in Japanese would have a similar meaning to "grey coin".

The name doesn't necessarily translate literally to anything specific. Their reason for doing so was to keep them distinct and unique rather than allowing people to "attach a specific meaning" to it. Dir En Grey hail from Osaka, Japan and are often referred to as a visual kei band meaning that they wear elaborate costumes and hair styles.

This genre is similar to the glam metal scene of the 1970s; however, in the case of Dir En Grey, they use aspects of goth and punk as well as grindcore and emo.

Some critics have suggested some of their style is avant-garde in nature. Some music critics do not define them as "visual kei" at all, but instead claim they are genre-less as they have made too many stylistic changes to have a classified genre.

A good portion of their strangeness lies in their music videos which are often graphically disturbing and shot in the style of a horror flick.

Answer: Ween

High school friends Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo, better known as Gene Ween and Dean Ween, make up the experimental rock band Ween. The term "Ween" was made by the duo as a combination of the words "wuss" and [male genitalia]. They are best known for their song "Push th' Little Daisies" which peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1993.

They are strange due to the fact that they have covered songs that range from punk to bossanova to ambient music and incorporate strange use of vocals (such as the childish sounding voice in their song "Push th' Little Daisies").

Answer: Throbbing Gristle

Throbbing Gristle were an industrial, avant-garde and experimental noise band from the United Kingdom forming in 1976. The literal meaning of their name refers to a hard cut of beef such as a "tough tendon". Another meaning of their name is not FT friendly and will not be included as a part of this description.

Their music and performances were intended as "shock value" for their fans. Many of their live performances were controversial including visuals of concentration camps, pornography, and other disturbing images.

They had a cult following and often used pre-recorded samples with distorted sound effects as the basis for their music influencing many industrial bands of the 1980s and 1990s.

Answer: Sunn O)))

Sunn O))) are the duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson from Seattle, Washington. Their band is named after the amplifier brand Sunn. They are what is known as a "drone metal" band meaning that they use repeating sounds or notes that are called "drones" as the basis for their music.

While performing, they wear robes and often fill the air with fog. They are known for playing their music at extremely loud volumes. Much of their music is played at a slow tempo, rarely incorporates any percussion, and often played in dropped-A intended to give their listeners a sense of eeriness. To most, this is truly strange music.

Answer: The Zambonis

The Zambonis are an indie rock group that formed in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1991. The Zamboni (which they are named after) is a ice resurfacing machine manufactured within the United States. They claim to be the only band in the world whose influences are "The Beatles and Wayne Gretzky".

They are known for their song "Hockey Monkey" and have toured with the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup. The National Hockey League commissioned them to compose theme songs for both the Boston Bruins and the Colorado Avalanche hockey teams. To remain true to the hockey theme, The Zambonis are a licensee of Frank J. Zamboni & Company, the manufacturer of ice resurfacing equipment in the United States.