The Death of Enthusiasm

As some of you know, my roommate Dan and I have a little recording project (and occasional live act) called State College.

State College started about three years ago when we started playing music and writing songs with our friend and fellow roommate Robbie (the early songs are unspeakably bad, by the way). Fortunately for him, Robbie moved on to bigger and better things (marriage, children) but Dan and I continued playing because we have nothing better to do.

Recently we've been playing with a keyboardist and vocalist named Natalie, and we have some big plans for the immediate future such as: more live shows, recording new songs, rerecording old stuff, road trips to Idaho, buying expensive audio equipment, etc.

The problem is that we need a new band name.

"State College" doesn't sound like anything to me anymore, but one of my friends commented that it sounds like a name that some frat dudes would use if they were really into Dave Matthews Band at the time. Plus, with our new member, we don't really sound the same and we need a name more evocative of our sound (indie-folk? alt-country-pop?).

We have a few candidates so far, but no clear winner. Here are a few examples:

Bandolier-I like this one, but Natalie dislikes the fact that it contains the word, "band." Touche.

The Baltic States-Natalie likes this one, but I dislike the fact that it contains the word "state."

Brother Green-No one really has anything to say about this one.

The Old Ephraim Singers-This one I like because it has something to do with local lore, and I like the "singers" ending because it's like the old time folk groups like The Almanac Singers.

In short, we want something vaguely folky, but not too on the nose. I wish all the good bird names hadn't been taken because they are pretty awesome (The Jayhawks, The Cardinals, etc.).

If you are so inclined, vote for one on the right or suggest something in the comments.

Labels: band names