Article from First Avenue / 7th Street Entry In-house Magazine #8 (December 30, 1998) - by Sarah Stone
My friends and I have been on the topic of band names alot lately. I have, over the years, tried to come up with some creative yet catchy yet unique band names, and can honestly say I have yet to find a single good one to use. It's actually kind of emba rrassing. I mean, I'm creative damnit. The other day I even turned to the "random band name generator" website for some answers. Funny, yet still to no avail.
We've also discussed which existing band names are good and why. For example, you've gt girls' names (i.e., Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains,) hard-to-forget names (i.e., The Beatles, U2,) to the point and catchy names (i.e., Hole, Hanson,) no point but catchy names (i.e., Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer,) and of course, creative and unique names (i.e., Soul Coughing, Portishead).
So, where can I find one? Does the future of music really hold names like "The Intravenous Burritos" or "Rectal Thermom and Dads?" At least for now I believe I know the best, most unique, catchy, to the point, self-describing (or at least my favorite) b and name I've ever heard: Savage Aural Hotbed. Savage — crude, primitive, animal; Aural — audible sound; Hotbed — fertile ground. A perfect description of the music this band creates — a plantation of raw, instinctive sound patterns strategically or ganized for listening pleasure coupled with band-name magic.
Hit something with something else and soon you'll find the sound you're looking for. Mainly percussive, whether it's PVC piping, or an empty cement truck mixer, or metal trashcans, they accomplish an incredible musical sound with found andcollected objec ts. It can be dark and clearly angry at times, but it can also be inviting, energetic, shocking and friendly. It is also the purest idustrial music I've ever heard, and seems to travel through time from ancient tribal rhythms with drum-and-bass-like ins truments to the highest pitch made audible to the human ear by mixing power tools and metal. So high-pitched it gives your soul goosebumps and so rhythmic you feel the beats through your bones. Savage. Aural. Hotbed. S.A.H. has played every venue fro m outdoor festivals to high schools to galleries and clubs. It's unbelievable how well these boys seem to adapt to whatever surroundings they are dealt. Just a wee warning, in the Entry you may need to duck occasionally.
Savage Aural Hotbed is currently working on their fourth album in which they go on location, in search of more stuff to hit with other stuff to make more incredible music. Their first CD, Cold is the Absence of Heat, is a cross section of their talents a nd instantly gets down and shows you who they are. Their second CD, Pressure of Silence, is really not their second when it's really their third. Because their third CD, Gomi Daiko is actually their first recording, yet was just released this year. Gom i Daiko means "garbage drums" and is from the self-proclaimed "pre-power tool" era.
See what's behind this superb name, boycott the mediocre, anti-climactic-Sex-and-Candy's of now, and embrace the roots of all that is exciting, inexplicable, spontaneous, and for god sakes, loud.