8 bands you didn't know were named after other bands

The desire to become a musician is often born out of obsession. We love bands so much that we want to be just like them: picking up a guitar or drumsticks, emulating our heroes until we sound exactly like them. Sometimes we even name our band after our favourite song or album title, because originality is for suckers (to incorrectly paraphrase Picasso).

Sometimes, these monikers stick. Some of rock's biggest bands are named after an influential artist, who are probably inspiring countless band names across the globe right this very second. And so the cycle continues…

Here are just a selection of bands you might not know are named after other bands.

No, it's not a tribute to Titanic, Man Overboard are in fact named after a lesser-known blink-182 track. The song first appeared in 2000 on live album The Mark, Tom, And Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back!), and gained notoriety for being the only studio track on the LP. Sure, naming your band All The Small Things would have been a dead giveaway, but their love of blink-182 is still there for all to see.

Way back in 2011, five guys decided to get together in the studio and change pop-punk forever with one of the genre's all-time greatest releases. The album? Under Soil And Dirt. The band? The Story So Far.

The California crew took their name from one of pop-punk's most famous bands, New Found Glory. The Story So Far is, in fact, the closing track to NFG's 2002 album Sticks And Stones, a song stylistically separate from the rest of the record (which includes smash hit My Friends Over You).

Despite everyone and their mums knowing the album cover of Milo Goes To College, Descendents still don't receive the recognition they deserve. Innovators in punk, hardcore and pop-punk, it's no surprise that bands took more than just musical inspiration from the Manhattan Beach band. And LA hardcore mob Rotting Out borrowed their name from the fourth track on Descendents' 1996 LP Everything Sucks – the band's first album in nine years.

It’s almost impossible to fathom that a band as musically dextrous as Panic! At The Disco got their name from anything other than their own imaginations. Alas, that isn’t the case. The band were dedicated emo heads and as such loved Orange County's Name Taken, especially their song Panic, which opens with the lyric, 'Panic at the disco / Sat back and took it so slow / Are you nervous? Are you shaking? / Save compliments to praise complation.'

Like Panic!, it's hard to believe a band as pioneering as Slowdive could take their name from another source. And yet, that's exactly what the Reading shoegazers did. The term slowdive isn't an homage to their school swimming instructor, but instead comes from Siouxsie And The Banshees' 1982 hit of the same name.

All Time Low were teenagers in the early 2000s as well as big pop-punk fans, so it stands to reason that the likes of blink-182, New Found Glory and Green Day had a significant influence on Alex Gaskarth and co.

And when it comes to names, it's another win for New Found Glory. The lads in All Time Low loved the song Head On Collision so much, they grabbed some lyrics from the pre-chorus and landed on their now-iconic name.

A line from a bad horror movie about a murderous taxi company? Sadly not. In fact, the Washington alt.rockers took their name from The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (aka The Bonzo Dog Band, or simply The Bonzos), a London-based ’60s/’70s psychedelic pop band. Their track Death Cab For Cutie is one of The Bonzos' biggest hits, released way back in 1967 and featured in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour movie.

Okay, this one is contested. Some say Pierce The Veil got their name from Before Today – an emo band from the late ’90s/early ’00s – which is the stance we take. However, others argue that frontman Vic Fuentes decided on the name when his sociology professor discussed 'piercing the veil', as in removing the source of the problem. We’ll let you decide…

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