What’s In A Name? A Brief History of Misadventures in Naming Rights in Modern Punk

The pantheon of punk rock is full of examples of bands getting taken to court, getting cease and desist letters, or otherwise pissing off people with expensive suits and too much free time over their names. As Philadelphia’s Superheaven (formerly known as Daylight) recently learned, this can lead to major pains in the ass at best, or in some cases, slowly grind your band down into nothing. We’ve collected some of the most absurd, hilarious, and unfortunate examples of bands—most of whom likely have negative bank accounts to begin with—getting taken to court over their names.

When Philadelphia’s best alt-rock worshipping post-hardcore band Superheaven discovered another act claimed the copyright on their previous name, Daylight, they took what seemed like the proactive route and changed their moniker before they got sued. That hasn’t stopped them from having to deal with no end of headaches however, like printing all new merch and having to update pretty much every single piece of digital media with their name on it. Worst of all, though, could be incurring the wrath of kids on the internet (which everyone knows is a bastion of understanding and level-headed analysis) throwing a collective shit fit over their new name sounding too much like a certain Bay Area black metal band whose name starts with “D” and ends with “eafheaven.” “We knew people would get kinda loud about us changing our name, but I really don't think we were prepared for the magnitude of distaste for it,” said singer and guitarist Taylor Madison. “We try to take any and all haters in stride. That's really all you can do. The bottom line is, kids will complain about anything on the Internet, because they can.” Did just reading that make you want to go bitch on your Tumblr? Take Whirr’s advice instead:

Blink-182’s history has been filled with all kinds of litigation from the beginning. They were originally called Blink in order to avoid a lawsuit from an Irish band with the same name, leading them to add the “182” at the end. No word on whether or not that’s what launched them into being the biggest damn thing ever, but it’s insane to think how much the course of modern punk’s history could have changed had they gone to court, lost, and called it quits. They’ve also been sued by a former roadie who claimed he came up with the title for 2001’s Take Off Your Pants And Jacket.

It may sound harmless, but it turns out that naming your band after a historic comic book character is like strapping a time bomb to its back when the comic’s publisher later takes you to court. That’s exactly what happened to Southern California skate punks Jughead’s Revenge, who after almost a decade of releasing music incident-free since forming in 1989, found themselves on the receiving end of a lawsuit from Archie Comics in 1998. The case was eventually resolved in 2000 and the band changed their name briefly to Jugg’s Revenge in 2000 before calling it quits altogether the next year. “My advice is best stay away from that kind of thing,” said vocalist Joe Doherty. “It took them 11 years, but they fucked us eventually.”

The suit was initially instigated by a t-shirt sold by the band’s label, Nitro Records, that featured the actual comic book character’s face despite the band asking them not to. You’d think that just pulling the shirt would be enough, but Archie Comics decided to go after the band’s name itself too while they were at it. The law couldn’t hold them down forever though, and the band returned in 2010 and made their entire discography—much of which had been rendered out-of-print due to the lawsuit—for free on their website.

Geoff Rickly and his pseudo-anonymous cohorts in United Nations, a band that exists seemingly in large part to push people’s buttons, are no strangers to testing the limits of copyright law. The cover art for their debut LP parodied Abbey Road with all four of the Beatles in flames, which led to the album being pulled from stores and reissued with a new cover. That pales in comparison, however, to facing off against the actual United Nations (yes, that United Nations). Clearly unable to appreciate the finer points of 90s-style screamo, the international organization ordered the band to shut down their Facebook and MySpace profiles, spurring a tongue-in-cheek counter-campaign that urged fans to turn their profile pictures into the band’s logo.

So far, the band hasn’t gotten into any legal scuffles with any other bands, despite parodying not only the Beatles, but also the Sex Pistols with the cover art for their seven-inch Never Mind The Bombings, Here’s Your Six Figures. The secret? Play music so harshly abrasive that makes you so little money that no one looking for a pay day will give a shit.

“Generally speaking, we don't sell enough records to raise any red flags,” said Temporary Residence owner Jeremy Devine, whose label will be releasing a new vinyl and cassette package from the band at an undetermined date in the future. “If Girl Talk can get famous off of hundreds of uncleared pop music samples, I'm sure we're pretty low on the list of priorities for most legal departments. Frankly, there's just not enough money in it for corporations to get too litigious. They'll have to wait till we get our own sitcom.”

Until then, you can find United Nations refusing to learn a lesson on Twitter at @TheOfficialUN.

Because people are extremely likely to confuse one of the most iconic hardcore bands of the past two decades with a shitty cock rock bar band, some shitty cock rock bar band saw fit to protect their ever-valuable intellectual property (and we’ll use the word “intellectual” liberally here) by taking Boston-based hardcore legends American Nightmare to court. The ensuing legal fiasco saw the band briefly change its name to American Nothing before the asshat plaintiffs decided that wasn’t cool either and forced the defendants to change their name to something that definitely, absolutely, beyond all shadow of a doubt, could not be confused with their straight up fucking stupid horseshit “music.”

The American Nightmare that anyone who mattered ever actually cared about eventually became Give Up The Ghost following a prolonged legal struggle that was cited as one factor (amongst others) in the band calling it a day after just one more full-length—2003’s We’re Down Till We’re Underground—under their new name. Combined with relentless touring and tendency to run themselves completely ragged to begin with, they eventually burned out and threw in the towel.

Of all the bands mentioned in this article, this is perhaps the greatest casualty of frivolous legal aggression; a slow bleed into non-existence that robbed the hardcore scene of one of its most vital acts before their due time. At least the band’s influence on modern hardcore has ensured their impact is still being felt, and there isn’t a legal team anywhere that can take away sick jams like “AM / PM.”

While bands more often change their names to avoid legal conflict, for Elway, changing their name from 10-4 Eleanor to the last name of a certain quarterback led them straight into it.

Seeing as how he is clearly the only person on Earth with his last name, former Broncos star John Elway stuck his legal team on the Fort Collins-based band and sacked them with a completely toothless yet doubtlessly strongly worded letter.

Apparently, John Elway is about as good at pursuing legal action as he is at being the Vice President of football teams that win Super Bowls, because the band proceeded to gently mock the beloved steakhouse owner and carried on playing tight melodic punk jams to a small following of mostly not-sports fans. The band issued a statement rightly pointing out the complete absurdity of the entire situation, as Elway vocalist Tim Browne stated at the time:

“We have no intention of changing the name again. We love the name, regardless of what connotations are inferred by the listener. Surely, if the Dead Kennedys could become one of punk's most popular bands without incurring litigation, Elway can keep their moniker and continue making so-so music for our dozens of fans to enjoy."

After reading this, 753 people just now got the idea to sue the Smiths.

It turns out Daylight wasn’t the only band with a fairly common word for a name that some other band mistakenly thought was super original. Now known as Great Cynics, the British folk-punk trio ran into some beef with old-school garage rockers the Cynics, who emailed the band threatening legal action if they didn’t change their name. There’s no way anyone would ever confuse the UK-based trio’s folk-influenced punk for the Cynic’s garage rock jams, but given that they’ve been around since the early 80s, it was probably a smart move not trying to go toe-to-toe with them in court.

Ben Sailer is on Twitter, avoiding lawsuits from Sailor Jerry - @bensailer

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