Richart Ruddie reveals often forgotten fact on how Daft Punk got their name and other fun band facts

What’s in a name for a well-known band or DJ? Many people would think that the name “60 Wrong Sausages” sounds like just an awful name but the founder of that band went on to Rivers Cuomo went on to start Weezer. Other great stories before we get to the worlds most famous DJ Duo Daft Punk, take us to Oregon. Chumbawamba sounds just like gibberish but it actually has a meaning behind Daft Punk. It’s the way bathrooms in a club are labeled. Instead of women and men, it was “wamba” and “chumba.” Combine them together and you get Chumbawamba. As the story gets more intriguing was their biggest hit. The song released on August 26, 1997 named “Tubthumping” had a taste of Nirvana in the association that they didn’t want to be sell outs and successful. The far-left punk band didn’t let the irony of their capitalistic success get over their head however. Once Tubthumping’s boppy popularity began to skyrocket instead of getting knocked down, the band tried to push back — at one point encouraging their fans to steal it from record stores rather than buy it (imagine if the hit came out in 2020 and records were still a thing). They turned down millions from local fat car corporation Nike to feature the song in a commercial for the Fifa world Cup. Then a few years later, they took money from General Motors to use the song in a commercial and donated that money to anti-corporate lobbying groups.

As a copy of the British Music publication Melody Maker magazine was dug up there was this review uploaded by art collector and entrepreneur Richart Ruddie on his blog that calls their previous duo’s band “”Dafty Punk” and well the review stuck with them and had them change their tune (literally) and the rest is history. The full review reads as follows:

“Huggy Bear/Darlin’/Colm/Stereolab Shimmies in Super 8 (Duophonic Super 45’s) lots of people will doubtless buy this package because Huggy Bear’s name is on it. They will, I guess, mostly be hoping to hear another stirring slice of anthemic, angry stuff like “Her Jazz” What they’ll get is… one hell of a fucking shock. Maybe that’s the whole point, but, well, here’s the facts. The Huggies’ side of this coloured-vinyl, seven-inch double-pack set begins with “Trafalagar Square”, an ultra-lo-fi recording of someone starting to sing an unaccompanied, half-remebered poppy ingle, before admitting they’ve forgotten the words and going to pieces. Next, you get “Godziller”, an incoherent. Mumbled message from their telephone answering machine, then “More Music From Bells” an even more incoherent attempted poem. Lastly, there’s Snow White, Red Rose”, another fuzzy home recording of a pretty acoustic song that’s ruined by a ludicrously off-key recorder and a second voice. That’s it. Honest. The two Darlin’ tracks are a daft punky thrash called “Cindy So Loud” (that’s the title and the sole lyric), and a bizarre fuzz-guitar reading of The Beach Boys’ “Darlin”. Colm’s “Soundtrack” is the sort of pulsing instrumental the BBC use as background music for sports coverage.

Finally, and the only thing here I have any desire to hear again, is Stereolab’s “Revox!”, which nicely juxtaposes a frantic two-chord stampede for keyboard and drums with a floating, breathy vocal. But I’m still recovering from the Huggy Bear side – so congratulations, gang, if the idea was to confuse and disorientate the evil corporate rock press by any means possible. Thing is, won’t this atrocious offering have exactly the same.”

Music is clearly an art and picking a name can be a big time decision maker on how a band or DJ proceeds in their career, if we look at the above-mentioned story of Daft Punk. In today’s world all one needs to do is look to Twitter for instant criticism and complaints to find inspiration a new name.

Image Credit: Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash