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Behind the Band Name: The Octopus Project
One thing that didn’t make it into today’s story celebrating the tenth anniversary of beloved locals The Octopus Project was the story behind the band’s appropriately colorful, goofy name. Partly that’s because while the Octopus Project might stand out as one of the local scene’s sillier names if it were slapped on any other band, it’s practically tame compared to the group’s eclectic sights and sounds.
Still, given my longstanding fascination with unusual band names, I couldn’t resist firing off an e-mail to band member Josh Lambert post-interview to inquire about the origins of the band’s sobriquet. In the process I discovered things could have been far, far worse. Here’s what he had to say:
“The name came about while we were trying to name a band that Toto (Miranda), Yvonne (Lambert) and I were in with another friend. I was on the phone with the other guy in the band, and each of us would randomly say a word. One of us said, ‘Octopus,’ the other said, ‘Project.’
“Our friend didn’t like the name for his band, so it got voted down, but it always stuck in the rest of our minds. So, when we broke off to form our own band, we used the name. The only other name I can remember from that phone call was Quarterly Porpoise. I’m really glad we didn’t go with that!”
Meanwhile, somewhere in a parallel universe version of Austin, a band named Quarterly Porpoise is struggling mightily to be taken seriously.
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