Seigmenn – the Norwegian candy men.

Many bands have strange names, and Norwegian ones are no exception! Since Morten Harket and the rest of a-ha were big stars in the 1980’ies (with global hits such as ”Take On Me”), a large number of Norwegian bands have hit the world with their music … and their names. Below are a few of my favourite ”crazy Norwegian band names”:

Röyksopp. This Tromsø duo were big stars on the British scene for electronic music just a few years ago. The name means ”smoke mushroom” (a kind of mushroom). In proper Norwegian, it’s spelled røyksopp (røyk = smoke, sopp = mushroom).

Seigmen was a rock band in the 1990’ies. The name means seigmenn (”viscous men”), a kind of fruit gum candy figures which are really popular among Norwegian children (especially at birthday parties).

Briskeby come from Larvik and have got some international fame. I don’t know what the name means, but it sounds fresh and funny, like the name of a town where all the inhabitants are really happy (-by means ”town, city”).

I don’t know a lot about Vazelina Bilopphøggers, just that they’ve been making music and films for a lot of years, and have a really crazy name. It’s a mixture of English and østnorsk (East Norwegian) dialect, and means something like ”vaseline auto wreckers” (!) In standard Bokmål Norwegian, the second part of the name should’ve been ”bilopphuggere” (literally ”car choppers”) – but I can’t even find it in the dictionary!

Kakkmaddafakka come from Bergen and have recently been swaying Europe with their ”high energy live performances” (thanks, Wikipedia, for the description!) The name is a norwegianized spelling of a really rude English group of words. I won’t spell it out here, but I am sure your imagination can…

Skambankt. I was struck by this name the very first time I saw it on a cover in a Trondheim store. The name means ”beaten up”, but the translation hardly conveys the hardness of the original: Skam means ”shame”, so the name could be translated with ”beaten up until you’re a shame to yourself and others”. Add to this the almost militaristic pronunciation [skamb-bangkt, with about the same amount of stress on each syllable]. It doesn’t hit any harder than this.

The September When. Okay, this does not belong in the ”strange” category, but it is really one of the most poetic names of a band that I know of. The September When what happened?

What’s your favourite Norwegian band name?