Top 10 Bands Named After Creepy-Crawly Animals

Update: Download the Creepy-Crawly music mix and get the tracklist here.

The last Top 10 Bands Named After Animals post was dedicated to cute ones. This list, not so much.

Because not as many people like creatures that wriggle or slither as cats and dogs, we'll keep this short & sweet.

1. The Bug

It's impossible not to list a musical artist with a name like "the Bug" here. Plus, the music made by Kevin Martin, aka the Bug, is simply wonderful: lots of bass, Jamaican toasters and a sinister vibe that can't be beat.

2. Slug & Ant (aka Atmosphere)

Dunno how they got their nicknames, and don't really care to find out, especially if Slug got his name from the slimy creature and not a lead bullet. At any rate, Slug & Ant, aka Atmosphere, have been making great Midwestern hip-hop for quite awhile and put on a good show, too.

3. The Beatles

The misspelling nearly disqualified them. But the fact that they're one of the greatest bands of all time - and the fact that they aren't Papa Roach - set them in this list with ease. (Side note: Thursday Friday Saturday's music-production unit, Tiger Shark, considered using the name "The Beatless" before settling on Tiger Shark. Someone else had used it. And we didn't want to be sued by the Beatles or the Beatless.)

The Beatles' "Love" is basically an amazing remix album. And a Cirque du Soleil Vegas show.

4. The Locust

If you like goofy, complex, aggressive music, look no further than the Locust. If you like tales of locusts ravaging human foodstuffs as a portent of horrible things to come, look no further than the Bible

.

5. Bugz in the Attic

Another shoe-in to this list, Thursday Friday Saturday saw Bugz in the Attic in South Beach, Miami's Winter Music Conference one time. And we've seen bugs in our attic-converted-to-bedroom, which has its fair share of creepy crawlies this time of year.

6. Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars

Yeah, technically this is the name of a David Bowie album. But given the fact that it was a pretty sweet concept album and the band's name was the Spiders from Mars - and we needed to kick Papa Roach off the Top 10 somehow - the Spiders deserve a spot.

7. White Snake

Unless you drive a 1987 Camaro or heard White Snake's "Here I Go Again" at the bowling alley last night, you probably haven't heard it for years. You're welcome. (And if you were reminded by Great White when you read "White Snake", don't worry: they will be in a future Top 10 Bands Named After Animals list.)

Buy the White Snake "Definitive Collection" with not only "Here I Go Again", but classics "Slide It In", "Ready An' Willing" and more. Something tells us that the band had something other than a long, legless reptile in mind when they came upon their name (that's what she said.)

8. Adam and the Ants

Adam and the Ants were the type of 80's British band - along with A Flock of Seagulls and Duran Duran - that made us wonder what the heck was in the water across the pond.

9. Iron Butterfly

So butterflies aren't creepy or crawly - when they're adults. But at one point in their life, they're larvae, which is creepy-crawly enough, just like the plastic surgery on the woman's face who introduces their classic song, "In A Gadda Da Vida", in this video:

10. Deer Tick

Thursday Friday Saturday doesn't know much about Deer Tick, other than they deserve this spot more than Papa Roach, and they get a bonus point for having the name of an animal in their album "War Elephant." And another bonus point for having the coolest desert-themed band visual (on their album below) since the Clash's "Rock the Casbah" video. And yet another bonus point for having the most anti-Web 2.0 site we've seen in a long, long time.

Disqualified: Papa Roach

There's a possibility of a "Bottom 10 Bands Named After Animals" post on Thursday Friday Saturday. On second thought, no there isn't: the animals named after bands like Papa Roach have already suffered enough indignity by the music played by the bands named after them.

No offense to roaches, but a roach is not the coolest thing you can incorporate into a band name. And preceding it with "Papa" doesn't help much, either.

Next time on "Top 10 Bands Named After Animals": kitty cats! Who do you want to see on future lists?