Bears. We're the only continent that's never had them. Yet they are unquestionably the animal du jour in the Sydney band name stakes. Earlier in the year I interviewed Bearhug (who had recently changed their name from Skeletal Explosive to become more bearlike), and this week I have the pleasure of talking to Boy And Bear. On top of this, the next Sydney band on my 'to-see' list is the doubly bearish Brown Bear Black Bear. They've come as hugely recommended from a few sources, and i'm certainly excited to see a band that boasts twice as much bear as your average.

Even non-bear bands can't help but be lured into the bearpit. Electronic wizards Seekae, while their name is a tip of the hat to the decidedly unbearish Commander Keen, couldn't resist a bear-studded album cover for The Sound Of Trees Falling On People (see right). Now a cynic might say that Sydney's fascination with beardom has been leeched straight from overseas; what with Panda Bear, Grizzly Bear, Minus The Bear and Seabear all being mandatory listening on every indie-kid's portable hardrive. But i'd personally like to think our indie musos are intelligently paying their respects to the market downturn. Give it two-to-three years and the market recovery will coincide perfectly with Andy Bull's second album. I'll bet you it'll move some units.

So all this talk of band naming got me thinking. It's becoming increasingly hard to name your band. If you want something short and punchy, well it's taken. If you want something long and sentency, then be prepared to be known as 'that' band. Perhaps the best way out of this conundrum is to follow the lead of Sydney songwriter Joshua Flowers and just make up some words. His full band project is called Telehet, while his solo stuff is released under the name Somasek. Both are pretty punchy, mysterious and definitely not taken by some Dutch death metal band. Your band name should optimistically become synonymous with your sound, and so it ain't such a bad idea to give the listening public a clean slate to work with.

Maybe you could try an anagram of your own name. New Yorker Adam Pierce tried exactly that before putting together his band Mice Parade. He did have it pretty easy though - a name with plenty of 'A's 'E's and friendly consonants lends itself to such wordplay. For those of us like me, whose name traverses most of the alphabet, it's not so easy. The best i could do rearranging Justin Zeltzer was to come up with the particularly unappetising Nutter J Sizzle. Might work for a nerdcore MC, but my instrumental alt-rock solo project might need something a little less greasy.

My one golden rule of naming your band is this: be awesome. Notice how the name Radiohead just rolls off the tongue? Face it, it's a shit name. But there's nothing like being the best band in the world to make people gloss over this fact. You could bet that if I called myself Musicface, i'd be destined to have about as many fans as this dude (though it may be more to do with lyrical content here - seriously, does he say what i think he says at 1:57?).

So back to bears. They're the kind of beast that demands respect, and each of the three artists featured below have indeed begun garnering serious respect in their separate indie niches. Bearhug have nigh on perfected an effortless relaxed indie sound, which largely hangs on Phelan's delicate vocals (evident perhaps moreso in Origami Sun than the track below). Boy and Bear tend more towards the folk end of the spectrum, but again are crafted neatly out of the vocal strength of their lead man, Dave Hosking. Judging by their first single, BBBB are set to turn pub floors into dance floors with a cheeky interwoven guitar frontline. Bears may have had their habitats largely affected by human-kind, but if the Sydney scene is anything to go by, they're certainly not an endangered species. --- JZ