DAMARU

"The Damaru is a two-sided percussion instrument that is shaken with two balls striking the membranes as part of spiritual practices in Tibet, India, and Nepal. The most powerful Damarus are created from human skulls, as described in Mickey Hart's book Drumming at the Edge of Magic. These drums are known to have mystical powers and can wreak havoc if placed in the wrong hands. In Hindu philosophy the Damaru is the drum held by Shiva through which the universe is created. The Damaru symbolizes the mystery of manifestation and the evolution of the cosmos." -- Frank Lazzaro, drummer. Damaru performs on the first Thursday of every month at Claire de Lune.

TALL

"I was watching an episode of VH1's Behind the Music about the Black Crowes, talking about the Robinson brothers' rocky relationship and how at one point it boiled over as they were completing one of their studio albums. The fight came to blows, and one brother took the masters from the studio and threw them in the garbage. The name of that [Black Crowes] album was going to be Tall, which is a euphemism for getting high." -- Stuart T. Smith, vocals

HOLIDAY AND THE ADVENTURE POP COLLECTIVE

"Holiday references both vacationing and the great Billie Holiday. When Louis [Caverly] and I began working on old and new songs and decided to 'get the band back together,' therein lies the collective. When put together, our name combines the specific with concepts, dreams, and great escape. Think 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.' "-- Derric Oliver, guitar/horns. Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective perform May 12 at the Whistle Stop.

PRIDEBOWL

"We started in 1994 in Sweden. I'm American and the other four original members were Swedish. After learning a few punk covers and adding a few originals, we were ready to play our first gig in the tiny town we lived in, Varberg, but we needed a name. After some long, weird drive through the country, the word 'Pride' popped in my head. Then I thought about how the Swedish bandmembers loved to bowl, since that town's six-lane alley was probably the only local place one could find people having fun on any given day. So we came up with the name 'Pridebowl' and said it over and over until it didn't make sense anymore. We really wanted a name that wasn't in the dictionary." -- Aaron Goulding, vocals

THE ROSERY

"One morning I went out to a family IHOP breakfast with all my relatives. My grandma pulls out this giant box of sheet music, old hymns, and popular singles you and I have probably never heard of that looked like they survived the Holocaust -- most of them did, dated around the 1940s. One sheet of paper literally started to crumble as I picked it up -- a chorus girl's résumé with a list of songs she knew. 'The Rosery' was one of the numbers listed, and Rose happens to be my mother's and my grandmother's middle name." -- Lucas Coleman, guitar/vocals

INNERLIMIT

"Our name comes from the idea that the percentage of our brain that people use today is a fraction of what it should be. We have a lot more potential than we can even conceive. Television, media, and the government are all key players in the dumbing-down of the human race. Innerlimit dares one to explore the known realms of thinking...to create a better world." -- Drew Bent, vocals/percussion. Innerlimit performs May 12 at the Static Lounge.

SIMEON FLICK

"I was named after an Indian boy that my father treated at a domestic psych ward during the Vietnam War...this eight-year-old boy named Simeon had a rare pituitary dysfunction that matured him too early so he was, in effect, a boy trapped inside a man's body. I could probably say the same about myself. People I meet are often disbelieving at how rock-and-roll my name sounds, to the point where I actually say I didn't have it legally changed or anything. I just had cool quasi-hippie parents." -- Simeon Flick, guitar/vocals. Simeon Flick performs May 13 at Acoustic Expressions.

STOLEN

"Our name came from the foothills behind our neighborhood in El Cajon. Eight years ago the property was sold to build a new housing development and a Wal-Mart. The hills were a part of all of our childhoods...we felt as if they had been stolen from us. We decided to carve 'Stolen Hills' in one of the concrete slabs in remembrance of the hills. When the band formed six years ago, we shortened the name." -- Erik Clabeaux, bass/vocals. Stolen performs May 13 at Scripps Ranch High School.

A PARK TRADITION

"Our three founding members, John, Nick, and Scott, all grew up in a town called Newbury Park [California], where absolutely everyone is in a band. You could go to a show somewhere almost seven nights a week and always have a friend or two playing. It might be because there's not a whole lot else to do there. When we moved to San Diego for school and realized not everyone is in a band or is supportive of new music, we thought we'd keep up our town's tradition here." -- Nick Norton, guitar/vocals. A Park Tradition performs May 13 at the Bean Bar.

FAT MAN'S MISERY

"One, I've been playing guitar for 35 years, and this is my first blues band. I've primarily been in progressive rock bands. Two, I'm fat. Not just a little overweight, but at my heaviest I was 431 pounds. It makes me very different from most people. The alienation and pain of being generally looked down on by others is something that is part of me, part of my guitar playing. Three, I am a very proud second-generation native of San Diego, and Fat Man's Misery was a place in Torrey Pines that my sister the bass player and I used to go when we were kids." -- Lee Loveless, guitar/vocals

SHOESTRING STRAP

"When our outlaw country/bluegrass band first moved from playing living rooms to having actual gigs, our mandolin player Keith borrowed a strap from our bass player Kent. One day Kent wanted his strap back. You would think a mandolin might have smaller strap pegs than a bass, but not so. It stretched out the [strap] holes so much that Kent's bass would fall off, repeatedly, onstage. Keith still didn't want to buy a strap for some reason so I offered to give him a shoestring as a strap. We also wanted a name that's impossible to say drunk." -- Dave Lowenstein, guitar/banjo