The music-obsessed public is currently preparing to be inundated with news and rumors from Austin's SXSW festival, the music portion of which kicks off on March 17.

With over 2,000 bands some of them have had to find a unique way to stand out: downright ridiculous names.

Since it seems unlikely that a band called "Gay Witch Abortion" is going to take home too many awards over the course of their career, we've created some special categories so we can give prizes to the bands with the most noteworthy names.

Most Offensive Band Name
Taken by themselves, "gay," "witch" and "abortion" are all words that tend to grab some attention in a band name. Thrown together the way that Minnesota rockers, um, Gay Witch Abortion have done it, the "freaking out the squares" hat trick is complete, and it'd be downright disrespectful of their efforts not to award them this prize.

Runner Up: Toronto's Bastard Child Death Cult seemed to have crafted their name utilizing similar principles, although it seems downright subtle compared to our winners. Subtlety doesn't factor in to Austin hard rockers Black C*ck's name, however. And, if you want to offend both Christians and Dirty South rappers, you can't ignore Los Angeles DJ LudaChrist.

Keep reading for the most disgustingly cutesy, punctuation-heavy and nerd-tastic bands at SXSW 2010.

The "John Bonham Is Turning Over in His Grave" Cutesiness Prize
Rock and roll was scary once. Parents refused to let their children listen to it, and concerned citizens demonstrated against radio stations.

Now, it's apparently totally acceptable to name your band Best Fwends, who at least have the good sense to regret calling themselves that. ("We're not too into our band name", they told Asylum's sister site Spinner last month.)

Runners Up: Scotland's Frightened Rabbit may be a great band, but it's hard to imagine trading in the Metallica T-shirt for one with their name emblazoned on it. Phoenix's Miniature Tigers also sound downright adorable, but we kind of suspect that they'd shrivel and die if they spent even an hour in the same room as Gay Witch Abortion.


Best Use of Exclamation Points
A side project of London indie rockers Art Brut, the compellingly titled Everybody Was In The French Resistance... Now! would work without that final piece of punctuation, but the exclamation point really sells it. Sure it's a lament about the rampant hypocrisy in post-WWII France, but in a "we're totally gonna party" way.

Runners Up: Without an exclamation point, Austin indie poppers Follow That Bird! would be a cute "Sesame Street" reference instead of a serious command.

That's not the approach taken by Canadians You Say Party! We Say Die!, whose name wouldn't work even a little bit without the punctuation.The Italian Tiger! Sh*t! Tiger! Tiger! doesn't even really work with punctuation, but it's not really fair to have this category and exclude a band that uses four of them.


Nerdiest References
In case the Wu-Tang Clan didn't go far enough when it comes to viewing the hip-hop supergroup through a nerd lens, Austin's The League Of Extraordinary G'z assembles a gaggle of Texas' most enduring underground MC's into a team that Alan Moore would probably have invented, then disowned once it got turned into a crappy movie with Sean Connery.

Runners Up: It's a little on-the-nose, but the League's fellow Austinites in the "World of Warcraft" symphony, who perform music from the game, definitely deserve a mention here. So do the London indie rockers in Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. -- as if it were that easy.



The "What Else Are You Going to Call a Jazz Tribute to the Jesus Lizard" Award
Austin's Jazzus Lizard wins this one, hands down.