Puscifer

Before Puscifer was a band, it was a running joke. Maynard James Keenan first used the name in the '90s for fake bands in liner notes and comedy bits, treating it as a throwaway gag rather than a serious project. The name shows up on the first episode of the Bob Odenkirk/David Cross HBO sketch show Mr. Show, where Maynard (in a trucker hat) plays a spoof rock frontman in a mock rockumentary segment. The punchline eventually turned into an actual band, which is very on-brand for Puscifer.

Before it officially became Puscifer, the project's working name was Umlaut, jokingly billed as "a premiere improvisational hardcore band." That comedy-first origin helps explain why Puscifer lean so heavily on skits, characters and visual concepts instead of behaving like a straight-ahead rock act.

The first "real" Puscifer song many fans heard was "REV 22:20," which appeared on the 2003 Underworld soundtrack four years before their debut album.