Less Than Jake was started way back in the early 90's.  I don't know exactly when, but the first show was in March of 93'.  They got the name for the band from Vinnie (drums).  The story goes like this, Vinnie's family had a dog named Jake. When his parents would go out for dinner, they brought home Red Lobster leftovers for the dog, while he was fixing Mac and Cheese for himself. So he felt like he was "less than Jake". Also as a phrase, 'everything is jake' is term 1920s gangsters used to suggest that everything was cool, or there were no problems. So Less Than Jake implies that something is wrong or uncool.  Also, as of 10/96 they had 13 releases, and they appeared on 51 albums when compilations and such are counted (but this is way past 10/96 so obviously they have more now).  Oh yea, one more thing, Vinnie has a serious Pez collecting problem.