You should def look to your own state’s fees when budgeting the amount filing will cost. It varies widely.

To the person who thinks forming an LLC will protect his band name–that is a big misunderstanding. You copyright your songs, trademark your name, and create a company to deal with income-taxes and lawsuits.

You need to actually trademark your name to secure it. There are 4 types of trademarking: 1. Common Law: the most useless and least protected. 2. State-registered: why bother with state trademarking when you can just register nationally? 3. National-registered: the best and most useful trademark registration that protects you nation wide. You must file nationally before trying to file internationally. 4. International – 50 come countries operating under the Madrid protocol will honor your Trademark.
Check http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/index.jsp

To those asking about S-Corps: that’s a different tax-status applied to a corporation and is mainly used to avoid double-taxation on profits made by a company and it’s shareholders. Your band probably won’t be issuing stocks so there’s no reason to go S-Corp. LLC makes the most sense. The only ship that won’t sail is a partnership.