One of the trickiest things about starting a band has to be coming up with a good name. How do you sum up a band’s sound or vibe or style or message in a name that’s also memorable, clever, and not already copyrighted?
Very few bands have names that do all the above, and for some reason they tend to be on the heavier end of the genre spectrum: Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Cannibal Corpse; you know what you’re getting with these acts before you hear the first note.
For some reason the quieter, thoughtful, sing-you-to-sleep bands tend to have names that vary from quirky to flat-out confusing. Iron & Wine: Comedy duo? Energy drink? Vineyard subscription service? Death Cab for Cutie: Horror movie? Sitcom? Three-panel comic strip?
Well this week’s featured band has the whole name thing sorted out. If you were hired to come up with a name for them, a name that captures the feeling conveyed by their music, you’d be hard pressed to come up with something better than Afternoon Bike Ride.
Everything their name implies – freedom, gentle breezes, the warmth of a late-spring afternoon – it’s all there in this Montreal trio’s music.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. In the chorus, the lyrics overflow the melody: “Hide me / Here right in the middle’s delight be- / -tween the faulted riddles of life” …making each bar spill into the next.
2. At 2:10, a quick ticking fades in that sounds very much like the ticking a geared bike makes when you coast.
3. The way two singers share the verses makes it feel like a bike ride with a friend.
Recommended listening activity:
I want to come up with something more clever than “taking an afternoon bike ride” but I can’t. And I thought naming a band was hard…