Bombay Bicycle Club – ‘Evening/Morning’
The comedian Richard Herring has a nice little monologue about this lot. He noticed a boy in the street wearing a T-shirt with Bombay Bicycle Club on it, and this caused him to have a ponder about what kind of message this young fella was trying to send out. Was he, perhaps a fan of the Indian Restaurant of the same name on London’s King’s Road? Or indeed any of a wealth of similarly-named eateries around the world?
Was he claiming to be a member of the various health and fitness clubs which have also made use of the name? Was this, perhaps, an ancient T-shirt, handed down the generations from the original Bombay Bicycle Club? Or is he just a fan of the band?
Chances are the answers to all but the last of these questions will have been no, but can you imagine the car-crash of cultural signifiers if the lad had been wearing the T-shirt which depicts an octopus spelling out the band’s initials? Think about it…
Especially now, when the worlds of indie rock and the actual BBC (hello!) are seemingly at loggerheads. It could spark a RIOT!
(Here’s the video. It’s made of pure pandamonium.)
I mention this because there’s a similar scattering of smushed-up, handed-down, information within this BBC’s music. The squalling intricate mess of searing fuzz bass and twittery guitars is pretty standard for your modern indie band, as is the world-weary quavering voice. I’ve been through the list of other bands who also use this basic sound so often it’s becoming dull, even for ME, so I won’t go over it again.
But just to be clear, in this song it’s more the Joy Division list, rather than the Vampire Weekend list you’d have had if this was their song ‘Always Like This’.
So, let’s focus on the things which mark this apart from, say, the Maccabees. Let’s examine the things which are so unambiguously theirs that even Richard Herring could spot them, with earplugs in.
Thing 1: Jack Bicycle Club has a slightly deeper voice than Orlando Maccabees, but not as deep as Paul Interpol.
Thing 2: None of the bands who make songs that sound like this song have written a song which has a chorus which goes “I’m ready to owe you anything”.
Thing 3: There is no thing three. The guitars are very pretty though.
There, I trust this will clear up any further confusion. *dusts off hands*
Download: Out now
CD Released: March 8th
www.bombaybicycleclubmusic.com
BBC Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
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