Sunday, February 25, 2007

Snow Patrol

This name came to mind as I was watching heavy wet snow fall this morning and into this afternoon, causing cancellation of my plan to attend Kate's fabulous Oscar party tonight in Richmond. Boo to snow.

There is some nice assonance going on in this name. It's a fun name to say, especially if you say it really slow. Then it sounds like a 78 rpm record played at 45 rpm (did I just lose everyone under 30?).

My first thought was that this band's name is a fairly lame drug reference. (See also "ski instructor seeks snow bunny" personal ads on Craigslist.) I imagined they were frat boys who used lots of drugs in college, to later become suburban dads who disdain drug use but who go through half a bottle of vodka every weekend. Let the record show that I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong. They earned this name the hard way. As Wikipedia says,
"Bass player Paul Wilson said the reason for the name stemmed from an encounter with police in Telluride, Colorado. The band members apparently were caught trying to cut down a Christmas tree from the skiing hotspot. The band successfully eluded the police when they hid a cave for over five hours. Drummer Jonny Quinn suffered from pneumonia after the ordeal."

This behavior is so stupid I'm actually impressed. They thought it would be better to get pneumonia and risk freezing to death than to get a slap on the wrist and a small fine. I guess natural selection worked out OK for them in this case.

Snow Patrol: 5.7

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think "Christmas in a Cave" would make for a more interesting name than Snow Patrol.

hs

Katyola said...

And I have a problem with the name because it reminds me of Taylor Hicks' "soul patrol" chant.

Amy said...

Kate, I do not know this chant of which you speak. HS, I agree; that's a big improvement.

Katyola said...

Lucky you.