It turns out there’s quite a lot of bands named after Douglas Firs. Who would have thought? In the interests of fairness, let us list them all:

• The Douglas Firs – a ‘Jam Funk’ band, influenced by – yikes! – Ben and Jerry’s favourites Phish;
• The Douglas Firs – a contemporary acoustic duo with ‘thought provoking lyrics’ who probably don’t know who Phish is (lucky them);
• The Douglas Fir – tantalisingly singular, and in possession of a song called I Think I Loathe You;
• Douglas Firs – Belgian Ryan Adams-a-likes drop the definite article for a zany twist on the theme.

There’s more. I could go on, but Christ, I won’t. After reading the same band name over and over and over, the words start to lose their meaning, my already shaky grasp on the English language starts to loosen and I’d quite like to finish this article thank you very much.

So what is it about this tree that generates so many identical band names? I have done no research whatsoever, but am prepared to offer this explanation: all of the bands were founded by vain men called Douglas who wanted to see their names plastered across poorly-photocopied flyers for grimy gig venues the world over.

Here’s the Douglas Firs that I’m interested in. Funnily enough, this Douglas
Firs is the most unusual sounding of them all. Go figure.

Douglas Firs // Soporific

I’m all for self-explanatory names – as both A New Band A Day and Bad Cover Versions testify – and so wholeheartedly approve of the thought process behind the naming of a song which creeps in almost agonisingly slowly, mutates a few times and just as quietly slips out again.

At times echoing Radiohead at their most sedate, the song moves restlessly and rewards you for repeated listens. I’m not sure how many of the other Douglas Firs have songs about which that can be said. But do feel free to find out.

www.myspace.com/thedouglasfirs