It’s hard to beat an afternoon spent building sandcastles and splashing in the surf—unless a jellyfish is involved. So it’s easy to see why so many bands have borrowed their names from all things coastal.
From beaches to boats and surf boards to sea creatures, it seems the list of venue marquees reading “wash” or “waves” is growing everyday, so in the spirit of summer, we decided to search the sea of rock for a few of our favorites.
20. Beach House
Baltimore’s dreamy duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand create soaring songs that manage to inspire thoughts of an abandoned snow-covered cottage just as easily as they recall a lazy summer afternoon.
19. Nada Surf
Initially, the indie rockers’ name didn’t come attached with a special meaning; Nada was taken by another group, so the members randomly tacked on Surf. But over the years, fans have added their own explanations as to the significance of the band’s wave reminiscent name.
18. Washed Out
As one of the pioneers of the chillwave genre, Atlanta’s Ernest Greene creates hushed layers of garbled synth that wash over listeners.
17. The Submarines
Another name on the long list of independent musicians to lend their tunes to Apple, The Submarine’s addictive, “You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie” became lodged in our heads after it was featured on a commercial for the iPhone. But the product of married couple John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard’s musical relationship has resulted in an impressive amount of albums that are equally as catchy.
16. Seabear
Released in 2007, the video for Icelandic group Seabear’s song, “I Sink I Swim,” quickly racked up over one million views on YouTube and led the group’s soft spoken and indie-folk-inclined members to embark on crafting another full length LP.
15. Dirty Beaches
The product of Taiwan-born Alex Zhang Hungta, Dirty Beaches has been gaining praise from critics ever since his pleasantly lo-fi first LP, Badlands, was released earlier this year.
14. YACHT
It only takes a quick peek at electronic duo’s mission statement to understand just how wonderfully bizarre the pair’s compositions have become: “YACHT aims to provide an alternative to religion by creating a community which provides long-lasting meaning and value without dogma or submission. We share many things with spiritual groups: we respect ritual, ceremony, and magic. We desire to turn disassociated people into a group capable of summoning upon itself high, transcendent power. However, we believe that traditional religious dogma can, if we are not intellectually engaged with it, hold us in a kind of prison of the mind. We aim to break free, break molds, and impress upon our members the importance of self-empowerment.”
13. Fang Island
Rhode Island art rockers Fang Island snagged their name after reading an article on Donald Rumsfeld in the always hilarious faux-news source, The Onion.
12. Noah and the Whale
Last time we chatted with Noah and The Whale, they filled us in on how their peculiar name was inspired by Noah Baumbach’s 2005 film, The Squid and The Whale. Since then, the group has been on the road in support of their third LP, Last Night on Earth.