BOAT, Setting the Paces

BOAT is a band from Seattle that plays sloppy punk rock music and sings about the most random things. Their sound is kind of like a more punk rock version of The Mountain Goats.

The first time I heard the band’s most recent record, Setting the Paces, released on Magic Marker Records (which houses bands like Hello Seahorse, All Girl Summer Fun Band, and World Atlas), I thought it was one of the dumbest things I had heard in a while and had a really hard time getting into it. I don’t know necessarily what it was that rubbed me the wrong way about it; maybe it was the ridiculous lyrics or their overall sound, which harkened back to the whole grunge/punk movement of decades ago. Nevertheless, in my mind, this was one band which seemed to have missed the boat (no pun intended) and come straight from 1990.

I reluctantly made it through the entire album and immediately switched to something else. Then I put it on again a few days later, and something weird happened: I found myself almost singing along to some of the now-familiar tracks. It felt as if I had been listening to these songs for years, by how familiar they sounded to my ears. “Lately,” the album’s second track, especially had this effect on me. Then when I got to “Interstate 5,” I actually turned up the volume on my computer. Stranger things have happened, right?

Moral of the story? I think I may actually like this band called BOAT. Their crazy stories are growing on me, and there is no denying their catchy hooks, high-energym, sound and the beautiful-yet-quirky quality of singer and BOAT founder David Crane’s voice, as he shares these stories with us. So if you’re looking for something that’s different, unconventional, and completely wacky yet still showcases talent, BOAT’s latest LP may be the record that helps you set sail in a new musical direction (and yes, that extremely lame pun was in fact intended).

(Feature photo by John E. Hollingsworth.)