Send "Boat " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 BOAT mainstay D. Crane is archetypal of a certain sort of thirtysomething indie dude. He's brainy and at least somewhat socially conscious (he served half of a two-year stint in Teach for America), he knows his way around music-friendly metropolises (currently living in Seattle, he did his TFA time in Chicago), and he can certainly identify with The Boston Globe sports writer Chad Finn's excellent blog about classic sports cards (BOAT's 2008 Topps 7" EP came with five hand-drawn cards, plus a stick of bubblegum). Crane's band, meanwhile, has been working on the fringes of the indie rock mainstream, receiving generally positive reviews.BOAT's fourth album, then, finds the Crane-fronted four-piece going through something of an underachiever's quarter-life crisis. On one hand, Dress Like Your Idols sees Crane, drummer Jackson Long, bassist/guitarist Mark McKenzie, and multi-instrumentalist Josh Goodman finally making their way into a real studio for the first time. On the other hand, that studio-- Seattle's Two Sticks Audio-- is already defunct. And the songs, like the album cover, are as inspired by the band's youth as ever, merging Stephen Malkmus's obliquely deadpan twang, Tullycraft's sugary scene-skewering, and Modest Mouse's "reptile boy" yelp. Where some slightly younger slackers have been opting for warped 1980s synth-pop, BOAT continue to love the 90s: an era when they didn't know, as per the rueful title track, that "the job you wanted doesn't exist." The result is the best album yet from a band whose style finally appears to be back in vogue, though its sometimes-bitterly sardonic humor still won't be for everybody. When BOAT apply their new-found professionalism, Dress Like Your Idols outdresses more than just famously schlubby Doug Martsch, whose Built to Spill is one of nine bands paid tribute to on the album's memorably meta cover. First single "(I'll Beat My Chest Like) King Kong" sets a basic pop hook ("I'll love you if you love me") over crunchy guitars and boisterous drumming that could please fans of such similarly 90s-minded bands as Surfer Blood, Yuck, or Free Energy (remember, the 90s also loved the 70s: Weezer, people!). John Roderick, whose underrated group the Long Winters gets its own album-cover homage, adds his drowsy, Pedro the Lion-ish backing vocals to "Landlocked", the record's screeching, pent-up emotional centerpiece. As Crane sarcastically boasts elsewhere, "If looks could kill, I'd slaughter you."...full text |
| Evilspeakers |
| Seattle's self proclaimed sloppy pop outfit, Boat return with their fourth full length, Dress Your Idols. The album is set to be released on March 22nd on the band's long time label, Portland, OR based Magic Marker Records. Dress Like Your Idols picks up where 2009's Setting The Paces left off. A bit of polish has been applied to D. Crane's catchy as hell pop songs due to Boat recording at (the now defunct) Two Sticks Audio in the bands home town. This marks the first time the band have balanced their tried and true method of recording at home with the benefits of professional studio tools. Well, after this they might have to abandon that sloppy pop tag, because Dress Like Your Idols is filled with perfectly executed and irresistible pop moments, with the bands signature tongue and cheek wit intact. It's on tracks, Bite My Lips, Forever In Armitron, and the John Roderick (The Long Winters) guested Landlocked that Boat deliver on the promise of their previous recordings, and then some. These are fully realized and instantly addicting pop nuggets that have us reaching for this LP on a nearly daily basis. Elsewhere the band shines on home recordings such as, Water it Down ,which provide charming and albeit brief interludes that assist in the flow and superb sequencing of Dress Like Your Idols....full text |
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