A State Without A Hero

BOAT “Lately”

Near the start of this song, David Crane says that New Jersey is a “state without a hero,” which strikes me as a rather weird thing to say, since I can’t think of a state in the country without a greater desire for a pantheon of its own homegrown cultural heroes. For one thing, Bruce Springsteen’s career is at least partially based on being a hero for New Jersey’s working class. That’s the most obvious one. But what about Jon Bon Jovi, the Springsteen of the shore? Frank Sinatra? Jon Stewart? On a smaller but no less potent level, what about Tom Scharpling and Ted Leo? (And what of Brock Peuchk?)

Anyway. I came to BOAT because people were telling me that they sounded like Pavement. BOAT doesn’t actually sound like Pavement though, but they do sound like the indie rock of the ’90s. And you know, Pavement is synonymous with that. I don’t need or want anyone to be like Stephen Malkmus, but I am glad that the pendulum of indie fashion is swinging back to his sort of merry, melodic looseness. Still, I want to be careful in the coming years. I don’t want to just like things because it triggers Pavlovian responses in me, because it reminds me of the music I listened to when I was a teenager. I also don’t want to be too hard on artists for not living up to actually being Pavement or Pollard or Sonic Youth or whatever. BOAT is charming, BOAT has some terrific songs. Their identity needs to evolve beyond “I love the ’90s” if they’re ever going to graduate from good to great, but you know what? I love the ’90s too. I can live with this.

Buy it from Magic Marker Records.