BOATs third full-length album on Magic Marker Records (and its fourth total), Setting the Paces, comes out at the end of October, and if youre already a BOAT fan, its time to get excited. Because like everything else BOAT’s released so far, Setting the Paces is bright, buoyant and catchier than a baseball glove. But its not just the pop melodies that commend BOAT, whose whimsical lyrics mask a profundity thats easy to miss on the first few spins. (do the) Magic Centipedes charming refrain (If you want to be a giant centipede, just clap your hands) comes sandwiched between lyrics about trying to get your childhood back (of course, its not stated so obviously), but the cleverest aspect of the song is its appropriation of the guitar hook in the Clashs Career Opportunities, a song about dashed dreams so appropriate to reference that it proves theres more to BOATs songs than that gleaming, hard-candy surface. With the Nightgowns, the Special Places, Ron Hexagon.
Fri., Aug. 7, 9 p.m., 2009
