One night Mat Klachefsky got locked out of a friend’s house that he was supposed to be staying at. He sat on the front steps for hours, waiting for his friends to come home and watched as a group of drunk teenagers knocked over ever giant orange road construction pylon on the road in front of the house. Once the kids got to the last pylon, they gathered around it arm in arm and peed on it, so Mat wrote a song about a toothbrush commercial.
Boats has a penchant for failure when it come to proper bios, so they went on Facebook and solicited suggestions on how to describe their music. Results were mixed. Bryan said to include “hairless cats, the 1972 Winter Olympics, fake moustaches, fast cars and faster women.” Which we did but weren’t sure why. Russ said that “the only reason Cannonballs, Cannonballs didn’t make my top ten was because I forgot to write one.” Also not helpful, Russ. Nettie, predictably, suggested we add “yeah, Boats!” This was the end of the experiment.
Boats has trouble focusing on one topic.
Boats makes music songs in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Sometimes their songs are about fictional performing duos who have holes in their bodies and/or have a belief that they will one day give birth to a flock of birds. Sometimes they are about winning the Superbowl and finding treasure. Often they are about a string of unrelated incidents. But there is always yelling, and there is always guitars, and there is always broken toy keyboards, and there is always horns, and there is always oooooo’s, and there is always fanfare, and there is always Mat Klachefsky yelping his guts into puddles in his powerful yet emasculating shriek of a singing voice. At the end we are all sweaty.
“Cannonballs, Cannonballs” was released in Canada in May 2010, and later re-released in the U.S. on the legendary Kill Rock Stars label (Elliott Smith, Decemberists, Deerhoof, Sleater-Kinney) in August 2011. They are currently recording their third album and expects it to be released in Summer or Fall, 2012.
Boats songs have appeared on Ads for Target Department Stores, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, and House Party (Comedy Network)
Completed 8 North American tours
Showcased at SXSW (3 times), NXNE (2 times), Pop Montreal (2 times), Sled Island, Canadian Music Week, Halifax Pop Explosion and Olio Festival
"Cannonballs, Cannonballs" was UMFM's (Winnipeg) #1 album of 2010