Labels: Wrenched
Review by: Andy Malcolm
What with the saturation of the emo rock genre, I thought I’d become numb to deciding for myself who was a bad band and who was truly good any more. Think again. I checked this release from California’s Boilermaker on the basis of some excellent reviews, and also because of their awe-inspiring track on the Tree Records Eucalyptus 7″ comp, a record not to be missed if you want to hear the bands that were just about bridging the gap between the hardcore emo bands and what would be the indie rock emo bands that would spring up once Sunny Day came a long and just redrew the whole damn map.
Boilermaker (did they name themselves after Purdue’s college football team perchance?) have moved on and become a little more ‘indie rock’ since that other song I already have, although there are signs of their background to be found in this wonderful collection of songs. It’s just super smooth and rocking emo, blending indie sounds like Christie Front Drive, Mineral and Superchunk to a tee. A couple of songs let it down, but the monumental likes of the dischordant “From Phoenix At Four” or the swaying of “Last on the Drive” really drag it up to levels of excellence. And how about the rather cool “Thinner Runs Through Her” where the song invokes images of a long train journey, gently speeding across the countryside and watching the trees through the window. I just love the way the bass nudges this one a long.
So, an emo indie rock masterpiece, the class of which doesn’t come a long very often these days. Find.