Boats play music songs in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with lyrics about dismemberment (the good kind), excellent posture, and orthodontic surgery. A junky indie-pop band with high-end hopes but low-end equipment (total net worth of keyboard section: $40, all thrift store finds), Boats started playing in Winnipeg sporadically as just "Boat" in 2001. Since then they have shared stages with bands like The Waking Eyes, Novillero, The Acorn, and Art Brut, which isn't too shabby considering until recently they only averaged roughly 2 shows a year.

Over the years there has been a rotating cast of Winnipeg musicians who have played in Boats, but the current version has a pack of Winnipeg all-stars surrounding singer-songwriter Mat Klachefsky. These can include, but are not limited to, members of The Western States, Half Court Prayer, The Details, and Transistor Sound & Lighting Co.

And now... a metaphor:

If music was exactly like regrettable experiences when you were seven years old then Boats would be the time you went to the farm and your older cousin let you ride his mini-motor bike all by yourself against your parent's better judgment; it was fun for the first few seconds but then you crashed into a steel wire fence and cut your knee. Whatever. It was still pretty fun.

Boat released their very first full length CD called "Intercontinental Champion" in May 2007.

P.S. I am aware that that was a simile, not a metaphor.

"Every track is solid and, most importantly, memorable, which has as much to do with Klachefsky's songwriting as it does with his surprisingly high vocals" -- Now Magazine

"Winnipeg's Boats! sound as if the disc on which their music was recorded can hardly contains their kinetically creative firestorm...Intercontinental Champion hits like that morning caffeine rush and pummels you into submission with its kooky, over-the-top hooks." -- Winnipeg Free Press

"Boats! Intercontinental Champion gives an atomic leg drop to Canada's indie scene and is bound to hailed as one of this year's best." -- Pop Journalism (4 out of 5 stars)

"This is such a solid indie pop record, it's hard to believe that it's a debut...a sparkling, hook-laden record sprinkled with plenty of handclaps and sing-a-long chorus lines." -- Uptown Magazine (Rated: A)

"It's almost impossible to not eat it all up and not ask for seconds... A great Winnipeg pop masterpiece." -- Stylus Magazine

"The Arcade Fire minus the drama. An album that sparkles and shines with every single song, and it is all fun without corny and majestic without being melodramatic. My favourite unsung record this past year." -- Dave Ullrich, Zunior.com

Instrumentation

Mat Klachefsky - Guitar, Lead Vocals; Britt Hainstock - Bass; Ashley Roch - Keyboards; Jason Churko - Multi-instruments; Shaun Gibson - Drums