They had so many words

Drunken Boat are one of those bands that seemed to float just below everyone's radar. Why they never got more attention, I'll never know. Fronted by poet Todd Colby, the band released a number of albums between 1991 and 1995.

There's a bit of the Pixies in their sound, and their New York roots show as well. As the years (and we're only talking about a couple of years here) went on, their sound became more polished, a bit more pop, the peak example of this being their "See Ruby Falls" album which came out in 1992. The grittiness of their first two releases became a polished edge, many claiming it their best album. But, personally, their self-titled stands out as their best work. Songs such as "Pony" have lived in the back woods of my mind...stuck there, unable to be excised.

The albums were produced by Timothy Sommer of Hugo Largo fame, he even plays organ and guitar here and there. The other band members consisted of Steve Gross, Hadley Kahn, Glenn Petry, Todd Serbousek and Michael Colby. There were shifts in the members over the years, this list isn't reflective of one album, more a list of who was in the band over the years.

You can find a much more exhaustive review of all their albums over at Mark Prindle's site. It's well worth a few minutes of your time.

From: Drunken Boat
Drunken Boat - Pony (Warning...there are some bad words here!) - REMOVED
Drunken Boat - Accidents - REMOVED
From: See Ruby Falls
Drunken Boat - Day Long Day - REMOVED
Boat - Low Rider - REMOVED

Now, don't expect all of See Ruby Falls to sound like these two tracks, there are definitely tracks on here that have a much harder edge to them, like Pony. It was hard to pick just two, and I couldn't pass up Low Rider.

You can't purchase their albums new, it seems, but Amazon has them used for CHEAP...so run out and buy them, you have no excuse. You can also purchase Todd Colby's poetry at a variety of places, including Carbon Records, Soft Skull and Slow Toe Publications.