In a perfect world every town would have a band like Box Elders. A ramshackle rock outfit, made up of brothers Clayton and Jeremiah McIntyre and drummer/keyboardist Dave Goldberg, that revels in every gloriously fun moment of being in a band. Sadly we can’t all be as lucky as the citizens of Omaha, Nebraska, where Box Elders’ come from.
In many ways Box Elders are a classic spirit of ’76 punk outfit, not the best musicians in the world and the songs are not the most complex. But that doesn’t matter, across the 14 tracks on their debut album Alice & Friends they rattle out a rollercoaster of DIY rock, complete with Hammond organ sounding keyboards and drawing on influences such as sixties cult act the Monks and The Ramones.
Keyboard drenched opener ‘Jackie Wood’ fits firmly in the sixties influenced category as does title track ‘Alice and Friends’, which sounds like a sketchy bootleg of an early Who gig. Among other stand out tracks are the excellent ‘Hole in My Head’ and ‘Dave’, which sounds like it is being performed in a Belfast boozer in 1964 by Van Morrison’s Them.
The Ramones influenced tracks include ‘One Foot in Front of the Other’ and ‘2012’, which in an equally perfect world would be the signature tune for London’s 2012 Olympics, with the band shouting the lyrics, “ain’t you heard about 2012,” at the opening ceremony.
But it’s not all shouting, ramshackle rock. There’s also some good musician-ship in places. The sixties riff throughout ‘Dave’ and the intro to final track ‘Death of Me’ show there is more to the band. And Dave Goldberg is something of a rarity in music, being able to plays drums and keyboards simultaneously live.
They could have stepped out of any era since the early 60s and there have been countless bands over the decades that have sounded like them but never achieved success. Box Elders may or may not buck this trend, but they will certainly have fun trying.
8/10
by Joe Lepper, Aug 2009
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I’ve just bought this and it’s great. Been listening to it in the car. It’s sort of as if the Sex Pistols had got rid of John Lydon and brought in an organ player plus someone who could sing in tune. Anyone who rhymes snowing and Wyoming gets the thumbs up from me.