The Steinways: Missed The Boat

I've been keeping plenty busy these days but not so much that I have completely forgotten my blogging responsibilities. I'll have a ton of updates soon on the new radio show, new label and new record (which started tracking a few days ago) but in the meantime I want to tell you about this band the Steinways and their record Missed The Boat.

Released last summer, Missed The Boat is, I believe, the first long-player from this Queens quartet. Baltimore transplant Grath Madden is the ringleader, writing the songs as well as singing and playing guitar. He's backed up by another guitarist named Ace, Michelle Shirelle on bass and the troubled but capable Chris Grivet on drums.

Having been told many times over the years that such and such band sounds like Screeching Weasel, I've usually found that the case tends to be vastly overstated. With the Steinways, the influence is obvious but not grating. What sets this band apart from the usual gang of copycats are two things: an almost maniacal devotion to a minimalist approach and a genuine knack for original songwriting.

The problem with the minimalism thing is that it starts to grow old quick. It's one thing when a lousy one-note joke band keeps pounding that same key in an effort to get you to laugh, but when Madden comes up with yet another great song that he insists on ending after maybe one verse and a chorus, it starts to annoy. That one verse and chorus are, in most cases, good enough that I'd advise you to pick this album up pronto, but I'm hoping they head in a direction that sees Madden taking his songs a little more seriously and avoiding the temptation to go for the broad, almost vaudevillian humor he embraces on Missed The Boat. He has a ton of potential as a songwriter and while this album is probably a blast if you know the guys and go to see them play all the time in NY, it's bound to fall a little short of the mark for the rest of us. That the Steinways don't take themselves too seriously is indeed a blessing, but that they apparently don't take Madden's songwriting very seriously either is a real shame.

Minimalism aside, Madden's songwriting approach is relatively unique in a genre teeming with hacks and copycats; his style is somewhat similar to Frank Portman's in that he embraces conventional songwriting (though you might miss it at first glance) over hipster affectations and trends. He's also clearly well-versed in melodic punk and has a lighthearted, give-a-shit attitude that puts him in stark contrast to the shoe-gazing contingent; he gets that songs about girls are essentially funny. Madden isn't really doing anything that hasn't been done before - who among us is? - but he's got his own unique take on the formula and with a little work his songs could go toe to toe with any of the greats in the genre. The major disappointment of Missed The Boat is that Madden doesn't seem particularly inclined to try to push himself to that level.

Madden sings in a style similar to that of the Descendents' Milo Aukerman. Michelle's backing vocals add a nice dimension seldom heard in pop punk bands. The musicianship is good but the arrangements are bare-bones; the whole thing was recorded on a shoestring budget in an eye-blink so there's not much going on other than the basics. I hope the next time the Steinways make an album the songs are fleshed out more, that the band can spend more time on arrangements and production ideas, and that they can manage to scrape up the money to give themselves a little breathing room in the studio. But whatever the album's shortcomings, there is a genuine spark in the Steinways that most who walk down this path are sorely lacking; at the very least, they seem to be having fun rather than plotting a career path, and that's a rare sight indeed among bands that are actually listenable. I think the Steinways are just going to keep getting better; to that end, I'd advise you to get in on the ground floor by shelling out a few bucks for this one.