BOATS

Mat Klachefsky’s first order of business when he gets back to Winnipeg?

“Probably lay down somewhere, drool and watch TV,” the singer for the local indie-pop band Boats joked over the phone before a show in Portland last week.

The band will anchor their tour van in Winnipeg for a five-day reprieve in early October.

Their Saturday, Oct. 2 show at the Lo Pub marks the midway point in a sprawling 27-date cross-Canada and international tour that took them to Seattle on their western leg and will take them to New York as they continue eastward through October.

“It started off very well, we had some crazy drives and didn’t really sleep that much, but the first shows were awesome,” Klachefsky said.

Until someone smashed the windows of their tour van and broke in, he added.

“We got pretty lucky because all of our gear was in there, but we parked the van behind another van and consciously parked it as close as we could so no one would be able to open the doors,” said Klachefsky. “They stole a suitcase of gear, but we found it later. They must have looked inside and thought ‘What is this?’ and threw it against the fence.”

Still, the band lost a laptop, headphones, a DVD player and a cell phone in the ordeal.

“Going home will be good. We’ve been kind of grumpy since we’ve been broken into,” Klachefsky said. “It’ll be nice to spend a little time apart, but also good to get back into (the tour) as well.”

Catch Boats perform at the Lo Pub Saturday, Oct. 2. Visit www.myspace.com/boatthemusicband.

—Matt Preprost

PS I LOVE YOU

No, this two-man band from Ontario didn’t name themselves after the 2007 rom-com starring Gerard Butler.

“That movie really haunts me; I’ve never seen it, but I know that I hate it,” guitarist/vocalist Paul Saulnier told Eye Weekly in a recent interview.

“The name ... came about six or seven years ago. It’s kind of silly but some friends of mine in Kingston decided that if there was ever a fan club for me, that’s what it would be called. PS is my initials – that’s the joke, all my friends call me PS, so it’s kind of like this statement where I’m being very self-indulgent and making fun of that.”

Rounded out by Benjamin Nelson on drums, this duo rocketed out of its small town existence after Pitchfork heralded its song Facelove as a “Best New Music” track.

“Honest-to-goodness, hard-line indie rock is alive and well in the great white North,” they gushed.

The duo is set to release their new album, Meet Me at the Muster Station, on Tuesday, Oct. 5.

“I try to make things that are simple but also epic at the same time,” Saulnier said.

“We get offers from dudes all the time who want to be our bass player, which is kind of weird to me because we don’t need it. Our sound is already big enough.”

Watch PS I Love You perform at the Pyramid Sunday, Oct. 3 with the Japandroids. Visit www.myspace.com/psiloveyouband.

—Matt Preprost

Published in Volume 65, Number 5 of The Uniter (September 30, 2010)