Twist and Roll with the Boorays

Here is another cool band that I found while researching The Sun Sawed in 1/2. The Boorays were another talented early 90s pop-rock band from St. Louis. Comprising of Mark Stephens, Andy Thomson, Mike Hellebusch and Bob Kaemmerlen this band achieved something that might be described as a cult status and attention in indie rock circles all around the world. It didn’t even take long to discover a Finnish article about their 7’’ single Girl Repellent/You Move Me Like a Slug in the press gallery on Brickhouse Acoustics site. Now, here I am, writing about them to my own Finnish indie rock “magazine” - not in Finnish, though…

Three albums were recorded by this quartet: a self-titled The Boorays (1990), Pumpkin Pie Crustacean (1991) and Hollow in the Middle (1994). In the 21st century the Boorays have returned to play a reunion gig every now and then, most recently in November 2009.








The Boorays’ music is enjoyably danceable and straightforward and it clearly indicates influence from 70s punk. The music keeps reminding me of Buzzcocks and the Cure’s early material. It is very easy to develop affection towards the Boorays’ stripped down yet rich, crunchy sound and wonderful low-tone riffs. The songs are of course melodic and catchy. The overall mood of this music could be described as energetic and sweetly melancholic, an interesting mix of happy riffs and wistful melodies. All in all, the Boorays have an ear for fast-tempo rocking pop songs. They also love to twist. You will notice it soon when you put on their first CD. Well, twist is probably the grooviest beat there is… The twist can be seen as one of the surf rock elements of the Boorays’ music.

All three Boorays albums were remixed and remastered by Mike Hellebusch and released in 2005. They are available for purchase in a CD-R-type-of form. Two of the CDs contain 1-2 bonus tracks. I already grabbed the whole bunch and haven’t regretted it for a second. For music samples go to MySpace. Also check out the following video for Band of Gold.



The Boorays on MySpace
The Boorays Brickhouse Acoustics site