Winnipeg indie pop outfit Boats makes pop songs about death, being old, girls, glowing bears and escaping the spectral plane of existence and reappearing at a football game — all of which can be found on the band’s sparkling third album, A Fairway Full Of Miners, due out Feb. 5, 2013 via Kill Rock Stars (Corin Tucker Band, Elliott Smith, Decemberists, Deerhoof).

Recorded in the spring/summer of 2012 by Ryan McVeigh at Prairie Recording Studios/UMFM and mixed by David Carswell in Vancouver (Destroyer, New Pornographers), A Fairway Full Of Miners comes as the follow-up to Boats’2010 sophomore album, Cannonballs, Cannonballs. But if Cannonballs, Cannonballs was all about giddy exuberance, A Fairway Full Of Miners is about growing up and finding yourself bored. There are still plenty of manic, sloppy-on-purpose junk-store pop tunes that burst with pop-rocks-and-Coke energy (O Telescope), but the new record also sees the band stretch out over more ambitious epics (Animated GIFs) and heartfelt ballads (Advice on Bears). It’s eclectic, but not unfocused; the whole thing is unified by frontman/band leader Mat Klachefsky’s helium-high yelp of a singing voice.

DATES:
Feb 2 – Winnipeg @ West End Cultural Center (CD Release show)
Feb 21 – Saskatoon @ Vangelis
Feb 22 – Calgary @ Hi Fi Club (Early Show)
Feb 23 – Edmonton @ Wunderbar
Feb 28 – Vancouver @ The Cobalt
March 21 – Windsor @ Phog Lounge
March 22-23 CMW in Toronto (show TBA)
March 27 – Guelph @ Albion
March 28 – Ottawa @ Pressed
March 29 – Montreal @ La Cagibi