boy genius

There is a beautifully shambolic feel to this band Boy Genius from Brooklyn. Like they wandered into a studio, threw on their gear and played whatever popped into their heads. The music is in no way sequenced, is unlikely to be ever sung by the masses but it has such an inbuilt likeable quality it could catch on like a particularly virulent strain of the winter flu. Comprised of 3 fellas and a girl Boy Genius are accomplished musicians and despite the scrappy appearance know exactly when to prop up a song with a dart of brass or a fragment of harmonica. ‘Radio Silence’ is a classic in waiting, its DIY heart hammers at your door until you finally relent. A slow amorous dance is sure to follow and Boy Genius’s slow ascent towards glory gets another step closer. The band's Eureka EP is out now. KD - MP3hugger.com

Boy Genius have been pressuring me to listen to their new album, Anchorage, for a couple of weeks now. They have not yet resorted to death threats, but I felt it was imminent so I am finally making some room for the band on the ol' blog and cracking the plastic on their album! I'm kidding of course, I actually cracked the plastic when they told me they were kicking off their tour with a show in little old Staten Island and it wasn't long before I was putting Anchorage on repeat.

Littered with amazingly catchy indie pop, Anchorage is the type of album that got a lot of us into this type of music. It's similar to the albums we all listened to in college, stuff that was left of the dial, tough to find, and meant going to some shady dive to see the band. It's good for Boy Genius that this stuff is all the rage now, but it really does stir the emotions of hearing the early indie bands of the 80's and 90's all over again. Slightly off-key vocals lend some charm to the songs here, but they'd be pretty charming even if they didn't add that mild imperfection. Reverb-laden guitar riffs, use of a huge amount of horns and odd instruments, and the steady beats of this album make this such a perfect example of indie pop that it's difficult to believe it's not one of the originals coming back from the abyss.

I've listened to Anchorage a lot this week and I have a feeling I'm going to know the songs back and forth by the time the band kicks off their tour on August 8th at Martini Red! This is excellent stuff, make sure you check it out ASAP! - Poptarts Suck Toasted

Boy Genius is a band we’ve seen live a few times now. Between those shows and their EP, Eureka, which we’ve been enjoying, we’d say their sound is most reminiscent of the excellent New Zealand band The Bats or Yo La Tengo’s first album, Ride The Tiger. They have a new full-length album out now that we look forward to hearing and they’ll be playing at Cake Shop on July 25th before playing some dates down south in August. - Stereoactive NYC

Boy Genius is an obscure little pop group: it’s not quite brit-pop, not quite twee, not quite southern-tinged pop, but it seems encompass elements of all of these subgenres of pop. Overall, Boy Genius is a lovable indie pop outfit filled with jangle-y guitars and pointed male vocals backed selectively by pleasant female ones.

“Radio Silence” opens Boy Genius’ latest endeavor, a full-length titled Anchorage. The song includes all the aforementioned elements, like many of the group’s songs. Throughout this album and their EP, Eureka, Boy Genius features a prominent organ. Yet there’s something slightly odd about the music, which adds to Boy Genius’s curiosity—it’s bizarrely enjoyable. And I mean that in the best of ways. Take a listen to tunes off both Anchorage and Eureka and you’ll likely hear it.

Boy Genius’s music will grow on you. That’s for sure. Upon your first listen, you’ll think: this isn’t half bad, I can dig this. Then distract yourself with something else for a day or two. Pick up Boy Genius again and it’ll likely hit you: Damn, I really like this! Yeah, that’s exactly what happened with me. - Fensepost

Having reviewed this Brooklyn co-ed indie-pop outfit's Eureka EP last issue, it's good to see an LP follow close behind. Jason K's vocals remain an acquired taste, but it's one that's easily obtained for anyone owning records by Velvet Underground, Go-Betweens, Felt, Gun Club, or Beat Happening. Meanwhile, their quietly hummable light guitar pop is like a hodgepodge of the Feelies (my esteemed colleague Jim Testa of Jersey Beat was on the money with that comparison), Black Watch, New Zealand label Flying Nun bands, and, again, Felt. Bright and bouncy, full of sweet boy/girl harmonies, and yielding similar bursts of the great trumpets that highlighted the EP, and sighing harmonica, Anchorage easily picks up where Eureka's zesty exuberance suggested. - The Big Takeover (Jack Rabid)

I first came across Boy Genius when I got their Eureka EP back in January of this year. I liked it - describing the band as 'a quintessential American college radio band.' Their début LP 'Anchorage' has been working it's way into my affections these past few weeks. On first listening - it's a solid début - but far from a stand out release. It's only with repeated listens that band manage to really suck me in - that's a tall order in these days of instant hits and easy access to new music via the internet - to keep being drawn back to a record, time after time, is becoming a rare occurrence for me and it's something that Boy Genius have managed to pull off rather splendidly.

I have tried and failed to write about this record on a fair few occasions and each time I come unstuck trying to find the right balance of words to do the record justice. The American college rock comparison still holds up - but it falls some way short of telling the full story of what Boy Genius have to offer. So yes I can still hear early REM and to a lesser extent Pavement in the mix but somewhere alongside this there is a less guitar driven band - maybe it's the soaring trumpet that greets you as you listen to 'Falling Gravity' and then leads you a merry dance on the chorus. Maybe it's the fact that Boy Genius cast their influences a lot wider than simple Americana, they have an inner indiepop heartbeat and this is all adds up to a rather compelling mix of American college rock and British indiepop.

Their début EP showed a lot of promise and they've followed this with a début LP that goes a long way to fulfilling that promise at the first ask. I think this band are going to be something a little special. - Indie MP3

There’s something wounded in the sound of Boy Genius, a Brooklyn band with a knack for mid-’80s jangle-pop heroics. Perhaps it’s that skittish harmonica, or the bounding tempos, racing forward like a calf discovering the power of its own stride; maybe it’s the way Jason Korenkiewicz (a former PopMatters staffer) sings, dangling his words on short strings before cutting them loose. Bittersweet and romantically infectious, Anchorage, the band’s full-length debut, is stocked with blissed-out sing-alongs ("Radio Silence”, “Eureka”, “Failing Gravity”—dig the wink to “Bold as Love” in that one) and colored, on the edges, by trumpet, glockenspiel, and tried-and-true male/female harmonies. “I am harboring a hope / That this harbor is my home,” Korenkiewicz sings in the title track, while the band springs eternal around him—a salve for even the most broken of things. - 7/10 - Popmatters

It seems like we have featured a bunch of quality Brooklyn bands over the past several months and you can file Boy Genius right in there with the lot. On their debut EP Eureka, Boy Genius offer five simple tracks of indie pop that contains enough energy, excitement and talent to entice your interest and keep you going until their full length arrives later this year. The band has a very 80’s college sound with traditional guitar and drums combined with a vibrant male-female harmony. The EP includes handclaps, trumpet, organ and layered piano in very small doses, which gives the listener a small window into Boy Genius’s overall diversity and adds depth to the band. Eureka is a solid debut that plays no games to hide what Boy Genius is all about and prove that many times less really is more! - thefirenote.blogspot.com

"Sounds like the Gun Club's late Jeffrey Lee Pierce singing with the "Harborcoat"-era REM 23 years ago, only with orchestral trumpets added. Keep a watch."

- Jack Rabid - The Big Take Over; Issue 61

"Brooklyn quartet Boy Genius has the same no-fuss charm that characterized a lot of 80s college rock: simple hooks, harmonies and melodies, ringing guitars - reliable stuff" - Time Out New York