I keep coming back to this album to pep myself up. Catchy tunes, not overproduced. Good for driving in the car. Not sure what genre (maybe garage pop?) I move between listening to this and Jason Molina and alt-poscast.nl most of time.

remarkable that this was done in the 80's when the standard for pop pruduction was layered, artificial, mechanized and cheesy .. this has that recorded in your dining room sound so ahead of its time. Proof of the power of a simple approach means fun for the performer and the listener. The total antithesis of more pretensious and agonized genres of rock (prog, fusion, etc.)
Long Live the Vulgar Boatmen!!

See also: The Feelies
1st REM album
Freedy Johnston
Ramones
NRBQ
Daddy Cool

This is one of the BEST unsung rock cds of all-time. They actually backed up a band I was with in the 80s and I picked up this disc at that time, WOW! It's GREAT!

I found this album many years ago through some obscure reference in an album review. The 1st time I listened to it -it did not work for me. I always try to give my disks another shot and so put in on some months later while doing some housework -BAM -This time I got it! This is a great disk! (As is their follow-up "Please Panic"). "Drive Somewhere" has one of the catchiest guitar hooks ever -one of my all-time favorite songs.
The album is full of great songs seemingly so simple and effortless that you do not realize how well crafted they are. The rhythms, the lyrics, they work. Everytime I listen to the disk I find new favorite songs.
I have had this disk for over 10 years and every 6 months or so I come back to it and play it for a few weeks. It still does not sound dated. I am playing it now which prompted me to look for more recent works. Unfortunately, like another old favorite group, the Feelies, I will have to make due with what I have.
Worth purchasing!

Hailing from both Gainesville, Florida AND Indianapolis, Indiana, the
two principal songwriters in the Vulgar Boatmen normally collaborated via the intrepid U.S. mail system,
sending each other 4-track tapes until a song was completed to mutual satisfaction.
Renowned University of Florida English & Film Studies professor/songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Robert Ray generally refused to tour so it was probably the Indiana
version of The Boatmen, led by Dale Lawrence, who you may have seen in your local Midwest bar during the 1980's and 90's. The band's spiritual home, however, remained in the hip, bustling college mecca of
Gainesville (POP:135,000) where the abashedly superior Florida version of the band
played dozens of infamous local gigs and sweaty house parties to a rabid following of college kids, fellow professors, and grungy punk-rockers,
all of whom sang along with every word and danced like crazed, drunken tops until the
very wee small hours of the morning.
This particular album marks their first non cassette-only release and is still a true unheralded, undiscovered gem.
"You and Your Sister" & "Cry Real Tears" are both wistful and super-hooky dance numbers
while "Fallen Down" has got to be the greatest hit single that never was.

The Vulgar Boatmen's music is steeped in the paisley-fortified, alternative
"kudzu power-pop" scene that flourished in the Deep South during the 1980's. If you
are a fan of EARLY REM, the B-52's, Pylon, Fetchin' Bones, Let's Active, The Db's, The Producers or
even The Everly Brothers, this is for you although they do not really sound anything like those bands.
Cuban-born Walter Salas-Humara of the seminal "No Depression"
roots-rock group The Silos and famous Nashville & L.A. session bassist/producer J.D. Foster are some of the revolving cast of players that make up the ever-shifting roster of
The Vulgar Boatmen. The songs themselves frequently revolve around a few well-chosen chords that support lovely soaring harmonies. Concise arrangements are often framed by impossibly melodic, driving viola solos played by Helen Kirklin, Ray's wife and subject of the classic Silos song, "Pictures of Helen." Great, arching melodies, sublime lyrics, and rock-dance rhythms make for a truly unique listening experience. No less than the great Mr.Elvis Costello once stated that The Vulgar Boatmen were his favorite rock band. Too bad there aren't
more truly musical, visionary ROCK bands like this still around out there!

I just happen to own this on CD, Lp and
cassette--I am still waiting for the VHS!