With no great battle, we can find grace: bars of gold from lumps of led, kingdoms from dirt, lovers from libertines, ease from song. We are all the old man in the sea, searching, searching. How The Creaky Boards find you is simple: like a brief affair ends a sluggish heart, The Boards excite.

The so-called crazy artist theme died for The Creaky Boards with Andrew's hands and the general motion of getting older. "I was trying to be crazy a year ago but then I realized sometimes you push yourself too far," Andrew reflects. Louie Armstrong lived in a shack with no shoes hustling pennies at the docks but nobody really does this anymore. Bands talk about heartache and no cash in their pockets, then get off stage, kiss their girlfriends, get a bag, and go drink their contradictions away at a bar. "It’s almost a myth now," Andrew states.

Coming from the suburbs of Detroit, these men saw "rock stars," heroine chic, dirty, raunchy, leather wearing, crotch grabbing, bloody "rock stars." But somehow The Creaky Boards avoided the hound dogs and found collared shirts and indie rock. Detroit summed up: "There are three clubs that indie bands play at, a college section that white people cling to, a vast wasteland of boarded up buildings and on the outskirts, suburbs,” Andrew describes. There's also those old car companies, enough homeless to starve the city and industrial muck. Thank goodness the boys came here.

When establishing themselves in New York, The Creaky Boards tend to favor The Sidewalk Cafe and Laila Lounge, quiet simple places that provide the background for their honky-tonk pop music. With an affection for thrift store record shopping and The Beach Boys, The Boards "let their sound develop naturally," says Shane. "I am just trying to express how I feel and make a beautiful sound," Andrew follows. And what they write about is classic: "Mostly love songs, songs about the joy of love and the pain of love. Songs about different locations and the inspiration that comes from those locations. Songs about sadness and loneliness, sentimental songs."

The Creaky Boards debut record, "Where's the Sunshine," was released September 29, in conjunction with a show at Galapagos. The record upholds their excitement with songs like, “I Love My Girl Because She Loves The Birds" and "Do You Only Love Me When I'm Down?" With The Boards attitude towards new music, they hold a calm reserve about their record. "There's a strange thing going on. People are really content with the music that is out there and nobody is coming up with anything new right now. They don't need anything more, they have all the greatest hits," Andrew declares. "Everything they say is gonna be the next big thing ends up being boring," says Steve. "It's not like Dylan or the so-called 'Dylan Boom'."

Give ‘em a listen. Stop all the searching, searching.

http://www.creakyboards.com.

Articles presented with permission from Block Magazine and can be found in their monthly section of Uproar.