New noise: Chelsea Boys

It’s the great rock ‘n’ roll paradox that bands can break their necks in the name of rock ‘n’ roll while onlookers stand idly by, arms crossed, eyes scanning the floor. In the case of local up-and-coming “dance-punk” trio Chelsea Boys, who are releasing their debut, New Tectonics- produced EP in early August, the crowd doesn’t really have an option. The group shatters the fourth wall with punk rock dynamite by dancing in the middle of the crowd, spraying sweat left and right and perhaps poking you with a guitar.
The band is determined to spread that attitude across the United States with a nation-wide tour this August.
“We’re excited to bring Minneapolis music to other cities, and hopefully representing it in a positive way,” said guitarist/vocalist Hunter Morley.
“With a lot of bands I’m almost embarrassed for them to go out of town,” Morley added. “I don’t wanna say any names.”
As for the music? We’re talking about a sexual maelstrom. Drummer Jacques Clark’s piledriving beats steadily punch you in the gut, as Josh Atwood’s keys rub you down and Morley’s guitar comes from behind and donkey punches your skull. It’s a splash of Nintendo, a dollop of cocaine, a sprinkle of Black Flag and an ocean of sex. To call it “dance-punk” is to short change the experience. Perhaps Atwood himself put it best in calling it “sweat on tape.”
Chelsea Boys are not the type of group who do standstill reenactments of their recordings on stage. Their live shows are balls-to-the-wall, greasy sexhibitions of flailing guitars, whirling limbs, discarded shirts and unbuttoned pants. Or, as Atwood put it, “sweat in real life.”
“After watching so many bands and being bored watching them, we do what we would wanna watch,” Morley said. “There’s a lot of great bands, but the live shows are generally uninspired. We don’t like to stand still at rock shows.”
Apparently, they don’t like to stand still or act with caution in real life either. Morley’s leg is in a cast from rocking a drunken ollie flip, and Clark broke both his elbows tumbling down a roof in his roofing job. But it’ll take a punk rock plague to keep the Boys off the road.
“We’ll just come up with a whole new performance,” Atwood said.
In the world of Chelsea Boys, there is no Injury Reserve, just Steel Reserve.