TOYBOAT
(by Barry Childs-Helton, 2013 - edited)
Toyboat is evidence that the twenty-first century has surrounded filkdom in the night and rolled out the pulse cannon. Exhibit A: Walking by the main concert room at a recent OVFF, I heard a blast of electric catharsis taking a song to orbit on solid rock boosters and…wait a minute. “Banned From Argo”? Leslie Fish’s filk warhorse sung long and lustily in filk rooms of yore, long parodied and protested into immortality? Yep. The very one. But this rendition was kicking butt. Who in their right minds would have ever unleashed such a brash venture? The amazing electric filk/rock band Toyboat.
Eric Coleman (slinger of a sinister black Takamine dreadnaught) and Daniel Gunderson (aka “gundo”, commander of his own fleet of black guitars and a guerilla entourage of multiple instruments) hatched the nefarious project. As secret drummers (how they managed that, I have no clue), they plotted the launch of a rock entity at least as heavy as 2012 DA14, drawing on influences as diverse as Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Fleetwood Mac, Indigo Girls, and AC/DC. I can understand an affinity for that huge sound. But to use it to propel “This Island Earth” – originally a gorgeous doo-wop vocal that put The Nylons on the charts in the 80s (and found a home in filk rooms ever after) – that was just…perverse.
Jason Neerenberg was recruited on bass (shades of a certain Liverpudlian British knight in olden skiffle days). And with the mysterious abduction of lead guitarist Mike Nixon into this burgeoning secret society, Toyboat Mk I was read to bring their full-tilt rock-filk to the trembling cons (was it shock, awe, or ecstasy?) of the Midwest and East Coast. By 2009, a scant two years after their inception, they released the eponymous CD “Toyboat” – followed a year later by a blatant conspiracy (codename: Tomboat) that brought keyboardist Raven into the juggernaut to back up world’s-fastest-filker Tom Smith with electric aggression.
Having been overheard remarking something like “Well, my work here is done” sometime in 2012, Eric has since been spotted with a red Strat doing more rock rabblerousing on his own distinct trajectory. Drummer Cathy McManamon joined the Toyboat conspiracy as a fresh propulsive force in 2012, and Toyboat Mk II began embarking on a new journey and a new CD project.
