The Boxcar Guitars will released their debut EP “Lamp Light” through Arch Hill Recordings on 19th September 2005.

Over the last year and a bit the Boxcar Guitars have proved to be one of Auckland’s most popular and hard working and seriously stonking indie alt-country live bands. If you haven’t been lucky enough to see them strumming up a storm supporting the likes of Gomez, Evan Dando, Jay Farrar, Bonnie Prince Billy and Lambchop – not to mention a whole host of local luminaries ranging from the Checks to the Bats – then it is possible you haven’t left the house recently.

That’s right, well-attired live music is what the Boxcars are all about. So when the decided to “cut a side” it seemed only logical to head to the wonky old Grand in the semi-rural backblocks of Helensville, set up the large dining room and play the songs in the way they do up on the stage – live, fresh and real. The EP contains five tracks from these sessions, as well as the original radio favorite of “My Love is Blue”, which saw plenty of airplay on the b-net, ChannelZ, Fleet FM and National radio.

Benny Boxcar (guitar, vocals), Marcus Joyce (bass) and Kari Hammond (drums) go way back to high school days, jam sessions and general noisy garage misbehavior. However, as time progressed, they developed a love of American roots music, in the forms of Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and "...country music from the late '40s, blues from the depression era, rock n roll from the '50s”. This new musical understanding - combined with the addition steer guitar player John Segovia - saw the band develop their own stripped back and timeless flavor. This is described by Boxcar Benny as “the sound of a great big racket box rumbling along”

And while rumbling along with the Boxcar Guitars is what it is all about, that doesn’t exclude the band members from other interesting musical activities. Boxcar Benny tours (and is recording the new album) with Bic Runga, and added beautiful guitar atmospherics and a song to Florian Habict’s excellent film “Kaikohe Demolition”. Marcus also plays bass in the thundering Demi Whores, as does Kari – who also drummed in the Bloody Souls (now), Tokey Tones and the Brunettes (then). John is currently also playing music with Don McGlashan and another country band the Radio Kings.

The Boxcar Guitars audio

The Boxcar Guitars video "My Love is Blue"