On The Verge

MiniBoone

Brooklyn, N.Y.
Thrill Wave
www.miniboone.com

“We’re not Aerosmith,” laughs drummer Taylor Gabriels while driving through Upstate New York. “It’s maximum music—100 percent from everyone all the time when we’re playing. We call it thrill wave not chill wave.” The quintet listens to “anything from Broadway to Whitney Houston to The Clash—an interesting range of musical influences.” MiniBoone released its debut EP Big Changes last January and recently put out an “adventurous 7-inch,” Gabriels says, describing the development process as “almost militantly democratic. We’re all pretty vocal about how we want things—we’ll take a demo and beat it to death and put it through a MiniBoone blender.” Though Gabriels says he isn’t “the biggest nerd in the band,” and doesn’t quite understand the government-funded neutrino experiment that MiniBoone draws its name from, he can assure a lively, loud, fun and very sweaty show. “We’re not like other jaded indie musicians who don’t care what you think,” Gabriels says. “Our main objective is to play danceable stuff that has a groove and engages the audience.”