Boys Say Go has been played on NTS in shows including Kit Grill, featured first on 26 March 2023. Songs played include Humanity.

Boys Say Go were:

Anthony Rauseo (drums, percussion, drum machine / sequencer programming, vocals), Joseph Fagan (lead vocal, guitar), Austin Powell (keyboards, bass), Dave Stempko (keyboards, guitar, bass), Hank Fay (backing vocals, Linn drum programming), Donyne Cowan (Bass).

Boys Say Go morphed out of a garage punk band called Slow Children. They had put out a 7” onto which a string synth they had found in the studio had crept. While sitting in Logan Airport waiting for a plane to take them to Germany in 1981, Anthony put the headphones of his walkman on Joe’s head and he heard Depeche Mode for the first time. Then he knew the record they were carrying to a record company in Berlin was already over. Done. Obsolete. So that year they started cranking out simple synth pop tunes with primitive analog equipment and no ability whatsoever to play keyboards… The result of the following five years’ work was a fantastic array of new wave songs, of which only six were actually released.

Boys Say Go. Yes, the song that would become their name, by those British Depeche Mode, band which definitely influenced Anthony and Joe to go into another musical direction while still being Slow Children. But the future was coming and they were not being left behind.

‘Berliner Kindl Wesse’ was a song inspired by driving around Germany in an orange VW bug. Joe thought this was what they should have been listening to. This instrumental along with ‘Nu Song’, ‘Rain In The Dark’ and ‘Sorry’ were recorded but never released.

The first vinyl came in 1983, the ‘Joey And Maria’ b/w ‘Love is Dangerous’ 7”. Cheap drum machine, plastic Casio keyboard… Dave Stempko played everything on it but the bass. Self-produced, recorded at Pyramid Studio by Larry Lessard and released on BSG’s own label Gender Records. Only 300 copies pressed… a minimal synth masterpiece impossible to find today.

Later that year ‘Bang Bang De Boogie (Then We Dance)’ was recorded at Newbury Sound but the song remained unreleased. Then ‘Easy To Move’ was recorded at Joe Harvard’s So-So-Sound studio in 1984, with Anthony on the lead vocal and toy synth drums. Meant to be included on Harvard’s various artists compilation cassette entitled ‘Buy American’, the project was shelved and only a handful of cassette copies were given to friends. So we can consider it as unreleased. Later in 1984, ‘Do You Wanna Funk’ and ‘Serious Cat’ were featured on Gender Records’ ‘Hit The Floor’ compilation, followed by the ‘Humanity’ b/w ‘Holy War’ 12” single in 1985. These last two songs feature backing vocals by Hank Fay who was on loan to BSG from another synth band called Minks.

And that was it. Fortunately, the recordings by Boys Say Go have been well preserved by Mr. Fagan and we’re very happy to put them together for you new wave / minimal synth lovers to enjoy them all today! Better late to the party than not at all!