Punk Yacht Club's silly sailors

Punk Yacht Club happened after Connecticut-raised Jesse Goodwick and ex-Bostonian Greg Marsh moved out here from the East Coast.

For a while, Goodwick had a real job that used his mechanical engineering degree. “Then I started my own promotional company. I screen T-shirts and embroider hats. I eventually decided I wanted to play punk rock again.”

They hooked up with homegrown drummer Eric Mireles (ex–The Thinkers, Eddie & the Wednesdays, 3 Two 1). “Eric is angry and loud and fast. He screams like a motherfucker,” says Goodwick.

The name Punk Yacht Club? “We liked the juxtaposition: there were plenty of yachts, water everywhere, and plenty of rich people. Yet there are still plenty of people who grew up with punk rock.... We wanted the goofball approach of the Bloodhound Gang or Blink-182.”

Goodwick admits his band is on the opposite end of the punk-rock spectrum: no straight-edginess or mosh pits. “I was a teenaged, mohawked skater kid. Ten years ago I would have been up there, like, ‘I’m a rock star…I’m gonna fuck all these girls tonight.’ We all have punk rock at heart. But now we have things like jobs and families.”

Goodwick and his mates wear admiral jackets and have pirate props onstage.

“I see younger kids wearing Sex Pistols denim jackets, yet they have no idea what it was like in the ’70s or ’80s.” Besides, he suggests his obviously campy band is supposed to be fun and silly.

The serious/just kidding attitude with PYC is apparent on their first EP, released last month. “We did it at Doubletime Studios with [owner/producer] Jeff Forrest.... We asked him what he thought of our demos. He said, ‘I’ve heard a lot of songs and these are some more.’ That’s exactly what we named the EP.”

Goodwick says the band’s image nets more than the band. “When we play a dive bar we’ll make maybe $100, but we’ll make more from merch sales. This retailer I work with in Coronado called Island Surf carried our Punk Yacht Club logo T-shirts. He sold, like, 30. All except the extra-smalls.”