What's up with US Maple?

pppp

that band could really piss people off in the early days. i remember seeing them for the first time on a skin graft package tour with you fantastic, mount shasta (?), collosamite...i didn't quite know what to think but i somehow was drawn to it...

just make your bedroom goddamn great

i didn't really like purple on time when it came out but now i'm loving it.

i was listening to acre thrills through my ps3 (because i don't have a cd player in my living room right now) with the visualizer on and it was like a slideshow of planets and stars and space, it was hilarious

For all that people dismissed Al Johnson as the most disposable member, I was amazed by how much I missed him when I finally heard the Singer album.

al disposable??? heresy.

btw, ritman's new thing, D. Rider, is WAAAAAAAAY better than singer

i bought the d. rider album, can't really get into it for some reason :/ the vinyl/packaging is awesomely obnoxious though, it's like turquoise and neon orange

isn't there another project, not singer or d. rider, but a group w/the other USM guitar player? i can't recall the name of it

Miracle Condition.

I really like that Singer album, but maybe I am just willing to cut ex-US Maple guys (and Robert AA Lowe) a decent bit of slack. If anyone has the cd and too much free time, take the insert with the linoleum floor on it, place it over the floorboards on the back of the jewelcase and then stand up the cd booklet on it. It forms...some kinda room. As rad as a Mad Fold-in.

I went through a period of trying to describe this band to people who hadn't heard them.

I just realized that there is a former member of US Maple (about which I know absolutely nothing) in one of my favorite my local synth groups. Huh.

US Maple is so good, though super-strange. What is the synth group btw?

This one is great and kinda rocks traditionally for them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHepUIx9tKo

Dhalgren -- lots of stuff on bandcamp, and I can recommend it without reservation.
They're doing a new recording thing on Sundays.

Thanks, always interested in what the U.S. Maple folks are doing, though I didn't love Singer or D. Rider as much as I wanted to.

Flashbacks! Al Johnson and Mark Shippy were originally in Shorty, a band on the Skin Graft label. They were the first band I saw at the Empty Bottle after they relocated on Halloween night, 1993. I had mutual friends with Pat Samson and Todd Rittman, who were in Mercury Players. I loved that band, but they didn't really take off. I used to have a 7" of theirs but I can't seem to find those records. Another old acquaintance dated one of them for a long time during U.S. Maple years, but I haven't heard anything lately other than Dhalgren, indeed a quality synth band.

Once saw US Maple (who my wife can't stand) play the U of C's tiny WHPK studio. She really had to go to the bathroom but was afraid to walk around the band-in-progress for fear of collateral Al damage.

Are all of their songs that groovy? What else should I listen to?

This is my jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDZucpcvc_w&feature=related

dead rider (or d.rider) is really good

I like groovy/messy songs with lyrics that are totally unintelligible or just nonsense repeated over and over and over -- will check it out! I feel like I've heard of this band forever but their name was so boring that I never checked them out. My loss!

...until today

I like groovy/messy songs with lyrics that are totally unintelligible or just nonsense repeated over and over and over

Me too!

u.s. maple is the greatest for realz

sang phat editor is a great, underappreciated album

One of my favorite bands and a hugely important band to me personally. I saw them several times and I cherish every one of those shows.

The greatest.

local noise band Tips for Twat remind me of them a little bit, though slower and shaggier

by local i mean mpls for those at home.

i mean, two detuned-ass guitars, it's not rocket science i guess

Ooh Shorty! I have a 7", "Fresh Breath" I think? Did they make an album?

La Lechera, if you like one or two U.S. Maple songs you will probably like them all. The album "Acre Thrills" is a good starting point, but people differ on which is their favorite. "Sand Phat Editor" is also great.

I have liked two so far, so I'll look around for that album. What a pleasant surprise in a day full of not-pleasant not-surprises.

my take:

Acre Thrills is the best starting point IMO
Sang Phat Editor & Talker are probably the most "US Maple" albums of their discography, Talker is particular is them taking their sort of bizarre weird quiet disjointed approach to its extremes
Long Hair in Three Stages is great, but def feels "early", they haven't quite shed the late 80s touch&go type stuff, but i think it's awesome
Purple On Time - they changed drummers and came back with a more straightforward "rock" (using straightforward and rock only in relation to their earlier stuff), it felt like a betrayal to me at the time but now i love it and right now it's probably my favorite and i wish they would have continued as a band

Yes to Acre Thrills. Start there for sure.

Mark Shippy stuck a guitar pick to my sweaty forehead while they were playing. Rad night.

haha awesome.

they were something live! man...

Really sad that I never saw this band live. Somehow they just never came near me at the right time. I can only imagine what it was like for people in the audience who didn't know what was coming.

didn't they open for pavement at some point? i can't even.

there's also something about the way he speaks in interviews that makes me think it's partly mental illness that's at play. I almost wonder if he avoids reading because of how strongly it affects him.

― michael bolton's reckless daughter (Hurting 2), Thursday, October 18, 2012 3:53 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol if so...wow....i only saw them on skin graft tours w/likeminded bands and labelmates mostly

hahaha! that's xposted from neil young thread!

goodnatured lols!

haha C&P errors very much in character i guess

i actually saw US Maple twice! but i never quite "got" them. think i should give it another go.

didn't they open for pavement at some point? i can't even.

they did, and it was very VERY funny

one of the only times I've seen a band in a huge venue (the Fillmore) aggressively antagonize the audience, who were booing and throwing shit

yeah i saw them alienate crowds that were waaay more into weirder/noisier shit than pavement.....i've given maple a whole lot of thought and i think the thing with them was the dichotomy of playing this sort of obscure/skewed music that never really let you get your footing juxataposed with a live persona that was kind of in your face and flashy, almost rockstar like in a way that you'd think they were playing this really anthemic stuff....

yeah that was what was so funny - guitarist was windmilling and jump-kicking all over the place like he was playing "Baba O'Riley" but the actual music couldn't have been further away from that

i read an interview with Al Johnson once in Skyscraper and he said his ideal model for live performance was a Judas Priest concert he went to as a young kid w/an older sibling or some older kid, he recalled being really scared by the whole thing, all the weird heshers and leather and stuff...he said he felt like rock concerts should be like that

people should devote more time talking about how good a frontman al johnson is

The thing that was most astounding about their live performance was how faithfully they replicated the off-kilter arrangements from the albums. Even the stuff that sounded pretty much improvised.

Yeah, I interviewed Al once, and not only was he a really nice guy, he affirmed that the stuff was all pretty much composed and arranged. Storm & Stress was another one of those sorts of bands.

(Obv. Storm & Stress dude went on to Battles)

Ohhh, I didn't know that. I dug S&S.

man i kinda forgot about storm & stress, i had one CD by them that was amazing....

i remember one time i saw maple Al had this captain and tenille type hat on and a yellow shirt that said "banned in boston"

i had a storm and stress lp that was either clear or the sleeve was clear or something. the packaging was amazing.

"improvised-sounding" rock is such a 90s thing i wish hadn't gone away.

jesus lizard dudes got into free jazz and shit got real

strongo - check out hasps (new band, 2/3rd of nu-skin graft band gay beast)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrcPXMMtfso

I thanked Al after a show and he gave me a long creepy hug and whispered in my ear "ohreallythankyoumanIwasn'tsurehowitwent" and so on until I was blushing, it was awesome.

m@tt that is pretty awesome.

do you know coptic light? they only put out one lp and might be too jammy for you but it's pretty tight.

no! but i googled and this is pretty raging!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ABA0aWouQ

yeah i would seriously recommend seeking that lp out. it's definitely "post-don cab" but they go much further out.

This is all record collector-y, but I liked the thematic thing that Maple did with their artwork. Still kind of want to get the metal jacket version of the first album, though I don't really do things like that anymore. The lyric sheet for Talker (high school theme) printed on 3-hole-punch paper like a corrected homework assignment was really cute. It's kind of amazing how much thought went into the presentation and music that then often got dismissed as random noise and grunting.

I got to see them live once, and it was fun to see them duplicate the album stuff (and the stage moves were great) but I don't know that they were better live than on album, based on that one show. Their records sound really great. I think I first heard Sang Phat, and didn't like it. Was drawn in by Talker and Acre, which go well together. The "Stuck" video makes me wish they'd made more videos...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOr_L5BebS0

agreed, i believe the day-glo camo on the cover was about the idea of making vietnam "glamourous", that's why they were in GI gear on the postcard that was inserted into the album cover...have that framed actually

there's footage on youtube that i think was supposed to be for some US Maple documentary film that i don't think got finished or released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKfNIN-1g3I&feature=relmfu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKfNIN-1g3I

I think they're still working on that, they just don't have they money to complete the editing, etc. Maybe they should do a Kickstarter or something.

i had a storm and stress lp that was either clear or the sleeve was clear or something. the packaging was amazing.

That's their second one, I got a CD of it after reading a review in a Sunday newspaper (if you can believe that). Probably the first really 'avant' thing I got into via alt rock and I still hum the first track in my head from time to time. I like it much more than the first, which is less tight, more meandering.

I wish I'd seen them, but at least there's youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTr9fuz9jgk

Pretty much been on a U.S. Maple bender since getting on board with the thread revival. Really wish there was more guitar playing like this in the world (I am older now and can appreciate that they don't get very loud, or go for real histrionics, just totally unique and engaging parts). Makes me want to be in a two guitar band.

That part in "Ma, Digital" where the guitars decide to go into a unison riff and actually "rock" is so great, though really it is all great. Love Al on that song.

Also, wanna say that the Coptic Light song posted above is great! Wish I had given that record more time when it came out, it came to the radio station I was DJing at but for some reason I just didn't connect with it. Gonna track that down for sure.

Oddly enough, both Coptic Light and Storm & Stress have the same drummer, Kevin Shea, who is really talented. Plays in Talibam! and a bunch of other stuff now.

was never huge into this band at the time but had acre thrills and talker, both of which i was intrigued by. i think i'd be more into them now. there's a bunch of good live footage on youtube.

i bought talker, 69 love songs, and dongs of sevotion on the same trip to chapel hill, without really knowing anything about any of them

For those who aren't that familiar with U.S. Maple, another fun fact is that Al Johnson, the singer, has one of the cameos in the movie "Hi Fidelity". He plays the super nerdy guy who comes in looking to buy the Captain Beefheart record:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOwjVVSNOtY

I can only imagine how "Talker" sounded when included in a batch with "69 Love Songs" and "Dongs of Sevotion".

Sang Phat was my first introduction to the band-- a grad student from Knoxville-- and I didn't like it. Later that week another friend told me to get Talker and that did it.

I hadn't seen "Hi Fidelity" but that clip is funny

"i've given maple a whole lot of thought and i think the thing with them was the dichotomy of playing this sort of obscure/skewed music that never really let you get your footing juxataposed with a live persona that was kind of in your face and flashy, almost rockstar like in a way that you'd think they were playing this really anthemic stuff....

― i dox in yellow gox dox socks (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, October 18, 2012 5:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink"

I think this is a real key component of this band, they were playing strange/weird music but acted like they were playing Jesus Lizard cock-rock and it managed to piss off noise heads and rock dudes in equal measure. They legit made people mad in a way other more explicitly confrontational bands never did.

I always loved that their shows, were just that, shows, you got it and loved it or you didn't and hated it but they didn't seem to care at all and weren't going to give you any hand-holds one way or other.

Conceptually, I can't think of a more important band in shaping my own approach to music. Number one with a bullet.

this is my fave live clip so far, there's some real attitude going on here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LfdQQ0rbr8&feature=related

I always called them Cubist rock.

Also, just pat oursevles on the back, upper mississippi sh@kedown and I spent so much time in early twenties listening and seeing this band and people were constantly like "ugh US Maple is awful!" but we were always: one day this band is going to be seen as so ahead of their time and influential.

xpost (never thought the U.S. Maple thread would be moving too quickly for me to keep up with!)

Yeah, that's a pretty solid description.

ugh this totally makes me want to start a new band

That kind of transgressive approach you're describing, chr1s, in my experience, it doesn't do well in hometowns but it exports well

Yeah, I have been playing guitar a lot and for the first time in a long time feel like a band could be a good idea.

Wish I had known dudes that were into U.S. Maple earlier than I did. I got into them right as things were winding down for them.

My enjoyment of stuff like US Maple has actually made it really hard for me to learn guitar. I'm trying to learn fundamentals, but in the back of my mind I'm always like " ... or I could just play it like this."

I think it was a review of Acre Thrills in SPIN, of all things, that initially piqued my curiosity (and subsequently opened the door to the wonderland that is Skin Graft).

i think that audiences that were into US underground rock then were really accepting of noise or dissonance and fucked up vocals and confrontation as long as it ROCKED in a fairly conventional manner....Maple denied you the right to rock out or pump your fist, which is why i think they could really irritate ppl

the wonderland that is Skin Graft

When I was 19 I asked local dude in an improv outfit and a math-metal band for some music recommendations (or maybe he just felt moved to give me them) and he insisted I rush out and buy some US Maple. I couldn't find their albums, but I did find the Camp Skin Graft label comp, and wow that opened up a lot of things.

(eventually I found some US Maple albums and even more eventually I came to love them instead of just scratching my head at them)

Huh I wonder if there's a Skin Graft S/D thread
Nope

btw i just discovered the camp skin graft comp is on spotify!

Another killer version of La Click

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT0uhGIraGw

xp That is awesome and recommended listening but you cannot spotify the FREE STICKERS

(tries to resist the urge to throw the desk over and growl SKELETON KING at all my coworkers)

i think that audiences that were into US underground rock then were really accepting of noise or dissonance and fucked up vocals and confrontation as long as it ROCKED in a fairly conventional manner....Maple denied you the right to rock out or pump your fist, which is why i think they could really irritate ppl

Yeah, the 90s had so many bands pushing the "spazzy", noisy, dissonant, and heavy angles, but U.S. Maple didn't really play ball fully with any of the usual moves, other than the dissonance usually existing in their songs. Plus, Al Johnson just really sold those songs in such unusual ways. I can't imagine any other singer working the magic that guy did on those songs.

At least one of the S&S guys found US Maple very sketchy, as in "they're biting our stuff! Of all the stuff to bite!"

(tries to resist the urge to throw the desk over and growl SKELETON KING at all my coworkers)

― still small voice of clam (a passing spacecadet), Friday, 19 October 2012 15:31 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hahaha this will be my favourite ilx post of today just fyi

Ehhhh...I don't really think US Maple and S&S were all that similar, really. Avant rock is a big playing field.

i think that audiences that were into US underground rock then were really accepting of noise or dissonance and fucked up vocals and confrontation as long as it ROCKED in a fairly conventional manner....Maple denied you the right to rock out or pump your fist, which is why i think they could really irritate ppl

― i dox in yellow gox dox socks (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 19 October 2012 15:20 (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also my distance from it notwithstanding, this seems really true and likely a followon from the 80s also, in that I have had cause to think/read about Sun City Girls quite a bit lately and much the same seems to be said of their shows

x-post I think the S&Ser in question was more annoyed that his particular stuff was being bitten, to be honest, but it was an out-of-character remark by a very nice non-competitive person so I won't be more specific.

W/r/t S&S: I had seen U.S. Maple at least twice before I even heard of Storm & Stress who I thought were good...and there are similarities but Storm&Stress were a much more "conventional" experimental band (haha), esp live.

also Shorty wasn't exactly Superchunk either

Yeah, I have a really hard time imagining that the players in U.S. Maple were looking towards Storm & Stress (or Don Caballero or whatever band folks from Storm & Stress were in before) for inspiration or ideas. Seems pretty clearly to be an extension of Beefheart rather than any other bands around at the time. Guys seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do and it didn't seem to have anything to do with other players/bands around at the time (to me at least).

Seems like maybe someone from Storm & Stress wanted more recognition for their playing style.

Generally speaking, I think US Maple was a refinement of what I wanted from Shudder To Think.

ha that's weird

Could maybe lob a "this sounds like Polvo" comment at this more than anything:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYf3g4i91fg

Not that I think US Maple and Shudder To Think sound a bit alike. I just really dig the idea of catchy riff rock thrown into a blender.

i can hear some definitely hear some similarities between the guitar playing in u.s. maple and in don cab but it's more with "what burns never returns"-era don cab, and USM already had a couple of albums out by that point. just seems like contemporaries coming up with some similar ideas based on similar inspirations at the same time, and aside from the guitars the bands are so different.

didn't realize m. gira produced talker

The comment was made in the summer of 1998.

...and I could see his point at the Empty Bottle gig where it was uttered more than in the 1997 video, so let the penny drop on the cognoscenti.

agree w n/a - there were tons of bands kind of mining different veins of the same kind of thing at that time...

also, no disrespect to storm & stress, but maple had a lot of skin graft bands they toured with and were sort of a likeminded community with that they probably were influenced by

grandavis is right, I've always felt a Polvo connection w/Long Hair.

S&S I always assumed were part of the Joan of Arc crew

The only time I saw these guys live I had miscalculated and was halfway between drunk and really drunk :(

Just went and listened to some Storm & Stress for the first time in a long time. Obviously it had to be Ian Williams that was concerned about the musical biting, and I can see where he might see some of his phrasing present in U.S. Maple, but really not much. The context is so different, and S&S really does sound more like Joan of Arc and other "post-rock"-y things than the mutated rock of U.S. Maple.

Sorry, not really that concerned and don't wanna bash S&S, just thought it was silly and wanted to explore it a bit. I think S&S is pretty cool actaully, but just can't imagine why a dude in that band thought U.S. Maple was "sketchy" in re biting their shit. They weren't exactly headlining big venues or selling records, you know?

Them being a trio and me feeling like a jerk for having said too much, I will neither confirm nor deny yer speculation.

in any case, this being a us maple thread i think that any reasonable person can agree they definitely carved out a unique niche in the world of mid-90s post pigfuck rock

Hey, sorry, not looking for confirmation at all. Just an obvious assumption. Wouldn't hold that kinda thing against anyone, its a natural thing to do (i.e., compare your playing to other players).

fwiw US Maple was around before Storm & Stress.

I saw S&S in a record store way back, I think touring on their first record. They were awesome, and especially the drummer. They were playing in front of the store's front window and he turned around and dragged his drum stick across the glass mid-song, making this piercing squeal. It was terrific.

Never saw US Maple live but really wish I did. I love Talker to death.

All this talk about 90s avant-rock/pigfuck/post-pigfuck bands is making me nostalgic. Does anyone remember The Cranium? I haven't heard them in a zillion years but in my mind I lump them in with this wave of bands. Did not realize until doing a bit of googling last night that two guys from The Cranium started Gang Gang Dance.

listening to camp skin graft!

lake of dracula y'all!

yona kit!

you fantastic!

Yeah, and the other half of The Cranium went on to form Blood Lines with two girls who themselves would go on to form Telepathe. Blood Lines were for a while my favourite live act, never saw The Cranium though

i want a Now Wave t-shirt

http://s3.amazonaws.com/delivery.midheaven.com/c/119591/images/6472166050650_main.jpg

strangulated beatoffs - "satan's pool party"

^^band name & title almost like a high level parody of a "transgressive" underground band from a book

My favorite Skin Graft release - Dazzling Killmen's "In the Face of Collapse". Not as goofy/spazzy as some of the other stuff on the label - much angrier - but still really incredible. Darin Gray, the bass player, was in Yona Kit and (I think) You Fantastic and Brise Glace too. And I think the drummer went on to play with the Mars Volta for a while. And of course Nick Sakes did Collasamite afterward.

More Skin Graft - Melt Banana! Mt. Shasta! Such a weird and wonderful label. And Shorty did have a full length (asked above), also on Skin Graft. I remember the promo materials back then, claiming someone in the band was Kevin Costner's brother. Never did know if that was actually true or just some bizarre joke.

yep al 's there on the lake of drac a'hootin just like we needs him to.
only time i saw storm and stress williams did some superb joke-free stand-up comic act.
maybe he was referring to that. shea was awesome as always - the guy is a legend.
check starfuckers' "infrantumi" - similarly maplesque in disjointed unswung beats, but al's croon/howl replaced w/ whispered italian situationist psychosexual diatribes. neet-o. altho no-opry/blues angle
somehow some o pumice rubs my maple bone, but not always. tension release. god nose i luvs me some derrick baileys, but if onlys he#d fucked his own idea and wanted to rock for 10 secs a piece once in a while.
never really heard the captain in maple. love the captain, grew up with him, he is my "jungle book", still love it, but don't really get that.

nick is a friend, and actually did the great band Sicbay for years after colossamite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wA1U0clWNg

Love how two of the most active ilm threads are on Taylor Swift and US Maple.

I listened to Acre Thrills. My favorite song iirc was Open a Rose.

FWIW, I think "Open a Rose" is the most initially appealing because of that coherent drumbeat, but not *necessarily* the best, though again nothing wrong with it. Talker has a similar one: Apollo Don't You Crust if memory serves, but I might be wrong.

i liked the whole thing -- but that was the song where i looked to see what the title was. the rest of the time was trying to think of how i would describe it and all i could think of was "watery"

open a rose is the only track that clicked w/any [non-fans] i've played acre thrills for.. it's also the initial 'standout' track, and the one that wore thin the quickest for me. "total fruit warning" is a gem, w/those vocal-sounding, slide-y runs up the guitar neck during the releases/climax-moments.

talker was a revelation for me, because i'd been immersed in free-form guitar stuff, and then to hear those sorts of sounds arranged into "song" forms, i was sold. and "running from kabob" was easy, welcoming, with its regular rhythm.

haha i feel like a proper noob so the early 90s vibes are full and complete

i admit i rocked the shit out of 'open a rose' though, when i got the album. i was a shuttle driver, and it sounded great.

I have to say I feel like a US Maple lovefest happens every year and anything I could say right now, I'd have said it twice before. If anybody knows these guys please ask them to have an annual BBQ or something I would travel to see them play again and/or just sit around and listen to their records.

That is, a US Maple lovefest happens on ILM every year and that's totally OK

i would pay to sit around and drink beer w/al johnson

I'm sure he would accept your money.

strangulated beatoffs - "satan's pool party"

^^band name & title almost like a high level parody of a "transgressive" underground band from a book

― i dox in yellow gox dox socks (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, October 19, 2012 3:13 PM (1 hour ago)

that was stan seitrich's whole deal, after leaving drunks w/ guns he released a bunch of 7"s that were covers of drunks w/ guns songs with a 12 year old girl doing the vocals

feel like there are tons of bands that work the US maple angle, obv they were pretty important to the PVD noiserock scene

monorchid, get hustle, arab on radar were doing similar things at the time but maybe my memory's playing tricks on me

i don't really see the monorchid/u.s. maple connection at all

feel like all the monorchid axis stuff is kinda fucked garage rock at core tho

arab on radar are a lot more macho than maple

ha machoness is never something I associate w/ AOR

Arab On Radar was the only one of those bands who sounded even sorta like US Maple.

I like to imagine that Beefheart (and Pere Ubu) is somehow responsible for all of this. That thought brings me joy.

Would pledge loads via Kickstarter to see that documentary finished.

Also, has anyone ever seen Bob Odenkirk and Al Johnson in the same room?

Hey, Ian Williams was in High Fidelity too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppJAkN4m9bY

wow al johnson totally ripped off his acting

Being a midwestern dude, I saw bunches of those Skin Graft/Quarterstick/Thrill Jockey/Touch & Go bands over the 90s etc. but US Maple was a band I never could take a liking to at all. I saw them twice and both times wanted either crawl out of my skin or get an axe handle and flip out. It was just way too annoying, made The Cows seem like a good time, easy listening band. I saw Shorty even a couple times and kind of dug them, but US Maple I couldn't get at all.

I got the time I saw Royal Trux too which I also found to be incredibly out of whack annoying live, but eventually I did hear a record and realize "oh THAT's what they were trying to do."

Dazzling Killmen- unbelievable musicians, records not as good as live.
Cheer Accident- tunes & band that could turn on a dime...very cool.
Mt. Shasta- saw them at same gig with Shorty and Bloomington band Pencil (who were on Grass records w/ Brainiac before t&g)

nick of dazzling killmen/colossamite has a new band called Xaddax, good stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEPqGpnfJZ0

I connected with an old acquaintance, Scott, for the first time in about 18 years. He recorded what was supposed to be the first Mercury Players album, Damn. I'm hoping I can convince one of the members to Bandcamp that sucker.

Mark Shippy plays in a number of projects, including a band called Miracle Condition along with original Maple (and Mercury Players) drummer Pat Samson. They've put out 68 Degrees mini album in 2009, and a self-titled full-length in 2010. Some great noise/psych/shoegaze. They're playing the Empty Bottle (w/ Grimble Grumble & Whales, $8) on November 15th!

http://miraclecondition.bandcamp.com/

Todd Rittmann has a band called Dead Rider (formerly D. Rider) who are exceptional. Scott said the latest album is one of his all-time favorites. I'm picking up a copy after work! I can't believe I slept on that. Steve Albini didn't -- they opened for Shellac in August, and they are playing at the Shellac-hosted All Tomorrow's Parties at Camber Sands Holiday Camp, UK, Nov 30-Dec 2!

Dead Rider - The Raw Dents (Tizona, 2011)
http://cockasnook.bandcamp.com/track/mothers-meat
http://deadrider.us

Oh, and Al Johnson is the only one not currently active in music. He is now living in my old hometown, Dubuque, IA, havin' a family.

Wonder what it will be like when the kids see videos of his old band.

man, what's there to do in dubuque i wonder

Not be in a band for one

i bet the dubuque not being in a band scene is pretty vibrant, yeah

My friend's parents live there, he could give me some ideas. I think it's mostly mischief, and avoiding East Dubuque.

When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, Dubuque was an extremely depressed industrial town, with massive layoffs from the meat packing plant and John Deere. One passtime I had was throwing railroad spikes at rats down by the Corner Tavern ;) I liked to call it Satan's Taint. It's cleaned up a lot the past decade, given the gambling casinos, new convention center, a winery at the former location of the Star Brewery (where parts of Take This Job and Shove It were filmed, along with F.I.S.T. with Sly Stallone, in which my gramps was an extra). It's also sort of a Midwest tourist destination along with Galena and House On The Rock (which is featured in a great scene in Gaiman's American Gods) with riveting features like the bluffs overlooking Lock & Dam #11, 4th St. Elevator and Julien Dubuque's grave. There's actually a bar that hosts some good touring bands lately called Off Minor at 1689 Elm St.

For some reason, Dubuque is regularly referenced in books, movies and TV, as some sort of mythical Midwestern city that nobody on the coasts have ever been to. It was just mentioned in Elementary last week, the Sherlock Holmes show with Johnny Lee Miller & Lucy Liu.

Early Mercury Players tracks. Hope it works, I can't test it here.
http://chestfirst.blogspot.com/2010/01/mercury-players-5-songs.html

That makes me wistful for my industrial midwestern adolescence.

xpost. That Dead Rider album is pretty great, and thanks for the heads-up. Interesting because you can hear bits and pieces of US Maple, but it comes off very much as its own thing. The next-to-last track morphs into something that sounds very Bowie (Low/Lodger) that has me hitting repeat a lot.

Ok I have a new favorite -- Total Fruit Warning.

aw y'know that's my #1 mapes track too!
i'd recommend the arto lindsay trio's "aggregates 1- 26" to anyone who hasn't heard it & wants maple-wise ticklage. the dry cubist DNA thing gets a bit more fluid, but it's still scratchy / fractured & arto's growly singing voice is clowny no-wave blues-geek hilarity.

"whoopee invader" off of purple on time. is another fave. about their live performance, i was surprised at the frequency of rittman's secondary vocals, and how i mistook them for al johnson's vocals on their albums.

Man, "Whoopee Invader" is so good. Biggest plus of this thread revive is that I am relistening to Purple On Time for the first time in a long time and it is so cool. It's like their classic rock/glam record, if that makes sense.

Thanks, always interested in what the U.S. Maple folks are doing, though I didn't love Singer or D. Rider as much as I wanted to.

― grandavis, Thursday, October 18, 2012 12:18 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this Invisible Things record is amazing -- sadly only three tracks from it are up on bandcamp: http://invisiblethings.bandcamp.com/

Whoa, thanks crüt. More Mark Shippy! Can't listen right now but looking forward to it.

Arto Lindsay album (with Melvin Gibbs and Dougie Bowne?) is awesome.

All my posts today are basically "this is on Spotify" but anyway, Invisible Things is on Spotify...

Cool interview with Al Johnson here.

I’m fascinated with the degradation of language; I am also disgusted by it. Languishing linguistics, slurring, mispronunciations, street-slang, street-code, conversations one can and cannot make out. I love the mumbled death. This is where I pulled from. I continue to do so

La Lechera, is this your favorite band yet?

I can totally tell from their song titles that he's like that. I love the mumbled death.

<3

wow awesome interview....thanks!

I remember two things: chasing a cockroach while eating a Snickers bar outside the venue before the show and then tumbling off the stage in beautiful slow motion.

He has an impeccable ear for detail, that's for sure.

poor Adam Vida was on clean-up crew that night
;_;

magic job!

Hell yeah. One of the few U.S. Maple songs you can say has a killer groove. Really fun walking down a city street listening to U.S. Maple, especially songs like "Magic Job".

I know I can't resist spinning some classic Al Johnson moves when I do that

Really sad that I did not see this band live. Which I already said upthread. But shit, I wish I had seen this band!

More accounts of the Pavement tour would be great

Seconded. I assume that at least someone in Pavement was a fan, as otherwise that would have been crazy.

So I was reading about larva trapped in amber that was discovered in Spain that carries trash to camouflage itself, and the phrase "dense trash packet" reminded me of US Maple. Can I be an official fan now?

good mental association imo

"Dense Trash Packet" would certainly make a good U.S. Maple song title, so yes, you are an official fan!

For some reason I just remembered the MC Paul Barman line, ”I almost threw up when I saw you at US Maple”

Some recent Al in Dubuque:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14LtqVbxL-Q&feature=youtu.be

wow thanks for sharing. that's the most i've ever heard Al speak.

It's pretty cool for sure, interesting mix of approaches!

also reading maple lyrics, crazy!

Yeah, I loved that bit. So weird without the music. I have never had to memorize lyrics, but I imagine that I would need to remind myself of a bunch of them (or read them) if I did this kind of thing.

First album is getting reissued on vinyl w/metal sleeve and the bonus track. Nice.

original is super expensive now so that's cool

oh word? pretty sure both mrs. a & I have our copies from our chicago days

http://www.discogs.com/buy/Vinyl/US-Maple-Long-Hair-In-Three-Stages/22249499?ev=bp_titl

whoa

It's time to go down the U.S. Maple listening hole again. This is awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JarSldMzLfo

i was just wondering what al johnson was up to last week, and i found no answers. i was going to revive this thread but i forgot!

Huh, embed didn't work for me, but that is a full set from Baltimore in 1997. Pretty good audio and the band seems "on", though I never got to see them personally. Whoever posted the video claims the band is in good form, and it sure seems like it to me. Best band.

oddly enough, i just got this email
TODD RITTMANN'S DEAD RIDER SIGNS TO DRAG CITY;
NEW ALBUM, CHILLS ON GLASS, OUT MARCH 18TH!
http://youtu.be/TWNCaRAuMH4
Dead Rider's third ride, Chills On Glass, is as distinct from the second time around as The Raw Dents was from their debut, Mother of Curses. The goal for Dead Rider, always: super-heavy, super-driving, more 'up' moments than ever before. An album experience; listening, you're put through some changes. Illusions radiating out from the real. You're rocked into submission, but asked to participate on the listening level. Rebuilt, regrooved, with favorable upgrades. Chills On Glass moves forward in this tradition, juxtaposing high and low values - serious playing, danceablity, controlled-outcomes experimentation, don't-give-a-f**k rad-itude. Shocks don't surprise the band - it was the effect they were looking for, just what the song needed. All the sounds in the songs - the shouts, croons and whispers - draw you into the fantasy of Dead Rider, the spectacle of a night on the town, gliding through the darkness while thrust up, out of the limousine's sunroof. Scribble, confetti and other sonic details rain down like snow, providing an exquisite dressing for thick and thrashing rhythms and expertly maneuvered tight corners. Vocal textures smooth and sandy rub together and ignite, blowing glass as you head your body through the labyrinth. Rhythm is king in Dead Rider, but melodies, changes and production carry the crest in this processional.

Self-recorded, produced and mastered, Dead Rider leave no stylistic stone unturned in their restless path and no knob on the board untwisted in their search for the mixe parfait. This is composition that uses improvisation as an element within a larger structure - the ultimate streamlining of production, where songs are processed on several levels, mirroring and flashing their meanings through tactics and layers, backgrounded by a panaroma of yawning, silent, benevolent and black velvet.

Todd Rittmann, infamous from his daze in U.S. Maple, is a guitar warrior with intensive craft at his fingertips. For the past five years, he's been furthering his reputation by doing further damage with his instrument and others, reconfiguring sonic relationships, imagining the sound of a rock band reshaped into a gleaming spectacle, and by spreading the carnage wide with Dead Rider, comprised of Matthew Espy (drums, conga, percussion), Andrea Faught (synth, piano, trumpet, trombone, vocals), Thymme Jones (synth, trumpet, vocals) and Rittmann (vocals, guitar, drums). Lurching from pole to pole, pausing mid-stop, leaping and bursting into a double-twist and then resolving into a sweet glide; the dust they kick up in this fracas glitters gold, spicing the recipe with elevated powders of perception, deflecting metallically, hip-hoptically, free and jazzy, operatic, electronic, flashing like squad-car rollers.

Scroll up the thread for a bit. There is some recent Al posted there. He is on twitter, and goes on bouts of posting but has been pretty quiet recently.

does he really live in iowa?

Yes.

woah this is weird...for some reason I chose to wear my U.S. Maple t-shirt to work today for the first time in ages!

somewhere in iowa al johnson is drumming his fingers together and hissing yessssssssss

It's cause you're a champ UMS, but also weird as hell. I jumped on this cause of a facebook post by Marc Masters, who'd "shared" it via Mark Shippy. This is the world we live in ....

i just felt a gravitational pull because i found a book of sentences that i thought al johnson would appreciate

Purple On Time isnt my favorite but to me its the sound of a band with a lot more gas left in them

Maybe....maybe not.

La Lechera, have you looked at any actual U.S. Maple lyrics on the printed page? I know that Acre Thrills at the very least has them printed out, but maybe all the records do (can't remember, lost copies of several of these on CD some time ago). They are amazing.

Man I would love for this band to put anything out again just so that maybe I would get to see them live. Or they can just tour without making a record and play whatever the hell they want. I just wish I had caught them.

No, I don't have any of the actual releases. I bet they are exquisite!

Why do people still act like Al is in some mysterious no-man's land? As discussed upthread, he lives in Dubuque. I mentioned before how it was a post-industrial economically depressed hell-hole when I grew up there, but 26 years later it's much better, ranked 7th and 3rd recently for economic and job growth. It has four good hospitals and outpatient clinics, four colleges/universities, three seminary schools, three large high schools, a newish casino and convention center, winery and an assload of bars and churches, ha ha. The latest references to it in movies, books and TV to represent an obscure place vaguely somewhere in the Midwest, were Elementary and Thomas Pynchon's Bleeding Edge. Perhaps because it stands out from most boring Midwestern cities as one of the oldest cities, coming from one of the original French settlements in the 1670s which was then controlled by the Spanish after the Seven Year's War, and permanently settled by Julien Dubuque from Quebec, who married a member of the Fox tribe and mined lead. By 1860 it was one of the 100 largest urban areas in the U.S. It's always been a tourist attraction, overlooking the Mississippi where IA intersects with WI and IL, and steep bluffs and hills that rival San Francisco. Another random fact, in 2011 it was sited as one of the 10 smartest cities on the planet by Fast Company magazine. Dubuque was the only city from the western hemisphere on the list.

Like many other people I know, Al was probably drawn there in the past 10 years for job opportunities and good schools for raising kids. Perhaps if more minor avant music celebrities move there to raise their brats Dubuque will be recognized as "cool," ha ha ha.

Anyway, stoked for the new Dead Rider, look forward to seeing them live this year.

I just wondered if he still lived there -- no hard feelings! I grew up in the pit of the industrial midwest, I know the feeling :)

La Lechera, in re the lyics being exquisite, they are. Al rules, as is stated over and over in this thread.

One of a number of bands I saw live at a time when I didn't know I would later think "I would kill to see that again"

I am excited for the new Dead Rider, they were fantastic when I saw them last year, truly great.

Funny to me how many people recognize the greatestness of US Maple now, cuz certainly not the case back in the day.

Dubuque is pretty boring.

this is very exciting

I thought it was surprising to see that Dead Rider signed to Drag City. Where were they before? I just assumed it was Drag City.

The Raw Dents was released on Tizona

Well, I guess I'll be buying a CD this year (Drag City doesn't do Spotify/Rdio).

Chills on Glass is streaming - exclusively! - on hightimes.com. Sounds pretty good so far. For sure the most US Mapley guitar I've heard in a while at the very beginning.

http://www.hightimes.com/read/exclusive-full-album-stream-dead-rider

that's kind of exactly what i expected them to do musically, so underwhelmed by my own damn fool unrealistic expectations of being totally confounded, but maaaan, is rittman's voice ever good this time around !

realllllly liking this

some neat, unusual sounds in there... vocals recall Mother Love Bone, or some sort of 90s alterna-grunge/glam... the variety of (electro) sounds has me associating it w/NIN. Needs more woody, splintered, wheezy maple.

The whole project reminds me a lot of some alternate universe David Bowie, including the vocals.

that was stan seitrich's whole deal, after leaving drunks w/ guns he released a bunch of 7"s that were covers of drunks w/ guns songs with a 12 year old girl doing the vocals

I think I heard these actually, and I wanted there to be five albums worth of it

Not into this, the sound of composed weirdness instead of effortless weirdness

that is an authenticity trope and I'm calling you on it, not that you have to like this but it sounds like a way of copping out from saying "I like my weirdos raw"

haha absolutely NOT! If you think I think of US Maple as anything but “composed” you are incorrect, you of all people know that I think of all music as equally inauthentic.

But US Maple doesn’t sound like place cards for “insert noise here”, “awkward turn of melodic events”, “flat-5! isn’t dat weird??" and it definitely is not underpinned with a boring drum-beat to click.

Ultimately I judge music on a “the mood was created” vs. “they failed to create the mood” and this music fails to create any mood other than some clean-cut guys underlining "make it weirder!” on a steno. Which ultimately I'm sure was the case with US Maple too but it didn't sound like that

ha as I was reading your response dude spoke-sang "enemy/sex-grill/peanut butter" so lol point taken

lol well yeah

The US Maple affiliation is a burden here, not an asset; removing this music from the glare of that filter, it sounds like music I like an awful lot-- Dead Science, Capillary Action, Extra Life, Skeletons, ZS, and so on-- but the crit of "sounds too composed" goes for all those bands on some level, they all sound tethered to something.

Re: the burden of a US Maple affiliation, I grew to quite like the band Singer once I started listening to it without the "ex-US Maple!" prefix

man the 6th song on this is REALLY good though

I went through a period of trying to describe this band to people who hadn't heard them.

i'm listening to US Maple for the first time (Acre Thrills) and I would describe them as Polvo fronted by Craig Wedren from Shudder to Think.

Dead Science, Capillary Action, Extra Life, Skeletons, ZS, and so on-- but the crit of "sounds too composed" goes for all those bands on some level, they all sound tethered to something

Wow, I have heard (and booked) all of these bands -- I'm trying to understand where the "too" is coming from? Why is it "too" composed?

The key phrases there though are “bands I like an awful lot”— because I do, I’ve played with and worked for most of those bands— of course I am totally nuts for Extra Life and Skeletons. And key word “sounds too composed”, that somewhere in the composing/performance process, liftoff had not been achieved, that as a listener I am still too consciously aware of compositional devices, instead of being transported by the work?

I mean, just to compare: everybody I know has had a moment of “surprise" when they hear that US Maple (or The Magic Band before them) duplicate their music from show to show, that it is composed and not improvised. Similarly whenever it’s Extra Life pushing their crazy time signatures, your ears are just like “whoa I feel off-balance and thrilled” instead of “this is in 11/8". My point is not "these bands don't cover their tracks", but that this is the crit that I'd level at some of these bands on those rare occasions when they're not being totally successful

would you feel that way if the compositions weren't as complex?

I get what you're saying -- I feel that way about a few of the bands you mention and others that is a bit related -- like sometimes it will come across as too stilted or "dorky" (iirc that was my response to seeing Cap1llary Act1on 7 yrs ago)

"dorky" otm, I like Capillary Action tho, esp. when they get breathless and ridiculous

have you heard Dead Science's cover of "Sign your name"? It is one of my favorites.

<3 yep I love it

this sounds great

US Maple is the greatest underground rock band of the last 25 years by a large margin

I think there are superficial similarities re. Johnson and Wedren but ultimately the former is pretty unlike anyone - the bizarro creepy breathy delivery, and the this was a whole process he went through for each album...everything was written out and deliberate

Did anyone mention this Maple live show yet, 'cause it's really amazing. No camera movement, but killer performance/sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JarSldMzLfo

Great video.

lol at Samson giving Rittmann hell

i forgot to ask flamboyant goon tie etc what he thought of the band Cheer Accident

La Lechera are you going to see Dead Rider at Hideout tonight?

For those who aren't that familiar with U.S. Maple, another fun fact is that Al Johnson, the singer, has one of the cameos in the movie "Hi Fidelity". He plays the super nerdy guy who comes in looking to buy the Captain Beefheart record

Having just heard this band for the first time this morning, I'm glad to read this post.

Man, I wish I could hear U.S. Maple for the first time again. A real treat (unless of course it isn't your thing and then ....)

Well, I just can't believe how much it sounds like Captain Beefheart! I like Capt Beefheart tho

Having just heard this band for the first time this morning, I'm glad to read this post.

I am totally blown away by this statement

Dominique please listen to Gira-produced "Talker" that is when they really make it new

i forgot to ask flamboyant goon tie etc what he thought of the band Cheer Accident

I only had heard the record on Skin Graft, hadn't thought about or listened to them since my early 20s, but a couple tracks got mix-taped heavily back then. Any recommendations?

I will! Yeah, I'm sure there are a million bands I haven't heard that other people take for granted as basics

La Lechera are you going to see Dead Rider at Hideout tonight?

― Immediate Follower (NA), Friday, April 11, 2014 10:33 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

NO but I would go if you would go! Surely it's not sold out right?! I've got nothing better to do, that's for sure.

Yeah I was thinking about it. Not sure if I'll have enough energy but I'll get in touch if I'm feeling adventurous.

I wonder how many albums Maple sold

@Sarah -- you know Evelyn Davis is in CA right?

Cool!! Lemme know. I'll drive!

The whole Dead Rider album is up on the Drag City SoundCloud account btw. It sounds like Tomahawk.

i feel like the beefheart comparison is way overplayed

it is, but comparisons ITT to tomahawk, polvo, craig wedren are batty balderdash.
have people these days heard music ?
USM:
DNA /pere ubu maybe.
slim whitman wrestling bobcat goldthwaite at the "derek bailey plays the fall vaudeville revue" at a push.
it's that tension / release dialogue that no-one really matches 'fore or since that makes it.
hillbilly slapstick branca cartoons
DR: scott walker gone glam no-wave. alex harvey gone waxtrax paranoid lothario.
i'm quite certain that describing these musics serves no practical purpose, but
fug me

@Sarah -- you know Evelyn Davis is in CA right?

― Dominique, Friday, April 11, 2014 10:19 AM (4 days ago)

Dude, my question to flamboyant goon tie was predicated on Evelyn praising musician Owen Pallett to high heavens

Has anyone seen Invisible Things? They're playing here this weekend.

Who are Invisible Things?

Mark Shippy and a crazy drummer http://invisiblethings.bandcamp.com

Well then yeah, you gotta go!

Oh, I listened to some of their music on bandcamp before, just didn't recognize the name. It's cool! Don't see how they would do it live, but would be interesting to see what they try to do. Plus yeah, that drummer is pretty nuts, seems like he would be fun to watch.

http://www.furious.com/perfect/usmaple2.html

This paper investigates the surprising parallels between U.S. Maple's notion of "reorganization" and Jacques Derrida's polyvalent corpus known as "deconstruction." I will focus, in particular, on how Al Johnson's vocals expand and critique the linguistic side of Derrida's theories through what Marcel Cobussen terms "deconstructions in music" (musical performances that act deconstructively on other musics).

woah that looks awesome

Cosign. Al Johnson is just amazing.

That essay is beautiful, though "Le Click" has always made me thing of NIN shreds when it comes on

i dig the enthusiasm (and at the same time i'm turned off by it) in the Ruccia essay, but wishful shoehorning abounds therein. parallels don't "exist" until they are drawn, are such parallels "surprising"? are they sufficiently investigated? (nope) what does the investigation enable? any acknowledgement of / investigation of alternative interpretations (and their "utility")? i'm sure Ruccia is an absolute sweetie, and that this was fun to research & write, but this was kinda bringing coals to Newcastle.

It's that time of year again, the BEST time of year!!! The time I remember that U.S. Maple is one of the greatest bands of all time and go on a listening spree! Fuch yeah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW-AgYj77A0

This is the best day of the year so far. U.S. Maple day needs to happen more often.

Fuck what I would give to see this band now

Yeah, I am a dope for never seeing this band live, though I would have had a brief window to do so. Still, bums me the hell out.

One of the amazing things about seeing them live was realizing how intentional even their weirdest and most shambling material was. They could replicate that sound of a band playing while tumbling down a flight of stairs so precisely.

My own ability to precisely replicate posts from two years ago is equally uncanny, it would seem.

Hah pretty much every post of mine in here is a variation of "U.S. Maple is the best".

i am still wondering what al johnson is doing, like he's off making a masterpiece and not telling me
like what is he doing aside from writing this in april of 2013?!

This Masterpiece Creature is procreating (now this should put the (B.F.R.O.) folks on their collective smarmy assess; she’s breeding and birthing on each block depositing 2 to 4 pre-owned or slightly used Chevy Cavaliers,be it the sporty sedan or the more sensible four-door. Oddly enough all Chevy Cavaliers here are born between 98 and 02,’ also born healthy with a Sanyo CD player and roomy ashtrays.

The Cavalier is the official pace car of Dubuque. The Cavalier occupies the second and third quadrant on the Dubuque family crest. She is our quixotic metal, our roboid…roboid. That is my word: roboid - I just made it up! All of you take witness for I have coined. Everywhere you look, every 50 feet or so, there’s another gooey newborn, a Chevy Cavalier-year’s 98’ through 02’

But that’s neither here nor there.

i loled at "roomy ashtrays"

Hah yeah. He was on Twitter for a moment, then he was gone. There is some live footage of him somewhere above doing a solo performance/reading.

saw Dead Rider over the weekend and they kinda reminded me of like, i dunno, El-P fronting the Minutemen? the drummer had a somewhat pronounced jazz-funk feel and they were all wearing different hats. they also had a fog machine.

the bass was not as Minutemen-y as the drums iirc

No fog machine at the show I saw a couple of months ago, but there's video of much of the set here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfu6shiyD_Q

I'd just go with Bowie + US Maple as the best summation. Really like these guys. Great video. The influence of Al Johnson hangs heavy on their live attitude...

Invisible Things album is fuckin incredible

I need to re-visit Dead Rider - kinda bummed I missed that show. The thread always gets a LHi3S listen outta me.

http://pitchfork.com/news/61509-tortoise-return-with-new-album-the-catastrophist-share-gesceap-plot-tour/

"The album features vocals from Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley (on "Yonder Blue") and U.S. Maple/Dead Rider's Todd Rittmann (on a cover of David Essex's "Rock On"). "

The album cover is horrifying

I saw Dead Rider the other night, now pared down to a trio, they remain the greatest band currently active.

seeing invisible things tonight with the ex
whee!

How was it La Lechera? Should have been a good pairing!

Amazing show!! A guy I know is friends with the invisible things drummer (Jim?) and told me he is a professor and specializes in a particular type of Sri Lankan drumming insert heart eyes emoji here !!! <3 I'm really tired now but super great show.

Awesome!

This is one of those weird things, because everyone knows David Bowie and almost nobody knows Dead Rider, but the overlaps between what they've been doing and what Bowie is doing now are kind of major. This live video, btw, is seriously fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkgl_N91bU4

It's time to go down the U.S. Maple listening hole again. This is awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JarSldMzLfo

― grandavis, Wednesday, 8 January 2014 18:32 (1 year ago)

YES

I can't remember what originally compelled to click this thread and start listening to the music, but US Maple has to be one of my favourite ILM finds of the year and possibly fave ILM find full-stop. Been listening to Acre Thrills and Talker on near-enough constant repeat over the last few weeks. Their whole approach feels so fresh to me at the moment.

They are a treasure that only grows more wonderful with the passage of time. A true wonder of a band.

We're only talking five relatively short albums, but there's something in them that keeps me thinking there's even more (that I missed the last time) when I go back to them, despite playing them many times. It's not that I'm missing anything specific, but they have that quality that suggests so, keeps them fresh IMO

Interviewed Al years and years ago, just dug up a couple of great quotes:

A lot of people who may come see the band but who haven’t heard the records may think it’s improvisation. I really want to get away from that. It may sound silly, but in my heart of hearts, I would like U.S. Maple to be taken in as a Black Crowes song can be taken in, on some levels.

I don’t think we’re that complicated. We continue to go back to the still to generate this liquid that has the same ingredients as early Journey. I’m telling you, they’re there. The difference is the arrangements. They’re just presented in a different way.

!!!!!!!! acre thrills documentary surfaces online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loni6SVagbw

so cool to hear them talk about songwriting and how they worked as a band...and Country Kitchen and Hardee's namechecks

Pretty sure this is the same thing that's been up for a while. Still great, but I don't think anything has been added.

Purple on Time is literally a masterpiece

New Dead Rider album in September: https://deadrider.bandcamp.com/album/crew-licks

greatest band!!!!!!

I still rock a Purple on Time era Maple shirt and man not many people recognize it but the ones that do it's like we are BFFs

actually was at the May Day parade and met a woman who went to college we Shippy she was like "Why are you wearing my friend's band's shirt?" I didn't get the sense she knew they had gotten much acclaim

Holy shit @ the Grateful Dead cover on the new Dead Rider album!

there's a new shippy ensemble album out too
https://billingtonshippywyche.bandcamp.com/album/billington-shippy-wyche

just make your bedroom GODDAMN GREAT!

high SCHOOOOOOOOOL

did US Maple and Jesus Lizard ever play any Chicago doubleheader sets where David Yow & Al Johnson did a band swap? that woulda been pretty neat, they shoulda done that

there's still time

who's sitting on the bailey / maple tapes?

I know a few Jesus Lizard fans who absolutely hate US Maple, go figure. I don't remember them sharing a bill, since they only overlapped a little, but I guess it was possible? I wouldn't want to be any band opening for the Jesus Lizard.

From an oral history:

DENISON We played a bit with a few different bands, but not that much in Chicago. Pegboy or U.S. Maple or (John Forbes's band) Dirt—which later became Mount Shasta—or Tar. Eventually those bands developed their own things and played their own shows.

In my experience Maple had a unique ability to alienate audiences that loved very abrasive or noisy music because those audiences (JL for example) were totally fine with dissonance as long as the music rocked in a pretty conventional way but Maple's rhythmic weirdness and refusal to coalece into a groove you could nod your head to really drove ppl nuts (and Al's whole thing being a lot weirder than Yow who was still in line with an assaultive hardcore template in many ways)

Cows maybe the only other band of the era who could be so uniquely unsettling (in a their own way)

the state of US Maple is bad

US Maple is never bad

I dunno man, Dead Rider went nowhere, I haven't seen Al since 2004, what's even going on? What are we left with?

I liked that song they did where it sounded like it was falling apart

Shippy has been making lots of music in Chicago but I haven't seen him pop up since covid

Yeah I like that trio Shippy has with Ben Baker Billington and Daniel Wyche, though I have only heard the one release on Astral Spirits. Nice to hear his playing in that kind of context though, and they are all very good players.

"What are we left with?": all of the great records that U.S. Maple made. I get the sentiment though hah hah. Very little else like that particular sound.

Right, but I was just summoning Left

Aw, Dead Rider is certainly no patch on US Maple, but I dug Crew Licks. Never did get around to hearing that record with Paul Williams though.

saw Dead Rider last summer at a fest in Iowa, absolutely amazing

just bought Talker on vinyl off their Bandcamp, what a record

Whoa, cool! May have to grab a copy of that myself (no idea where my CD is).

yeah I don't know why, I wonder if they found a couple of boxes in a closet

Huh, they have copies of "Acre Thrills" too. I mean Drag City has copies of stuff I am often surprised by, so they must occasionally just put stuff back in print when it is sold out (maybe?).

Drag City reissued Talker last year
https://www.dragcity.com/news/2019-07-25-talker-returns-to-the-conversation

listening to Long Hair in Three Stages, this rips so hard

and you say......you ASShole!

It sure does. I am sad I never got to see this band live, they are just so good.

I saw them once (Purple On Time tour, new drummer). It ruled.

Wish I had Long Hair on vinyl, prob my favourite album that I don’t have on that format— too expensive to consider tho

This was always my jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH3VawiyTMw

We used to stumble across US Maple sets enough that my wife hates them to this day.

My wife saw them once (opening for Pavement or something), and hated them... tho she also saw Royal Trux somewhat early on, and says they were awful; I'm jealous about that, lol (didn't see them first until '97).

I saw US Maple open for Royal Trux!

I opened for US Maple!

I have multiple US Maple CDs!

I apparently stopped reading the thread after my last post because assuming a person named above is the same one I've met, I saw Cheer Accident play in her apartment many years ago

Fond memories of getting bored of the party I was hosting and putting on "Hey King" and doing dual air guitar opposite my buddy Jessie, the funnest best way to end a party

Sometimes I reply "maybe!" to somebody with the same inflection as the band does on "Running From Kabob" and smile, inwardly

For as fucked up as their music is (in a great way!), I was shocked by how note-perfectly they replicated it live. They were tight. Miss u, boos.

Breaking US Maple News: the Peel Session has leaked.

Wow loving this

Also another interesting document on the same channel: something called "The Miracle of Recreation", Part 1 and Part 2.

Whoa seems they are playing with most of Melt Banana on that Peel Session? Wild pairing.

i'm thinking this might have been the same skin graft tour i saw w/maple and melt banana on its UK leg?

fucking great

Peel seems...maybe not too into it? haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JarSldMzLfo

sick

Amazing ty

Super cool. A bunch of behind the scenes studio stuff I just stumbled upon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loni6SVagbw

Al sometimes had an almost Charlie Chaplin aspect to his movements

I kinda sometimes always kind of thought of US Maple as an ingenious parody of the Jesus Lizard.

they had very good hair