What's up with US Maple?

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