U.S. Maple
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
U.S. Maple is an American avant-garde rock band. The group formed in Chicago sometime in 1995. Birthed from the maniacal minds of Al Johnson (lead singer), Mark Shippy (guitarist), Pat Samson (drummer), and Todd Rittmann (guitarist)—together they became the deconstructionists of rock and roll. Their first recordings came that year with two song 7" featuring “Stuck” and "When a Man says Ow!” as well as a cover of the AC/DC song “Sin City.” The band signed with Skin Graft Records, which has released some of today’s greatest experimental artists.
The band recorded their first full length, Long Hair in Three Stages, late in 1995 and their second album, Sang Phat Editor, in 1997. Both were recorded at Solid Sound Studios in Hoffman Estates, Illinois with now-notorious indie producer and former Sonic Youth member Jim O'Rourke. Both albums are fueled with jarring guitar noodling, vocal wheezes and howls, and spastic drumming—staples of the band's elastic song structures.
In ’98 the band headed over to Drag City Records to produce two more albums with all of the same elements, only sparser than before, darker. In 1999 the band came out with Talker, a dark, spiraling trip into the limits of rock. In 2001 they released Acre Thrills. Talker was recorded in New York with Michael Gira, the former singer from Swans.
In 2001 drummer Pat Samson left the band, replaced by Adam Vida. With a new drummer they released Purple On Time in 2003, which saw a departure from the confrontational, fervent, and violent aspects of their anti-rock. Instead this album has verses, easier-to-follow instrumentation, and singing (instead of animalistic moaning and crooning).
U.S. Maple is mentioned by another Chicago-based band, Alkaline Trio, in the song "Goodbye Forever" from their self-titled album released in 2000. The line goes "Remember last April when we saw U.S. Maple? / Somehow the singer showed the Fireside exactly how I feel."
