Check it: Maps & Atlases – Beware & Be Grateful

WARNING: This post contains material some would consider, “awesome summer jams.”

Maps & Atlases is one of my favorite bands. I loved them because the first time I heard Tree, Swallows, Houses it made absolutely no sense to me and I couldn’t stand the lead singers voice. However, from my first couple listens I could gather that this band, no matter how chaotic their music might have sounded, put a lot of work into their music. They crammed more ideas into one song than most bands put into an entire album. I first appreciated their work ethic and finally became familiar with the songs and in turn fell in love with them.

Since then they’ve released an E.P. and a full length and each album has been progressively more poppy and yet at the same time still dense and technical (and I’ve loved them all equally like a mother loves all her children the same… or so she says). So yesterday I was thinking about bands that have been relatively quiet in recent months so I thought I’d see what they were up to and boy was I excited when I found that Maps & Atlases is releasing a new full length on April 17th. Imagine how more excited I got when I could stream it in it’s entirety on Paste Magazine’s website.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/04/album-stream-maps-atlasesbeware-and-be-grateful.html

SHOOT DANG!!! This album is good. I’ve listened to it at least 8 times in the last 24hrs and I’m still picking out layers that I didn’t hear the first time. There’s so many different sounds coming from either keyboards or guitars and there’s layers of percussion (think King of Limbs but not so jarring). I’m listening to it as I write this and I can’t even focus on completing this… I’m smiling too much. I’m not going to waste your time talking about it great detail, just know that I’m super stoked on this. Do yourself a favor and go listen for yourself.

Do it now!!!

Erik’s Essentials: 4/06/12

This “Essentials” spans a couple of weeks, just so you know.

 1) Durham, NC

I took a “Spring Break” recently involving North Carolina and Indiana. The first leg involved staying with my buddy Cam, who goes to Duke University. Durham is an interesting place, and the first place we went was to the revitalized former Lucky Strike factory. Totally badass: The water tower and chimney with the Lucky Strike logo remain, though the “factory” is now businesses, shops and restaurants with a cool creek running through it all.

Cam. Photo by his fiancee, Bethany.

Downtown Durham is a good example of restoring “what was,” to some degree. I can’t even imagine what it was like in the hey-day of cigarette production.

Cam also took me to The Q Shack, which is a bbq joint with the most amazing hush puppies. I didn’t even like bbq until I went. Dip the pups in some honey butter, you’ll be a believer.

There was also a beer store down the road called Sam’s Quick Shop, which let you have a nice beer (and keep the glass) for $5 to drink while you decide what to buy.

 2) Country music

Being in the South, this makes sense. The full-blown fan status, however, happened somewhere around the West Virginia/Ohio border. With hits like this, “Fly Over States” (also by Jason Aldean, which mentions Indiana),  “A Woman Like You”  by Lee Brice or “Why Don’t We Just Dance” by Josh Turner not to mention my upbringing with Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw’s “Don’t Take the Girl,” country music strikes a special chord in me. Today’s music ain’t half bad either: I would love to play drums in a band like that.

Country music speaks of women, drinking, working and playing; it says that life is hard and love is work; but most importantly, it says to be true to yourself and things will turn out they way you want them to, eventually.

Oh, and beer. Lots of beer.

 3) Titus Andronicus

My love affair with this band started roughly last fall, and “The Monitor” has been playing in my truck nonstop for awhile. I finally got their first album, “The Airing of Grievances,” on vinyl from VGR recently and love it. They are the band I wanted to form and play drums in. Still are.

Watching that Civil War documentary and picking up on all of the quotes + meanings was cool. I recently attempted to get snag an interview with them, but they’re on tour at the moment.

Check out the Youtube doc on the making of The Monitor here.

They take New Jersey state pride seriously, which I dig. They are my second favorite NJ band—Saves the Day being No. 1, of course.

Erik’s Essentials: 02/17/12

The weeks just keep getting better and better.

1) Mayflower Brewery

Myself and a few friends went out to the Mayflower Brewery in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Simply put: That place is awesome. Show up on a Saturday at 11 a.m. (when they open), sample a few brews and get a nice, small tour. It’s a cool facility—my favorite part was reading the charts on the fermenters (plus seeing the carbonation!) about what hops and malts were used, the dates on everything and when the brew would be ready.

It really made me consider starting a brewery. Or at least do more homebrewing.

2) David Comes to Life

Some weeks just call for a certain type of music. Ever since I first heard “The Other Shoe,” I wanted fall in love with this album. Don’t get me wrong: I love this band. They are everything I want to be. But even with Chemistry of Common Life, I loved a lot of the songs but not the album as a whole—there were just things missing.

It’s embarassing that I’m just now totally, full-blown in love with this album, since it came out practically a year ago. But now I understand the rock opera that it is. And goddamn, you can’t ignore tracks like _____, ______ and _____

3) Simple vehicle maintenance

I’m not a wrencher like my father (more on this subject to come next week). He did, however, instill in me the importance of routine check-ups on your car. Just simple stuff, like checking antifreeze, oil, transmission and brake fluid levels. It goes a long way. I’m totally confident in doing an oil change alone, which is an important skill to have.

I did those things this week and cleaned up my truck + added a new air freshener. Funny how things like that make your week a little better. Maybe it’s because you feel like a dude doing dude work. Maybe it’s just the satisfaction in knowing that a clean car is a happy car.

Bandcamp best of: “cthulhu”

Bandcamp best of: is an ongoing series to find cool bands on bandcamp.com by way of tags.

This is some dangerous territory here.

Cthulhu is the mystical creature from H.P. Lovecraft’s “Call of Cthulhu.”

From Wikipedia:

The character [is] a malevolent entity trapped in an underwater city in the South Pacific called R’lyeh. Described as being “…an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature…. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings”, and “a mountain walked or stumbled”, the imprisoned Cthulhu is apparently the source of constant anxiety for mankind at a subconscious level, and also the subject of worship by a number of evil cults. . .and other Lovecraftian monsters.

And a picture:

So. . .people make music about this? Sort of. But don’t worry, we’re not picking any of that trippy shit. And trust me: That’s what most of it is.