Maps & Atlases Fans

Fifth Disc has posted a blog entry titled Maps & Atlases Video that covers one of the Maps & Atlases videos on YouTube. Their comment is:

That Buzzgrinder post reminded me just how talented Maps & Atlases are. Check out this video of them performing the song “The Most Trustworthy Tin Cans” from their EP Trees, Swallows, Houses. Notice the bass player….tapping bass intertwined with dual tapping guitars. I love it how bands like Make Believe, Them, Roaring ’20’s, and Maps & Atlases are making knowing how to play the instrument cool again.

This video does show a really nice view of bassist Shiraz Dada tapping on part of the song.

Maps & Atlases grabs the #2 spot on PureVolume. Also on their top 10 list are popular artosts like The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Anberlin, Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes. Good job, guys!

Photoblogger OpticDistraction posts an interesting photo along with adding a mention to Maps & Atlases (scroll down to bottom) in a post titled Sovay. From the post:

First off, watch this video. It’s a song called “Ongoing Horrible” by Maps & Atlases, a band that has yet to drop a debut album, but one I could certainly foresee making quite a bit of noise when they do. The sounds he manages to get out of that guitar using such an unorthodox technique… well, it’s clearly amazing.

Oceans Never Listen, a blogger from Australia, reviews the Maps & Atlases EP in a great review titled Maps & Atlases. From the review:

Maps and Atlases are from Chicago and they play music that sounds quite unique. It has a restless energy that never sits still in the one place. Frenetic, jittery, impetuous, diverse are some adjectives I would use to describe them. “Trees, Swallows, Houses” is their recently released EP and well worth investigating. Their music has crazy time signatures that make each song jump all over the place, making each listen a discovery in itself. Dave Davison, Shiraz Dada, Erin Elders, Chris Hainey form the band and even though they are a conventional Indie rock four piece, their music is far from conventional. The drumming is truly special, beating out frenetic ruptures and the guitars are more then just instruments, they are pushed to the limits with rhythmic syncopations that offer a unique take. This is quite intricate music and well worth a listen.

If you haven’t checked out Maps & Atlases new website, go take a peek now. It’s a very cool artistic impression that is similar to Maps & Atlases merchandise and threads. For our second contest giveaway, we’re printing a one-of-a-kind canvas print of the website in high resolution. These custom canvas prints run as high as $300 at most print shops, so this is quite a deal to frame and mount and hang on your wall — great for the Maps & Atlases fan.

If you’d like to be in the running, just subscribe to the e-mail notification list. We won’t contact you (except to let you know this site has been updated), and we will never sell, rent or share your information with anyone else. Sign up today for a chance to win!

We will pick one random e-mail subscriber on March 31st, 2007 to give this prize away to.

Here’s a rendition of what the final piece will look like:

The final canvas size is 34″ x 24″ and can be framed and mounted at any canvas shop. Hot!

Our contest winner for our first & Atlases contest is announced — e-mail subscriber apostcardhome. We’ve sent an e-mail to the winner and they have 30 days to collect. If you’re not aware, we give away a custom (and usually expensive) prize to a random e-mail subscriber. You can see details from the first contest here and see an image of this contest prize — a custom printed canvas drawing of a previous show promotion poster. Congrats to apostcardhome, your prize will ship as soon as you confirm your shipping address!

Remember, subscribe today by entering your e-mail address. You will ONLY receive update information for this site — we will NEVER spam you or contact you directly, except to let you know that you’ve won. Also, we will NEVER sell, share or rent your information to anyone.

Maps & Atlases makes it on another podcast radio show from Boombox Bliss, this time on Episode 5. This episode is focused on Cathy Pellow, head of Refused.TV and manager of Maps & Atlases. Pellow also manages such upcoming bands as These Arms are Snakes, Russian Circles, RX Bandits and Days Away. Definitely a great show episode to listen to. Subscribe to their RSS feed for regular updates!

UK Blogger funfunfun types an article titled No Need for a Compass, got Maps and Atlases. They write:

I get lost in Maps And Atlases. Their take on progessive indie has so many routes and paths to follow that my mind just boogles at the prospect of trying to find the end of a song and on the way time seems to decelerate so that as many ideas as possible can be squeezed into 4 minutes. Take Every Place Is A House for instance, that intro is from somewhere of the map, somewhere alien to the listener but it seems just right, almost comfortable in its delivery, like an unknown foreign dish served in your own living room. There’s so many nuances and subtleties in one song that you would think the rest of their debut ep, Tree, Swallows, Houses, would be lacking in ideas, all of them being used up in this one track, but no, these guys must have been shitting amazing ideas when writing this record coz its all extraordinary and technically amazing. Definately worth a very good listen.

(MP3 Link)

Oh and check out their website coz its really pretty

Sleep Goblin covers a review of the Detholz show in Madison that had Maps & Atlases as one of the opening bands. The article it titled I ♥ Detholz! and Sleep Goblin says:

A band called Maps & Atlases opened for them. KT1 described them as “math rock”, and I described them as “awesome”. Most of their songs depended on this technique called tapping. Their fingers were FLYING!

Sleep Goblin also posts two decent photos of Maps & Atlases from the show:

Music For Kids who can’t Read Good covers a short but sweet Maps & Atlases review in an article titled Maps & Atlases. Their review, posted after the Metro Deerhoof show, states:

Maps & Atlases are a progressive-indie band from Chicago that have been creating some local buzz due to their well-received first EP and an opening spot for Deerhoof and Busdriver on their current tour. The band has a very unique, creative style that incorporates lots of tempo changes, high energy drumming, and swirling guitars.

During some of the guitar on the album, the notes are actually being tapped out on the frets. During this the guitarist uses the tuning knobs to create feedback creates a really interesting sound. It’s a technique I’ve never heard of before but is really quite cool. This band has the skill to grow in the indie rock scene and I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw their names more and more, especially once they release their first full length.

(they link to an MP3 here)

Here’s a video that showcases that cool guitar playing I was talking about earlier. The song is called “ongoing horrible” and if you’re anything like me, you’ll watch it a couple times to see what he’s actually doing to make those sounds.

(they posted the Ongoing Horrible acoustic video here)

We found this blog through Invisible Limb