Marcus and I went to the former the Gypsy Tea Room (now The Door) to see Maps & Atlases on Friday night, and it’s apparent that the owners of the Door have done NOTHING to improve that venue; it’s still the same terrible sounding, awful dump that it always was.  At any rate, Maps & Atlases was very sharp and highly entertaining, and you can check out all of my photos from their show here.  This was my first exposure to M&A, other than clips on YouTube, and these guys have an interesting, rather ecclectic/experimental sound, but it comes together in a nice way.  More about that after the jump. 

When we arrived, the first opener, Gasoline Heart was on:

As I stated in my brief blog post about them (all while I was standing in the venue via my phone), “These guys sound exactly like you’d expect a band called Gasoline Heart to sound. I would imagine that is also fairly similar to Dautry, as it were.”  I can’t say I know what Dautry sounds like, exactly, but Gasoline Heart wasn’t my favorite of all time.  They had some good power rock guitars going; almost Pearl Jam esque, but then the lead singer would essentially just yell into the microphone - most of the time out of key - then between songs he would tell stories that usually lasted 3 or 4 minutes.  As in between every song he told stories.  To make matters even more irritating, his stories were terrible.  He even acknowledged at one point how most of the audience probably wished that he had killed himself in his past (during some story about contemplating suicide which seemed awfully contrived).  While I didn’t want him dead….I definitely could have used a whole lot less of their show.  Anyways, after a set that went way too long, Maps & Atlases were up:

These guys were good stuff.  Maps & Atlases combine an almost synthesizer quality to the guitar on some tracks (think: Tokyo Police Club) and/or a very stecatto-sounding picked guitar, which wholly separates itself from the always present and always busy driving rhythm of the drums, and from almost Steely-Dan esque vocals in a very interesting manner.  All of the elements, taken alone, could sound like three or four different bands playing at once over each other, but the way they combine all of these wildly different sounding parts as a cohesive whole works very well and always provides something interesting to listen to. 

Individually, the drummer is a standout.  He furiously provides complex beats and rhythms which ultimately drive all parts of every song, and at times, it almost seemed as if the rest of the band was simply doing all it could to simply keep up with the drums.  At other times, the ultra stecatto nature of the guitars conflicts a little with the complicated beats of the drums, but they still work together in a way which sounds experimental, but which also works.  At other times, the driving percussion ties the disperate vocals and plucked/picky guitar dispersed between short bursts of strummed clean chords, and one song in particular had a mix of exploratory picked guitar over straight up Lars Ulrich-esque drums with a repeated double bass kick.  I’m sure this sounds odd, but it is ultimately very cool.

The downside of all of this is that many of their songs have a very broken feel to them as, at many times, the songs do not really catch a clean groove for the life of the song.  I think if they shored up the breaks and odd transitions the guitar sometimes makes from chords to the fast picked melodies, and instead make the transitions flow a little better with the driving rhythm, these guys could really establish themselves some fascinating music that works very well.  Right now they sound good, but I think they could really sound pretty great and retain their experimental sound which is also very unique.  Good show, dudes.

Upcoming tour dates, mostly in the NE and midwest:

July 14 - Covington, KY - The Mad Hatter
July 16 - Baltimore, MD - The Ottobar
July 17 - Albany, NY - Valentines
July 18 - Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell’s
July 24 - Mt. Pleasant, MI - Midwest Fest
July 27 - Chicago, IL - Wickerpark Fest
July 29 - Baltimore, MD - The Ottobar
July 30 - Philadelphia, PA - The Filmore
July 31, - S. Hackensack, NJ - School of Rock
August 1 - NY, NY - Highline Ballroom
August 2 - Allston, MA - Harper’s Ferry
August 4 - Rochester, NY - The club at Waterstreet
August 5 - Cleveland Heights, OH - The Grog Shop
August 6 - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
August 7 - Chicago, IL - The Metro
August 8 - St. Louis, MO - 2 Cents Plain
August 9 - Lawrence, KA - The Bottleneck
August 10 - Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room

Maps and Atlases - The Most Trustworthy Tin Cans - From Tree, Swallows, Houses