U.S. Maple
Purple On Time
2025 Drag City

Starting in the mid-'90s, the U.S. Maple saga was rent open, seam by seam, over ten long, sweaty years, like a ripple of mirages exploding up around the bend. Theirs was a dues-paid elevation of good old rock 'n roll values that reached dizzyingly high, past the blunt force of their immediate '80s- '90s forebears and the magisterial arc of the venerated classic rockers before them. Their music is a rapacious, constantly morphing ooze through which can be sighted gristled flecks and shards of glam, punk, blues, metal, funk, jazz and other denuded musical formations to be grabbed upon and squeezed til the juice runs down your leg. Their final LP, recorded with Jeremy Lemos, Purple On Time dropped in late 2003, and found new drummer Adam Vida cannily replacing the fairly departed Pat Samson. With consolidations and developments heavy on the ground, the band once more surged and retarded in near-orchestral precision, as Johnson's voice swooped through fresh ranges. The songs were tangy, more rock than ever, yet just as potent when it came to drawing forth that thrusting, demented hip-shake that they induced in 'their faithful.