Yeah! It's Maritime In The U.S.A.!
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 20, 2011 4:20PM
The Promise Ring was one of those bands that handily occupied the middle ground between college rock indie cool and approachable alt. So it's no surprise that Maritime, born of The Promise Ring's demise (though we're sure the band is probably sick of hearing that now, but hey, context!), fits into the pleasant enough category well enough to even win over even the possible haters.
Band leader Davey von Bohlen has never been one to traverse the easiest route compositionally. He has a history of fucking around with arrangements and bending pop conventions to create art punk you can sing to. With Maritime's latest album, Human Hearts, he continues along that thread, adding layers and making it stronger through the years of the band's existence, and added a dance element into the mix so there's a hint of sex thrown into the music's swagger. However we are dealing with a bunch of dudes from Milwaukee brought up on old school indie so the sex is burdened by enough angst to keep it off the dancefloor; instead this is music you bob along to while chatting up the object of your evening's affection in hopes of wrangling them to come home, play a little Nintendo and maybe fall asleep making out on the couch.
We're totally down with that.
Maritime plays April 22 at The Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western, 10 p.m., $10/ $12 at the door, 21+