Everybody loves a good indie-rock origin story like when the Replacements Paul Westerberg was holding it down as a janitor in the office of a Minnesota senator before joining the band. or Dayton, Ohio’s Robert Pollard teaching school while biding his time before Guided By Voices became a thing.
Here’s a new one for you: Meet Mike Maple, who is the mailman in the small college town of Marquette, Michigan who spends his time walking the postal beat dreaming up relentlessly fun punk-rock tunes to play in his band Liquid Mike. “Given what you know/The American dream is a Michigan hoax,” he informs us on their excellent new album “Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot”.
On “Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot” they play short, fast, muscular songs that split the difference between Nineties pop-punk and Nineties indie-rock, tempering the petulant angst of the former with the latter’s winning resignation.
Liquid Mike debuted in 2022 with the EP “A Beer Can and A Banquet,” The press photo that went out with “Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot” shows the band sitting around a fire pit cooking hot dogs, and the LP opens with “Drinking and Driving,” a song that highlights a life skill the members of Liquid Mike may have had down before they were out of high school.
On “K2,” they build a song about a wasted summer out of stupid Coldplay allusions (“The rush of blood straight to your head/You pissed your pants/And they were all yellow”), making the goofy conceit work because the music is so charged up and fun. On “Drug Dealer,” which sounds like Blink-182 by way of GBV, Maple sings about being stuck getting stoned with his friend and her scary new boyfriend, processing a bunch of weird feelings in a high-as-hell torpor. “USPS,” a bouncing ode to Maple’s place of work, suggests Weezer with a working-class soul. On “Small Giants” he offers the sage piece of advice: “You can shoplift any store you want/It’s not pathetic if you don’t get caught.”
“Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot knocks” through 13 songs in just 25 minutes, including a thirty-second Superchunk tribute and a minute-long Built to Spill throwback. But it leaves a lasting impression. In fact, you might have to go back to the 1971 debut by John Prine to find a record by an employee of the United States Postal Service that wins this hard.
Mike Maple – Guitar, Monica Nelson – Synth, Dave Daignault – Guitar, Zack Alworden – Bass, Cody Marecek – Drums
An album boasting 13 absolute rippers packed into a tight 25 minutes, hummable riffs, huge choruses, and sticky refrains hit listeners at an incredible pace, resulting in one of the most fun, midwestern-hearted works of 2024.
released February 2nd, 2024
The Fat Angel Sings 