According to local legend, deep in the heart of Marquette, Michigan, lies a particularly skilled blacksmith. Hardworking and humble, this blacksmith is perhaps most famous for one specialty: hooks. He makes the best hooks in the north, so sharp you'd cut yourself just by looking in the direction of one. He walks into Liquid Mike's store and we guarantee you'll get caught.
In reality, Liquid Mike's main songwriter, Mike Maple, is not a blacksmith, but a mailman who writes songs between deliveries (John Prine would like a word). His hooks, however, are as sharp as any blacksmith could make them on this earthly plane; That's why last year STREET It suddenly took off in certain power-pop-loving circles online. As prolific as he is skilled, Maple and his band are quickly capitalizing on their DIY notoriety with a new album, Paul Bunyan's Slingshot.
The album is not a big left turn, nor a big reinvention. Instead, it's another step toward Maple's goal of achieving power-pop perfection, a goal he's been working toward since before the Liquid Mike moniker existed. the songs of Paul Bunyan Sling extract from the same toolbox as STREET or even 2021 specialist- upbeat tempos, loud guitars, incredible melodies, and a strict three-minute limit on song lengths. What sets the new effort apart isn't necessarily high-end production or fancy new sounds, it's simply that Liquid Mike has gotten even better at being Liquid Mike.
The most open point of comparison is “USPS,” a reworking of a song that originally arrived in 2021. You can live forever in paradise on Earth. The melody is effectively the same, but the intensity of the performances and the subtle compositional differences (like saving the Cars-style synth line for the end of the track) make a big difference. They are small but important changes, which show that the objective of Maple and company is increasingly precise.
Alternatively, take the trio of singles “Mouse Trap”, “K2” and “American Caveman”, as each presents a slightly different flavor of Liquid Mike's power-pop. “K2” kicks off with heavy guitars before giving way to a final chorus powerful enough to bring down a 40-story building, while “American Caveman” finds fast-paced success through lightly twinkling riffs and dynamic shifts. “Mouse Trap,” with its two guitar licks, almost feels like Weezer’s “Beverly Hills” was really good. However, instead of Rivers Cuomo's idealization of living the California life, Maple writes a tongue-in-cheek ode to the small towns of Midwestern America. “Given what you know, the American dream is a Michigan hoax.”
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