Maplewood Singers/songwriters/guitarists Mark Rozzo (Champale) and Steve Koester (Punchdrunk, Koester) along with drummer Ira Elliot (Nada Surf, Fuzztones and Champale) and harmonist Craig Schoen (Winterville, Cub Country) have nixed their collective indie/punk/alt rock pasts to create homage to the great, wistful rock of the 70’s. In the vein of The Byrds, Bread, America, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Flying Burrito Brothers and 70’s Beach Boys. As in the dreamy, twelve-string guitar and tambourine downers: “Little Dreamer Girl”, “Santa Fe”, “Morning Star”, “Sea Hero”, “Think It Through”, “Carolina Jasmine” and “Desert Queen”.
Tellingly, Rozzo and Koester dreamt up the idea of Maplewood whilst searching for orange-crate art online and started recording the AM radio-fest of “Maplewood” way back in the cold winter following 9/11 in Schoen’s Brooklyn home studio. Maplewood obviously wanted to get away from the horror of it all; if not literally, then through their music. “Poconos”, “Gemini On The Way” and “Darlene” are sad love songs; full of longing for love lost long, long ago. There’s some straight up folk pop here too - “Be My Friend” and “Bright Eyes”. “Indian Summer” is like a Sunday drive down the two-lane highway in the desert of someone else’s memories.
“Maplewood” has an unusual tone. Maplewood did a decent job at recreating the music from their childhood, but who needs fan reenactments when you can still have the real thing? Additionally, Maplewood hasn’t exactly created a modern take on the classics (where are the car chases, freeway shootings and Amber alerts on their highway in the sky?), but at the same time there’s a very modern ‘rah rah America’ message quietly woven throughout “Maplewood” that mostly serves as a painful reminder of how things are not what they used to be. |