May 2012
1 post
Bandcamp's Best Discovers: "Bright Works And...
Dave Davidson, frontman of one of the most eccentrically addictive musical acts of the decade, released his creative juices full-bore on the first EP of his solo project Bright Works and Baton. At the time, Maps and Atlases had only released a couple of EPs, likely on their way to recording the impeccable Perch Patchwork. I had initially missed this release, discovering its quirky loveability...
April 2012
1 post
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Light & Noise Acoustic Videos from Mexico
Some videos shot in our hotel room while down in Mexico playing some Maps & Atlases shows, thanks Light & Noise.
March 2012
2 posts
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SPIN Premiere: Maps & Atlases "Fever'
When Maps & Atlases hit the road early last year with Barsuk Records labelmates Menomena, the pairing was more than clever indie synergy. Like their Portland-based comrades, the Chicago quartet anchors its slightly bent pop tunes with impressively intricate drumming. The first track to surface from Maps & Atlases’ upcoming Beware & Be Grateful (out April 17),...
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Israeli Caves featuring Good Old War / Sargent...
Dave Davison performs the Maps & Atlases track “Israeli Caves” at the Sargent House Glassroom accompanied by Good Old War who also performed on the album version of the song from Perch Patchwork. Video courtesy of Terroreyes.TV
February 2012
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Rolling Stone Premiere Download: "Winter" the...
September 2011
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Interview with The AV Club
Dave Davison and Erin Elders The band members discuss their biggest influences
Maps & Atlases formed in 2004 at Columbia College, and soon gained notoriety for their frenetic musicality, impressionistic lyrics, and lead singer Dave Davison’s unique vocals. The band’s experimental math rock-influenced sound gave way to a less abrasive folk approach on its debut full-length, Perch...
August 2011
2 posts
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Light & Noise LIVE - Maps & Atlases - Austin TX
Thanks to Light & Noise for the session - CLICK TO SEE TONS OF PHOTOS
[live tv] #44 Pt. 2-4 - Maps And Atlases - The Sounds They Make / Artichokes MORE VIDEOS HERE
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July 2011
2 posts
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The Link: To Serve The Song Above All Else Maps &...
It’s pretty common that bands known for technical ability will push the limits of their playing with each new release, but Chicago’s Maps & Atlases latest work strives to flex both creative muscles and the ones in their fingers.
“I don’t think we were ever heavy in any way,” said lead singer, guitarist and most-bearded member Dave Davison when talking about how the band used to share the...
Maps & Atlases cover "Summer Breeze"
Maps & Atlases cover “Summer Breeze” by Seals & Croft at the Threadless warehouse
What better way to kick off Undercover: Summer Break than with a pair of Chicago institutions? Here, Maps & Atlases—a Chicago band that released its excellent full-length debut, Perch Patchwork, on Barsuk last year—met us at the massive Threadless warehouse. The T-shirt giant’s headquarters...
June 2011
2 posts
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Pigeon Live from SXSW / Invisible Children's...
Maps & Atlases playing the song ‘Pigeon’ for the Take Away Shows. Filmed at SxSw festival, for Invisible Children’s Silver Series.
Filmed by Derrick Belcham Produced by Sarah Schutzki for la Blogothèque and Nada Alix, Kenny Labbacher et Alex Collins for Invisible Children
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Bright Works And Baton Free Download All Week
Sargent House is featuring the Cast Spells EP as their “May We Introduce You” feature as the free Download all this week so now you can get Bright Works And Baton for FREE . While you are at it you can check out the split EP with Good Old War. In other news Maps & Atlases will be going on tour with RX Bandits and Zechs Marquise in June/July. Dave will be performing Cast Spells...
April 2011
3 posts
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Breakthrough Radio: Cast Spells Live Session &...
David Davison stopped by Breakthrough Radio in New York on 4/19/11 while out on tour with Maps & Atlases for a bit of a chat and an acoustic session of his Cast Spells songs. Take A LISTEN HERE 00:00 Cast Spells on BTR Live Studio 01:21 Potted Plant 04:51 Interview 09:08 Vampire 11:56 Pioneer Scalps 14:38 Interview 15:32 American Quilts 17:40 Interview 21:18 A Badge 24:08 Interview...
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I made a Mix to Benefit Rock For Kids - Please Bid...
This Friday 4/29 there is an event to benefit Rock For Kids, and if you can’t attend you can still bid on different bands and artists special made Mixes. Above is a picture of mine (still working on it! ). So if you can’t make it to the Rock For Kids mixer please know you can bid for mine or others. It’s a great cause and all proceeds go to benefit the organization. So, Place...
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NYC Show was fun.
Perch Patchwork, the debut album from Maps & Atlases, is perhaps the best record you didn’t hear in 2010. With folk-rock immediacy and lush arrangements, it’s an album in the truest sense, diverse yet cohesive. The songs range from radio friendly (“Living Decorations” and “Israeli Caves”) to experimental (“Carrying the Wet Wood”), but none stray far from pop palatability. And whether...
March 2011
4 posts
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Matthew Embree Cover's Cast Spells - A Badge
A really beautiful cover done by my dear friend Matthew Embree of a Cast Spells song “A Badge”. Thanks a lot Matt.
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Horatio Sanz + Phil Thomas Katt + Cast Spells =...
What happens when director Phil Thomas Katt & Horatio Sanz get there hands on a Cast Spells song? Well weird videos happen. And we love it. Thanks to PTK and Horatio for their glorious contributions.
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Cast Spells, Maps & Atlases & Teri
It was nice to finally get to see Teri Gender Bender’s band Le Butcherettes play live recently at SXSW. Here is a clip of the first time we met her over at Sargent House where she joined in along with the rest of the guys in Maps & Atlases to play a Cast Spells song called “Glamorous Glowing”
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Alison Wadsworth covers Cast Spells
oh thanks Alison!
February 2011
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Cast Spells only Show at SXSW 2011
Cast Spells will be playing the Sargent House & Rodriguez Lopez Productions official show this year at SXSW - Saturday March 19th at Emo’s Annex. Doors at 7:15pm Lineup Below. (Badges/Wristbands) Pay at door is first come first serve. Cast Spells on at 8pm.
Native Cast Spells Gypsyblood Therapies Son Zechs Marquise Adebisi Shank Le Butcherettes Fang Island Omar Rodriguez...
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Maps & Atlases - Living Decorations
Maps & Atlases video for Living Decorations, directed by Erin Elders, shot by Chris Hainey, featuring a lot of our friends, Gypsyblood and many more. Thanks to everyone who helped out.
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Maps & Atlases - Remix & BBC Session
Maps & Atlases performing Solid Ground, Pigeon & Living Decorations for the BBC Radio show The Beat. Also, check out the new remix by Breton Labs of the track Living Decorations below.
Maps and Atlases - “Living Decorations” (Breton Labs Remix) by Some Kind of Awesome
January 2011
1 post
Ongoing Horrible Live - My Old Kentucky Blog
maps-and-atlases:
video of an encore at the Maps & Atlases Indianapolis show at Radio Radio of Ongoing Horrible from My Old Kentucky Blog
November 2010
2 posts
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Interview with Writers On Process
Dave Davison doesn’t really understand the label “math rock” that some people have given his band Maps and Atlases. Math rock the music, like mathematics the subject, after all, requires “coldness and calculation,” according to Davison. But the four members of Maps and Atlases met at Columbia College in Chicago—an art school. Davison majored in cultural studies, Erin Elders and Chris...
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Glamorous Glowing Video & Dec Tour With Steve...
Cast Spells new video for “Glamorous Glowing” from the EP Bright Works And Baton , directed by Behn Fannin for Refused TV. And more great news ! Steve Mason (formerly of The Beta Band) will finally be touring the US in support of his 2010 release, Boys Outside. Joining him on all dates as support will be Cast Spells !
Steve Mason & Cast Spells December 14 - Red...
October 2010
1 post
Sargent House Free Compilation
From now until October 15th, Tastemakers Magazine has curated a free download of their hand picked tracks from the wonderful label Sargent House. Check out the tracklist below and make sure you download the compilation while you can!
DOWNLOAD :: Tastemakers Magazine’s Sargent House Picks – [LINK]
TRACKLISTING: Gypsyblood – “Take Your Picture” Technology feat. Aaron Chapman from Nurses –...
September 2010
1 post
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Living Decorations Remix
Maps and Atlases - “Living Decorations” (Breton Labs Remix) by Some Kind of Awesome
August 2010
3 posts
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Video: Maps & Atlases "Solid Ground"
Maps + Atlases |MTV Music
Cambridge Streets + Tastemakers Mag + Guitar =...
both videos courtesy of Andrew Phan & Tastemakers Magazine
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Kim Gittleson / Huffington Post Review / Thanks
Maps & Atlases - NYC By: Kim Gittleson I have a confession to make. Last night, the first time in a long time—perhaps for the first time ever—I saw a band without having heard any of their songs. I read no blog posts, visited no MySpace pages, read no tweets. I even had to repeatedly squint at the sign behind the bar (hey, I forgot my glasses) to remember the name of the...
July 2010
2 posts
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AV CLUB: YOURS TRULY VIDEO
“When a band looks for collaborators, it usually doesn’t immediately turn to a middle-school marching band. To be fair, Chicago math-rock outfit Maps & Atlases didn’t either, but when the group needed a drum line for an appearance at San Francisco’s Yourstru.ly studio earlier this week, that’s what it got—and it turned out perfectly.
Maps & Atlases are...
Fantastic Cover of A Badge
What a great job these guys all did!
June 2010
8 posts
Pitchfork Review: Perch Patchwork
Maps & Atlases Perch Patchwork [Barsuk; 2010]
“Maps & Atlases released a few EPs before Perch Patchwork, their debut full-length, and the band has done a fair amount of growing up in the meantime. Those early releases were classic math-rock, typified by busy guitar lines borrowed from 90s bands like Don Caballero. Maps & Atlases are far from the only band from Chicago to...
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OURSTAGE INTERVIEW
Maps & Atlases is, in a word, eclectic. Citing influences from Ornette Coleman to Jethro Tull to David Bowie and coming together from all corners of the country, the quartet’s mutual love for classic rock and layered guitars converged while attending school at Columbia College in Chicago. They generated quite the buzz after their debut EP Tree, Swallows, Houses and eventually signed with...
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DAYTROTTER: Maps & Atlases
Vacationing Daydreams Of The Times Before
Words by Sean Moeller
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO MAPS & ATLASES DAYTROTTER “If we’ve asked it once, we’ll ask it a thousand times: Where did Dave Davison come from and where is he continually coming from? These are natural questions that seem to formulate every time the Chicago musician and lead singer for Maps & Atlases...
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INTERVIEW: Paste Magazine
Best of What’s Next: Maps & Atlases
After years of practicing, touring, playing live shows, practicing some more, releasing four EPs and then meeting some nice people from Barsuk Records while out on the road, Chicago-based quartet Maps & Atlases are finally on the cusp of releasing their first full-length album, Perch Patchwork (out June 29). The record is a 12-track collection of...
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BIG UGLY YELLOW COUCH: Videos
Thanks to Big Ugly Yellow Couch for having Maps & Atlases stop by and recording some tunes. Click Read more to see more
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Space City Rock Review of BWAB
Cast Spells, Bright Works and Baton
Bright Works and Baton, the first EP by Cast Spells, is something to be played at a summer barbeque or other such lazy social event. It’s bright and pleasant, and it’s not one of those that has to “grow on you,” or that requires a “refined taste” in music. You’ll find that even your most critical impulses will be quelled by Dave Davison’s friendly,...
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sargenthouse:
DJ Jazzy Dave Davison...
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MAPS & ATLASES : Solid Ground
Check out the Wild Honey Pie video session of an impromptu acoustic we did of Solid Ground shot in NYC before our show at Webster Hall with Frightened Rabbit
May 2010
4 posts
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An Interview with Tastemakers Radio
Dave talks about making music in Maps & Atlases and his solo project Cast Spells on Tastemakers Radio - Free download of the podcast available here
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Q&A with Seattle Weekly
“Gearing up for the release of their debut full-length, Perch Patchwork, next month, the Chicago experimental/prog/math/pop band Maps & Atlases are currently on tour in support of Frightened Rabbit. The show hits Neumos this Sunday night, and a couple days ago I was able to catch up with lead singer Dave Davison in Minnesota, where the band had been wandering the Mall of America for...
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Scarlet Begonias w/ Matt Embree
Jamming some Scarlet Begonias with my friend Matt Embree while visiting RX Bandits during the recording of their album Mandala at The Mouse House Studio
March 2010
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Daytrotter Session - Cast Spells
You can download or just listen to the Cast Spells Daytrotter session here. Thank you to all the fine folks at Daytrotter, I had a very nice time with you all. The Chatter Of Our Inner Architecture Words by Sean Moeller “When Dave Davison arrived in Rock Island a few months ago, we were in the middle of a winter that seemed to beg faces for beards - for those good and thick beards of...
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An Interview with Spinner - SXSW
Cast Spells Interview with AOL’s Spinner / SXSW 2010 - Click to read
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SXSW - Sargent House Show
SARGENT HOUSE OFFICIAL SXSW SHOW March 19th at Habana Calle 6 - Austin, TX Doors 7pm - 21+ Badges FREE
9pm: Cast Spells 10pm: Good Old War 11pm: Native 12am: Fang Island 1 am: The Chinese Stars
February 2010
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A Badge - Cast Spells & Friends
Thank you to If You Make It for coming along to the New Jersey show and shooting this clip of A Badge with Good Old War and Hezekiah Jones helping out.
December 2009
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Hey!Tonal & Cast Spells European Tour
Dave will be taking Cast Spells overseas along with his other project Hey! Tonal , together they will be performing in Europe a bunch of shows.
HEY! TONAL / CAST SPELLS - EUROPEAN TOUR 2010 Feb 25- Treibhaus - Luzern Switzerland Feb 26 - Blockhaus DY10 - Nantes France Feb 27 - Espace B - Paris France Mar 2 - La Meltarie - Lille France Mar 3 - Belvedere - Namur Belgium Mar 5 - Lades -...
November 2009
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Cast Spells / Good Old War Split EP
ORDER YOUR COPY ON CD HERE
Cast Spells has a new split EP with Good Old War. It feature two new songs from each band and will be available on CD on their tour together in December. It will also be released Digitally everywhere on December 2nd. The CD won’t be available in stores only on tour or at the online store. In celebration of the release both bands will be touring together....
