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

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 Patchwork, released last year on Barsuk Records. While the band may have scaled back its overt musical flair over time, it remains one of the tightest, most interesting musical acts going.

The A.V. Club caught up with Davison and Erin Elders, (guitarist-lead singer and lead guitarist, respectively) in advance of their set at A.V. Fest this weekend, to talk about some of their favorite local bands, as well as their experiences as musicians and music fans in Chicago.

Read More

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.

(Source: youtube.com)

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 Hainey were film majors, and Shiraz Dada majored in sound engineering. As a band, they’ve been called math rock because of their complex rhythmic structures and unconventional time signatures.  But with their debut release Perch Patchwork (Barsuk Records), they’ve written what critics have called a more accessible sound.  Regardless, Maps & Atlases plays some wonderfully unique and creative music.  But that’s what you get when four guys from art school start a band. 

After the video, read more about Davison and his writing process, including how poetry affects his songwriting, how a good long walk is the perfect way to write a Maps & Atlases song, and his penchant for leaving long voice mail messages for friends. 

Two of you were film majors.  How does that background inform the band’s songs?

Read More

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 wonderful variation; at some points it’s shoegaze-y and intricate, at others upbeat and sunny, and sometimes it’s just dripping with sardonic malice. On “The Charm,” singer/guitarist Dave Davison’s dusty, deep vocals confess, “I don’t think there is a sound that I hate more / than the sound of your voice.” Davison was a bit kinder when he recently talked with Paste about the band’s new album, playing live and writing songs via voicemail.

Paste: You just got back from tour, and now you and the band are already planning another. How do you keep each different show you do new and fresh?
Dave Davison: That’s definitely something that I think about a lot and that we talk about. I think when our band first started, we practiced so much and spent so long practicing and playing before we really played any shows, so for a long time our focus was to recreate the recordings as totally rock solid as possible and to not have any real deviation from the recording. But after playing so many shows there is an element of changing it up and unpredictability that kind of drives you to pay close attention, to get into it more and to appreciate the performance, each specific one, as something really different from the other ones. I think that one thing that we have started doing more is, if something is sounding interesting or people seem to be responding, we’ve sort of allotted specific parts in songs where there’s a little bit more looseness and freedom for doing different stuff every single night. That’s been a newer development in the past year or so, but it’s definitely made it a lot more fun and it seems like people like it.

Read More