New album: Liquid Mike || Stuntman

Liquid Mike is a five piece from Marquette, Michigan who just dropped their debut album Stuntman. Liquid Mike’s principal songwriter is Michael Maple, who started the band after his previous band (We Should Be Laughing) more or less dissipated with band members moving to different areas. I wrote about another project of Maple (MikeTeeeVeee) earlier this year, and if you like to hear early versions of some of the songs on Stuntman, make sure to check Maple’s bandcamp page.  Liquid Mike features one other WSBL member (synth player Monica), and is joined by three other songwriting and recording musicians: Raymond Little of The Thirties (guitar), Heather Evans (bass), and Cody Marecek of Yard Waste (drums). That accumulation of talent may help to explain why this band sounds so damn good. Liquid Mike clearly is collective with great taste in music unfitted to write songs that suck. The band’s sound is somewhere between indie punk and indie rock, with sufficient pace, energy and melody to appeal to punk and powerpop fans, and with enough diversity to appeal to fans of classic indie rock and ’80s US underground pop. Fans of bands like The Promise Ring and Laika’s Orbit should also take note of this band.

It’s discoveries like these why we started this website. My current favorite track on the record is Employee Of The Month, but I haven’t found myself skipping any of the other songs yet.  Don’t expect Liquid Mike to be a flash-in-the-pan one-hit-wonder. A new batch of songs is already in the works. Not bad for a band that has to go through lengths to get some practice done. As Maple explains: “For as long as we’ve been together, we’ve only rehearsed outside in the middle of the woods with a gas generator in a place called Forestville. It’s the only spot we have where we can be loud.”

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp