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New album: Liquid Mike || Hell Is An Airport

Liquid Mike steamrolls on

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop / 2 Comments

Liquid Mike’s new LP Hell Is an Airport proves once again that nobody distills big-hearted indie rock into bite-sized bangers quite like this Marquette crew. Across 14 songs in just over 27 minutes, the band turns small-town frustrations, tour misadventures, and flashes of nostalgia into hooks that hit as hard as their guitars. While many bands mellow with age, Hell Is an Airport might be the loudest Liquid Mike record yet.

A track-by-track feature over at Consequence  offers sharp and fun insights into the album’s stories. Opener Instantly Wasted recalls a nerve-wracking overnight drive to their first tour, while Lit from the Wrong End captures the moment you realize you can’t sled, party, or recover like you did at twenty. The Joyce Manor–esque Crop Circles and the ridiculously catchy Double Dutch mine family dynamics and small-town cycles with the sharp eye of someone both inside and outside of it. Elsewhere, Maple sketches burnout characters (Grand Am), dying malls (Selling Swords), and friends spinning out (Bad Lung), balancing empathy with wit. Meteor Hammer is a reminder of why I fell for the band in the first place, proof that they’ve stayed close to their roots while still pushing their songwriting forward.

Even when the lyrics lean anxious — sleepless nights, dead-end jobs, the fear of fading momentum — the songs themselves surge ahead with choruses too sticky to feel weighed down. By the time the whirlwind title track closes the record, Liquid Mike has bottled everything that makes this band so exciting.

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New album: Liquid Mike || Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot

By / / Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

Less than two years ago, drummer Cody Maracek’s departure from Marquette seemed to signal the end of Liquid Mike, with their A Beer Can And A Bouquet record as their swan song. The band all but bid farewell in the closing track There’s No Rock and Roll No More, Death To Liquid Mike.

But life unfolds in unexpected ways. Two years later, Liquid Mike is not just still around (including Maracek!), they are even dubbed the next big thing by major music platforms, with journalists dissecting the band’s lyrics and cultural roots. Meanwhile, venues are eager for the band to venture beyond their hometown, making them a sought-after commodity for the upcoming festival season.

I did not see it coming. For me, it’s much easier to imagine an alternative future, with Liquid Mike’s Mike Maple continuing to write songs that would be equally great and equally obscure, a fun distraction from his mailman duties. Maple’s songwriting has always been sharp and catchy, and I truly believe that the earlier Liquid Mike records already warranted the critical and popular acclaim the band now increasingly (and deservedly so) is receiving.

But still, I have to admit that the new Liquid Mike LP Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot is the best and most enjoyable thing the band has put on record yet. I can’t really put my finger on it. Perhaps, akin to athletes seeking a competitive edge, Liquid Mike does a lot of the little things just a little bit better? I mean, Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot by all accounts is a protypical Liquid Mike record – concise, crunchy, and dynamic indie rock blasts, recorded with a rebellious touch- too loud for lo-fi, and too raw for hi-fi. And like the previous stuff, the amount of hooks on the new LP would be annoying if the songs weren’t so hyper catchy and well-constructed.

Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot is a win-win kinda record. It’s addictive and has everything that was great about the band’s past work while taking it to a whole new level. This is the most accomplished version yet of a band that is humble and easy to like.

Press play below to hear some of your new favorite tunes, and head over to S.W. Lauden’s highly recommended Remember the Lightning substack for an insightful interview with Maple.




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New album: Liquid Mike || Liquid Mike

By / / Indie Rock, Power Pop, Punk / Leave a Comment

The last time we checked in with Liquid Mike (Marquette, Michigan), the future of the band was in doubt. With drummer Cody Marecek moving to a different part of the country, I kinda expected the band to call it quits. I recall Liquid Mike’s Mike Maple sounding pessimistic about the band’s future in a social media post. But lo and behold, this week a new Liquid Mike record dropped, simply called Liquid Mike. It was recorded remotely last Winter, and despite the increase in physical distance, Cody still is involved in writing songs and recording drums. Zach Alworden joined on bass, and brought new inspiration with his playing style.

Inspired is the word that keeps coming to mind while listening to the 11 songs on the record. Energetic another. Liquid Mike sounds like the people involved simply plugged in their instruments, pressed record and had a blast together. The record combines the spontaneity of first takes with the tightness of a well oiled machine. Liquid Mike sounds super catchy, accessible and good mood inducing on this one, like they found another gear. Happy to see Liquid Mike alive and kicking, even more happy with how good and how much fun this record is. Barely 18 minutes long, the Liquid Mike album doesn’t demand much of your time, but believe me, it’ll be time well spent.

Liquid Mike is streaming now. Kitschy Spirit Records is handdubbing the record on a limited run of Tapes.




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New album: Liquid Mike || A Beer Can And A Bouquet

By / / Indie Rock, Power Pop / 2 Comments

Back to Marquette we go! Liquid Mike returns with their third full-length, and it’s everything I could’ve hoped for. Liquid Mike is fronted by Mike Maple who frequently pops up on our site with his own music and contributions in the work of the extremely talented circle of musicians from Marquette. Cody Marecek of Yard Waste (drums), Monica Nelson (synths), and Raymond Little (guitar – make sure to check out his excellent solo record) round out Liquid Mike on A Beer Can And A Bouquet.

Liquid Mike have kept all the good parts about their previous record Stuntman. They still very much sound like a punchy and energetic indie rock/powerpop hybrid in the vein of Midtown, Piebald, Laika’s Orbit and The Promise Ring. Liquid Mike pour their heart and soul in these nine new recordings. The band calls it their most collaborative effort to date and had a blast creating the record. It shows. Songs like Lease Agreement, Elmer’s Glue, Snoozer, I’ll Get Back To You all stand out, and the quality throughout the record is consistently strong. There is a bittersweet element to the record though. Drummer Cody Marecek moved away recently, and the future of the band is unclear. Will it mark the end of Liquid Mike? Will they continue with a different drummer? Will the band become a recording project exclusively?

The final song on A Beer Can And A Bouquet is called There’s No Rock and Roll No More // Death to Liquid Mike. It starts out as a melancholic campfire acoustic track, and finishes as a loud instrumental track. The song kinda hurts and hits hard, even though I’m sure the people involved with or without each other will continue to create music worth our ears. I cross my fingers that this is not the last thing we hear from Liquid Mike. But whatever happens, thanx for burning bright Liquid Mike!




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New EP: Liquid Mike || You Can Live Forever In Paradise On Earth

By / / Indie Rock, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

Michigan’s best kept secret Liquid Mike return with a surprise EP for, by the band’s own count, their “half dozen of fans.” That’s quite the miscount, but for what it’s worth, I identify as a Liquid Mike fan. Earlier this week, I included their Stuntman record among my 100 notable records of 2021.

The You Can Live Forever In Paradise On Earth EP continues where Stuntman dropped us off. Expect catchy and punchy powerpop/indie rock that is reminiscent of Midtown, Piebald and The Promise Ring. One of the highlights on the EP is 45, a track Liquid Mike frontman Michael Maple also released as a solo demo, and I like even better in the full band version.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to start listening to Liquid Mike, if only to be able to call yourself an early adopter once the band’s get picked up by a larger audience.



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New album: Liquid Mike || Stuntman

By / / Indie Rock, Power Pop / 4 Comments

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.”



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New EP: MikeTeeeVeee || Greenland

By / / Indie Rock, Power Pop / 2 Comments

If you like your music well produced with a glossy finish, you may want to skip the Greenland EP by Roald Dahl aficionado & TV-addict MikeTeeeVeee. MikeTeeeveee is the solo moniker of Michael Maple from Michigan. “My Bandcamp page is kind of my space where I just put everything out with no filter. Maybe these songs will get re-recorded for my band (We Should Be Laughing) in a year, maybe they won’t. But it gives me a chance to play all the instruments and put the songs out my way I guess,” Mike explains. I’m glad he did, because the songs on Greenland are a prime example of the joy of simplification. There are no bells and whistles, just lo-fi melodic powerpop and indierock – the songs were recorded on 4-track cassette.

To give you a some idea of his sound, Mike draws influence from Guided By Voices and Pavement, and he was listening to plenty of Ramones and Marked Men when recording this EP. Fans of all four acts will definitely enjoy Mike’s music. If songs like 45, Oscar and Tommy are any indication, Mike has a bright future in music. And in television perhaps? “Joe Pera talks with you has been my favorite show in the last year. I keep coming back to it over and over again. It’s filmed in the city in living in so hopefully if it gets picked up for another season I can find a way to be an extra in it haha.”


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New EP: Drain County || Sucked Out

By / / Indie Rock, Power Pop / Leave a Comment

The future of Marquette’s finest power pop punk band Liquid Mike may be up in the clouds, but that doesn’t mean Liquid Mike’s Mike Maple will sit on his hands. Here’s Drain County, a new project he started with David Daignault & Zack Alworden who are both members of Charmer.

Drain County, Charmer and Liquid Mike are three decidely different bands, but sonically it’s fair to say that if you like one, you’ll like all three. Expect guitar driven songs that are as punchy as they are melodic infused with a good dose of melancholy. Good stuff, and based on past experience, this probably marks the first of many posts this year from the prolific Marquette music scene.



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New EP: Curfews || Psalms To Strip To

By / / Indie Rock / Leave a Comment

Summer break’s over, which means it’s been at least three weeks since we last covered a band from Marquette, Michigan. Curfews is an indie rock outfit started by Corey Sustarich aka Corey Curfews in 2017. The Psalms To Strip To EP is the band’s latest and greatest release to date. Joined by Mike Maple (Liquid Mike) on guitar (Maple also recorded and produced the EP) and Nick Erickson on drums and bass, Sustarich’s songwriting shines brightest on Death In Spring, Yesterday’s Flowers and Throphy Case. Curfews are in no rush to get to the sweet parts, but when they do, the rewards are easy pickings. Good stuff!

“Sun starts shining on the dawn of a new age // And I start saying bitter things I thought I’d never say // Yesterday’s flowers wilting in the vase // Can you still look at me the same?”



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New album: Heather Evans || Songs I Didn’t Think About

By / / Country & Folk / Leave a Comment

Can anyone tell me what is so special about Marquette (Michigan)? The only conclusion of my Google search is that it looks like a gorgeous place to live, especially in the fall. But that doesn’t explain the disproportiate amount of good music coming out of there.

Somehow, the band Liquid Mike is involved in all of these releases. Liquid Mike, I believe, is a volcano waiting to erupt in terms of international acclaim – a new record will be out soon. But the quality of the members’ solo work is impossible to overlook as well. It’s no surprise we wrote about Michael Maple’s solo work, Raymond Little’s extremely fun recent record (Those lyrics!). And now it’s Heather Evans’ turn.

Songs I Didn’t Think About is an 8-track mini album produced by her Liquid Mike bandmate Michael Maple.  Evans immediately grabs your attention in album opener I Hope Heaven’s Just a Porch, combining palm muted acoustic guitar work with poetic lyricism. “Watching the sunrise over the seedy motels on the west side of my hometown // Wondering what my friends are doing // They live all around the world now.” Those are just the first couple of lines on the record, and they make you want to pull up the lyric sheet when listening to this record – something I recommend strongly by the way.

Both Evans’ lyrics and vocal delivery remind me of Courtney Barnett at times (i.e., listen to A Lot Like You), but Heather Evans has a more alternative folk/country sound. It’s also quite easy to imagine how effective songs like Jobs, Just Me And You and My Hair would be in a powerpop or punkrock version.

Go give Songs I Didn’t Think About  a try. Oh, and the comments section is open for theories about Marquette.




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