#u.s. maple

[spilladabalia]

U.S. Maple - Rice Ain't Afraid of Nothing

"I just hope people know that we’re writing songs, that we’re not just up there improvising. That’s not schtick up there. It’s four people communicating." - Al Johnson.

[dialoogid]

U.S. Maple by Todd Rittman, 1997

[fieriframes]

[AND CANNOT CATEGORIZE THE NATURE OF THIS SICKNESS. A MIRACLE THAT YOU'RE ALIVE, STUCK TO THE ROOF OF MY MOUTH WITH A STAPLE. REMEMBER LAST APRIL, WHEN WE SAW U.S. MAPLE IN THE EARLY '70s. STARTED BY GRAMPA HIMSELF. RONNIE GRAMPA-- NOW GRAMPA'S YOUR LAST NAME?]

[billlaotian]

[radiophd]

u.s. maple -- the state is bad

[maquina-semiotica]

U.S. Maple, "Go To Bruises" #NowPlaying

[sinceileftyoublog]

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg Interview: Poise, Levity, and Easygoingness

Photo Credit: James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg

BY JORDAN MAINZER

All Gist (Paradise of Bachelors), the third album of guitar duets from exploratory, thoughtful players James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg, sounds like what it is: two longtime friends and collaborators playing together, equal parts casual and focused. Since their 2015 album Ambsace, each has been busy, separately and together. Elkington's released three solo albums, played as part of Eleventh Dream Day, Brokeback, and Jeff Tweedy's live band, and recorded with Steve Gunn, Nap Eyes, and many more. Salsburg's dropped a bevy of albums and has played on records by Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Shirley Collins, and others. Meanwhile, the two have come together on four records by Salsburg's partner Joan Shelley, and Elkington produced Salsburg's Psalms, his 2021 album of arrangements of Hebrew psalms. Their duo records, however, are born of the most natural collaboration, each bringing to the table melodies they think--perhaps know--the other will respond to, combining them, and being open to feedback or changing gears entirely.

All Gist, specifically, carries the distinct quality of the Chicago winter during which it was recorded: You can picture Elkington and Salsburg sitting around the kitchen table, each culling from their vast repertoires and tendencies, creating something to warm their bodies and hearts and perk their heads and ears, unaware of any blusters outside. The songs are reflective of their shared artistic interests and inspirations, and they're rounded out by the presence of musical contemporaries with whom each has fostered relationships over the years. Opener "Death Wishes to Kill", which takes its title from T.F. Powys' Unclay, sports lilting guitar melodies that offer an affable sway, along with Wanees Zarour's violin solo. The minimal "Explanation Point" bounces along a groove that sounds bigger than it is, almost gestalt, as Jean Cook's strings and Anna Jacobson's brass shimmer. Moments of percussion come from other instruments like hand drums ("Long in the Tooth Again"), along with Wednesday Knudsen's woodwinds ("Nicest Distinction"), or as part of the sheer tactility of guitar scrapes and textures. The self-reflexive "Numb Limbs" gets its title from the physical aftereffects of playing a song that took forever to come together; you feel the spritely guitar picking and breakneck tempo in your own fingers.

Of course, All Gist has a few interpolations, namely a gentle, quiet, start-stopping version of Howard Skempton's "Well, Well, Cornelius" and a taut, concise combination of two traditional Breton dance tunes in "Rule Bretagne". Easily, the most unexpected song on the album is a version of Neneh Cherry's classic late 80s jam "Buffalo Stance". Oscillating and slowed down to an expanse, one guitarist plays Cherry's lyrical line, the other the song's instrumental melody, making something both recognizable and nostalgic as well as emblematic of the duo's adventurous nature. That combination, indeed, is the gist of Elkington and Salsburg.

Earlier this month, both guitarists answered some questions over email about All Gist, their creative process, covering songs, and their sometimes-overlapping, oft-diverging taste in art. Read their responses below, edited for clarity.

Photo Credit: Joan Shelley

Since I Left You: Why was it time again to make an album together? James Elkington: We’d been talking about it since we made the last one, but the truth is that we’ve both just been too busy. I started making solo records again after the last one, plus I got to produce one for Nathan, and we both help out with Joan Shelley’s records, so it never felt like we weren’t working together anyway. We were just working on projects in a different way. I think that Nathan and I both think there’s something about the duo’s music that is different from the other things we do, so we were keen to get back to it at some point. Fortunately for us, we got an invitation to play at a guitar festival in Chicago, and we used that as an excuse to start working on new material. I should also mention that our wives kept bugging us to do it again.

SILY: How was your collaboration on All Gist unique as compared to your other records together, and how was it similar? JE: We hadn’t played together like this for something like 7 years, so I was interested to see if we could even do it. But our writing together was as quick and easy as it ever was, and in that sense, it was really similar to how we worked before. Nathan has always worked with longer forms than me, but this time, I wanted to follow his lead a bit more in terms of writing longer pieces with less changes and more textures. We weren’t concerned this time with being able to play all of this stuff live, so we left more space for orchestration and overdubs. Nathan Salsburg: We’ve each lived through a world of experiences in the past ten years, musical and otherwise. Now that we’re each squarely into our middle age, I think the poise, levity, and easygoingness that should be attendant on this period of life show up in the music at [the] pitch they didn’t in the past.

SILY: Was there a lot of improvisation in the process of combining the different instrumental motifs you each brought to the recording session? JE: Because we don’t have a great deal of time to work together, we find things go much quicker if we come up with rough musical sketches by ourselves and then present them to the other. Nothing is ever written in stone, and the level of trust is very high. Anything Nathan suggests for one of my ideas is going to improve it. Both of us are more concerned with coming up with something that sounds cohesive and keeping the ball rolling than having any personal agenda for how this thing should be, and we always leave enough space for us to be surprised by what we end up with. I rarely have any idea what Nathan is playing, but I like how it sounds when it’s finished. We did experiment with recording something completely improvised and liked the results, but it sounded like a different record, so we didn’t use it. Maybe that’ll be the next one.

SILY: How or at what point in making each song do you determine whether it needs more musical accompaniment, from other instruments and/or players? JE: That’s a good question, and I’m not sure I have an answer, but the plan seems to be to write a piece that can stand by itself for the two guitars, record that to our satisfaction (which is nearly always the first take we can manage that has all the right parts), then start throwing other instruments at it to see what sticks. Most of that approach is me in my studio adding things and then taking them off again. There are certain pieces where, as were writing them, we can hear that a solo instrument would sound great in a certain part. Wannees Zarour’s solo in "Death Wishes To Kill" was like that. There are songs, like "All Gist Could Be Yours", where for a repeating chord sequence to have the effect we’re going for, its going to need a lot of support from other instruments, and we talked about that as we were writing it.

Cover art by Chris Fallon

SILY: Do you have a backlog of other people's songs you think might be fun or fulfilling to cover or reimagine as a guitar duet? What makes a song fit for a cover from your two artistic voices? JE: Well, I’m a little concerned that there’s a potential novelty aspect to our doing a lot of covers, but maybe it's okay. We certainly didn’t go out of our way to think of any for this record. Nathan suggested "Buffalo Stance" early on just because he loved the song and all the parts. I was resistant at first, just because I thought there wasn’t enough there for us to work with harmonically, but there’s so much good stuff going on with the synths and the bassline in that tune that it became more a process of picking and choosing what aspects of the song we wanted to shine a light on, at what time. Our Smiths cover from the last record is like that, too. It switches from the guitar line to the vocal depending on where we’re at or what seems to be most important, so I suppose we have a system for doing this. I think the only criteria we have for picking a song is whether one of us really really likes it and the other one can get their head around it.

SILY: "Death Wishes To Kill" takes its title from a T.F. Powys novel you both read. Do the two of you tend to recommend books, films, albums, etc. to each other a lot? Do you ever find you're about to recommend the same thing to one another? JE: I was going to write that we don’t have a huge amount of overlap, but I’m remembering going to his house when we hadn’t known each other long and being confronted with what appeared to be a wall of my own books. Its not as if we like exactly the same things, but there are some writers and records that we both like that NO-ONE else I can think of likes, so when Nathan suggests a book, I usually get to it pretty quickly. I think Nathan was reading the Powys novel, Unclay, and sent me a screen shot of one of the passages in the book with the caption "this is for you" underneath. He also sent me a link to an Australian liquor store commercial from the early 90’s because he knew it would make me laugh for a day and a half, and it did. NS: I remember we made common cause over Max Beerbohm not long after we met—Zuleika Dobson, maybe—but yeah, we each have some preoccupations that the other couldn’t give much of a shit about. Like, I can’t say mid-century British horror movies do a whole lot for me. I’m remembering when Jim spent the better part of an hour trying to explain the appeal of U.S. Maple, and I can’t say he succeeded. And Jim couldn’t care less about rural American string-bands of the late 1920s. But when we have an overlap—Unclay, say, or the totally under-appreciated Yorkshire singer-songwriter Jake Thackray, or Alan Partridge—and yes, these overlapping things do tend to all be English—it’s always stuff we’re super, super jazzed about.

SILY: Can you tell me about the cover art for All Gist? NS: The artist’s name is Chris Fallon, an old friend of mine from when I lived in New York City 20+ years ago. He’s a phenomenal painter, and I love his figures, his palette, and the scenes/settings that he dreams up. I asked him to create a portrait of us, and this is what he did. He’s never met Jim and hasn’t seen me in quite a few years, but I feel like he nailed something of Jim’s and my dynamic, equal parts earnest, bizarre, silly.

[sludgefarmer]

u.s maple are really damn good. it sort of suprises me that they arent talked about more. it has this dissociated just a bit masturbatory kind of weirdo thing going on and then every once in a while they stumble into an astonishing rock and roll hook. like, us maple could have been a sick alt rock band if they werent working office jobs or whatever (and that also would have been good, by the way). i feel like the xiu xiu types should be all over them. but theyre not. there would be slightly more cool music coming out in 2025 if more artsy shartsy middle class 15 year olds were annoying about u.s maple. instead theyre told to go listen to this heat or whatever. i dont even hate this heat.

[have-you-been-here]

Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

(Shuh-WAH-muh-guhn)

Park Falls, Wisconsin, United States

[goalhofer]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Protesters flooded several blocks in downtown Montreal on Saturday, chanting “shame on you” on the doorstep of the United States Consulate. It was one of more than a dozen demonstrations held across Quebec to mark International Women’s Day and denounce the American government’s attacks on women’s rights and Canada’s sovereignty. In Montreal, many wore red, symbolic of both blood and love. Some donned signs displaying the Canadian maple leaf.

Continue reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[daybringersol]

FOUND ‘SNOWFROG’ IN THE WILD 🎉 ‘SNOWFROG’ CONFIRMED

lmaoo

if theres one thing thats funny about anti-québec sentiment its how unserious the derogatory terms for us are

fucking. peasouper 😭😭 cant yall do any better ?? /nbh

[saywhat-politics]

A bitter taste of Trump has inspired newfound patriotism among Canadians and dampened the electoral prospects of the Canadian political party most aligned with him.

March 15, 2025, 2:00 AM MST

By Jennifer Jett

President Donald Trump may be pushing Americans further apart, but he’s brought Canadians closer together.

In a dynamic likely to be familiar to Americans, Canada had become increasingly polarized in recent years, with voters poised to replace the longtime Liberal government with a Conservative Party capitalizing on their worries about inflation and immigration.

But since Trump returned to office, Canadians’ top concern has shifted to relations with the United States, as he imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian imports and made joking-but-maybe-not comments about making their country the 51st U.S. state.

The steady flow of threats and insults from Trump has shocked and confused Canadians, completely upended their upcoming election and inspired a newfound patriotism in a country that isn’t known for being showy about that kind of thing.

It’s been a head-spinning turn of events for those who are struggling to understand how the U.S. could turn on Canada so quickly.

“The degree of disappointment and disillusionment is very high,” said Jonathan Malloy, a political science professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, the Canadian capital.

There is also intense anger. The country is ringing with calls to “Buy Canadian,” with U.S. liquor pulled from shelves and Canadian products prominently marked with maple leaf signs in grocery stores. Canadians are booing the U.S. national anthem at hockey games, canceling trips to the U.S. and asking for “Canadianos” instead of Americanos at coffee shops.

[maquina-semiotica]

“ Rice Ain't Afraid of Nothing”, U.S. Maple

[thereyouarewhereveryougo]

Trump's record on military and vets

Trump can fuck off and die, Semper Fi

Only 1 Trump in America has served in the military (Fred Trump, Don's brother, served in the Air National Guard); this spans 5 generations, and every branch of the family tree. In fact, the reason his grandfather immigrated to America was to avoid military service.

Children of deployed US troops will no longer get automatic American citizenship if born overseas during deployment. This includes US troops posted abroad for years at a time (August 28, 2019)

On August 2, 2019, Trump requisitioned military retirement funds towards border wall

On July 31, 2019, Trump ordered the Navy rescind medals to prosecutors who were prosecuting war criminals

In July 2019, Trump denied a United States Marine of 6 years entry into the United States for his scheduled citizenship interview (Reported July 17, 2019)

Trump made the U.S. Navy Blue Angels violate ethics rules by having them fly at his July 4th political campaign (July 4, 2019)

Trump demanded US military chiefs stand next to him at 4th of July parade (reported July 2, 2019)

In June, 2019, Trump sent troops to the border to paint the fence for a better "aesthetic appearance" (June 7, 2019)

Trump used his D-Day interview at a cemetery commemorating fallen US soldiers to attack a Vietnam veteran (June 6, 2019)

Trump started his D-Day commemoration speech by attacking a private citizen (Bette Midler, of all people) (reported on June 4th, 2019)

Trump made his 2nd wife, Marla Maples, sign a prenup that would have cut off all child support if Tiffany joined the military (reported on June 4th, 2019)

On May 27, 2019, Trump turned away US military from his Memorial Day speech because they were from the destroyer USS John S. McCain

Trump ordered the USS John McCain out of sight during his visit to Japan (May 15, 2019). The ship's name was subsequently covered. (May 27, 2019)

Trump pardoned war criminals (May, 2019)

Trump purged 200,000 veterans healthcare applications (due to known administrative errors within VA’s enrollment process and enrollment system) (reported on May 13, 2019)

Trump deported a spouse of fallen Army soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving their daughter parentless (April 16, 2019)

On March 20, 2019, Trump complained that a deceased war hero didn't thank him for his funeral

He refused to sign his party's funding bill, which shut down the government, and forced a branch of the military to go without pay. This branch of military was forced to work without pay, otherwise they would be AWOL. However, his appointees got a $10,000 pay raise (Dec 22, 2018 – Jan 25, 2019)

He didn't pay the Coast Guard, forcing service members to rely on food pantries (Jan 23, 2019)

He banned service members from serving based on gender identity (Jan 22, 2019)

He denied female troops access to birth control to limit sexual activity (on-going. Published Jan 18, 2019)

He tried to deport a marine vet who is a U.S.-born citizen (Jan 16, 2019)

When a man was caught swindling veterans pensions for high-interest “cash advances," Trump's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined him $1. As a reminder, the Trump administration's goal was to dismantle the CFPB, installing Mick Mulvaney as the director, who publicly stated the bureau should be disbanded. (Jan 26, 2019)

He called a retired general a 'dog' with a 'big, dumb mouth' (Jan 1, 2019)

He increased privatization of the VA, leading to longer waits and higher taxpayer cost (2018)

He finally visited troops 2 years after taking office, but only after 154 vacation days at his properties (Dec 26, 2018)

He revealed a covert Seal Team 5 deployment, including names and faces, on Twitter during his visit to Iraq (Dec 26, 2018)

Trump lied to deployed troops that he gave them a 10% raise. He didn't give them a 10% raise (Dec 26, 2018). He initially tried to give the military a raise that was lower than the standard living adjustment. This was before Congress told him that idea wasn't going to work. Then after giving them the raise that Congress made him, he lied about it pretending that it was larger than Obama's. It wasn't.

He fired service members living with HIV just before the 2018 holidays (Dec 19, 2018-present)

He tried to slash disability and unemployment benefits for Veterans to $0, and eliminate the unemployability extrascheduler rating (Dec 17, 2018)

He got three Mar-a-Lago guests to run the VA (unknown start - present, made well-known in 2018)

He called troops on Thanksgiving and told them he's most thankful for himself (Thanksgiving, 2018)

He urged Florida to not count deployed military votes (Nov 12, 2018)

While in Europe commemorating the end of WWI, he didn't attend the ceremony at a US cemetery due to the rain - but other world leaders went anyway (Nov 10, 2018)

He used troops as a political prop by sending them on a phantom mission to the border and made them miss Thanksgiving with their families (Oct-Dec, 2018)

He stopped using troops as a political prop immediately after the election. However, the troops remained in muddy camps on the border (Nov 7, 2018)

Trump changed the GI Bill through his Forever GI Act, causing the VA to miss veteran benefits, including housing allowances. This caused many veterans to run out of food and rent. “You can count on us to serve, but we can’t count on the VA to make a deadline,” one veteran said. (reported October 7, 2018)

Trump doubled the rejection rate for veterans requesting family deportation protections (July 5, 2018)

Trump deported active-duty spouses (11,800 military families face this problem as of April 2018)

He forgot a fallen soldier's name (below) during a call to his pregnant widow, then attacked her the next day (Oct 23-24, 2017)

He sent commandos into an ambush due to a lack of intel, and sends contractors to pick them up, resulting in a commando being left behind, tortured, and executed. (Trump approved the mission because Bannon told him Obama didn't have the guts to do it) (Oct 4, 2017)

He blocked a veteran group on Twitter (June 2017)

He ordered the discharge of active-duty immigrant troops with good records (2017-present)

He deported veterans (2017-present)

He said he knows more about ISIS than American generals (Oct 2016)

He said vets get PTSD because they aren't strong (Oct 3, 2016) (note: yes, he said it's 'because they aren't strong.' He didn't say it's 'because they're weak.' This distinction is important because of Snopes)

Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a fan at one of his rallies and said: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.” (Aug 2, 2016)

Trump attacks Gold Star families - Myeshia Johnson--gold star widow, Khan family--gold star parents, etc. (2016-present)

Trump sent funds raised from a January 2016 veterans benefit to the Donald J Trump Foundation instead of veterans charities (the foundation has since been ordered shut because of fraud) (Jan, 2016)

Trump said "I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people" because he went to a military-style academy and that he has "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military". (2015 biography)

For a decade, Trump sought to kick veterans off of Fifth Avenue because he found them unsightly nuisances outside of Trump Tower. “While disabled veterans should be given every opportunity to earn a living, is it fair to do so to the detriment of the city as a whole or its tax paying citizens and businesses?” - 1991

Trump dodged the draft 5 times by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs.

[ririright]

Hayden-as-a-Canadian

Moments that quietly (or not-so-quietly) scream “yep, he’s definitely from Canada”

🍁Apologizes to inanimate objects

Bumps into the kitchen chair?

“Oh—sorry.”

Trips on the dog toy?

“Didn’t see you there, bud, my bad.”

Knocks over a rake?

“Whoa—sorry, man.”

You’ve watched him sincerely apologize to a tree for bumping into it.

🍁Calls it a toque, not a beanie

And will gently correct you every single time.

“You mean your hat?”

“No, I mean my toque.”

It’s a sacred item. Bonus points if it has a pom-pom.

🍁Snowplowing is his zen zone

Not just because it’s productive, but because it gives him time to reflect on life, mutter “beauty day, eh?” under his breath, and imagine he’s in a Tim Hortons commercial.

Also, he’s visibly excited when the weather report says “a good dumping of snow.”

🍁The sacred Tim Hortons order

He has a very specific one. Double-double. With a Boston cream. Maybe a maple donut if it’s Friday.

And if you dare slander Timmies?

“Okay, but have you had their steeped tea? It’s just…orgasmic.”

🍁Endless politeness, even while threatening

“Buddy, if that goose bites my kid again, I swear—uh—I’m gonna have to give it a firm talking-to, y’know? Respectfully.”

🍁Absolutely says “eh”

But it sneaks up on you. Like:

“This snow’s coming down, eh?”

“That goat’s kind of aggressive, eh?”

“We’ll make it work, eh?”

You teased him for it once. He blushed. Denied it. Then said it again five minutes later.

🍁Loves maple syrup a little too much

You’ve caught him pouring it over pancakes, waffles, oatmeal, toast, and once… a piece of grilled chicken.

“It’s experimental,” he said defensively.

🍁He’s just too nice

Too helpful. Too unbothered by blizzards. Too humble about everything except snow shoveling technique and Canadian geese navigation patterns.

🍁Gives the “Canadian hand wave” in traffic

Even if he’s on a tractor. Even if it’s just to the ducks.

One hand on the wheel, one little polite wave: “Thanks, bud.”

🍁Has strong feelings about ketchup chips

Finds a bag on the U.S. side of the border? Buys four.

“No one appreciates these the way we do,” he mutters, hoarding them like treasure.

🍁He’s weirdly fast at ice scraping

You blink and your windshield is clear. He’s got a system. A rhythm. It’s practically Olympic-level.

“Gotta respect the frost, y’know?”

🍁Keeps saying “it’s not that cold”

While everyone else is layered like Arctic explorers, Hayden’s out there in a flannel, saying:

“Could be worse. Feels mild, eh?”

It’s -12°C.

🍁Owns way too many flannel shirts and insists they’re for “different purposes”

There’s the barn flannel, the nice flannel, the going into town flannel, and the snuggle flannel that smells like dryer sheets and maple.

You try to consolidate them. He panics.

“You can’t fold the red plaid! That one’s got history!”

🍁Gets way too into curling on TV

Yells “hard! hard!!” at the screen like it’s Game 7 of the Stanley Cup.

“You don’t get how stressful it is,” he says, white-knuckled. “They’re sweeping for honour.”