On the road with d: Maritime

One of my favorite bands that I came across last summer is indie pop rock band Maritime that hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They're currently a quartet though the band formed initially from former members of The Promise Ring (singer/guitarist Davey von Bohlen and drummer Dan Didier) and The Dismemberment Plan (bassist Eric Axelson). The song that drew me in was the first song of theirs I'd ever heard: For Science Fiction.


Maritime - For Science Fiction

From its opening drums and bass riffs to its catchy chorus, I was instantly hooked.

Maritime - Guns of Navarone


Maritime - Boy from School

This song is off of Maritime's third album Heresy and the Hotel Choir released this past October. Also on this album is lead single Guns of Navarone, which appeared on the site in February. Maritime's other song on the site, a cover of Hot Chip's Boy from School, is a bonus track only on the Japanese version of the album and it's definitely an interesting play on the original keeping the melody but changing the mood of the song.

The third album actually represents a shift in how the group writes its music; it's the first album that the band actually sat down and wrote together as a band. Original member and bass player Eric Axelson didn't live in the same city as the others so the band had previously primarily worked via demos online. However, Axelson was tired of touring and left the group before the band went on tour after the release of its second album forcing the band to rely on temporary replacements until they made bassist Justin Klug and guitarist/keyboardist Dan Hinz permanent members of the band. This paved the way for the band actually being able to work together on writing the music for the third album from the very beginning. This led to a more cohesive record written in a shorter amount of time.

Below are two songs from the band's second album We, The Vehicles released in 2006.


Maritime - Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts


Maritime - Tearing Up the Oxygen

Maritime's website
Maritime's MySpace