Pitchfork

You know the story: the Promise Ring and the Dismemberment Plan broke up. People cried. Davey von Bohlen (singer/guitarist) and Dan Didier (drums) of the Promise Ring joined forces with Dismemberment Plan bassist Eric Axelson to create the emo Audioslave, Maritime.

Maritime released their debut album, Glass Floor, on DeSoto in 2004. It wasn't so hot. They started working on their second LP almost immediately. And now, a year and a half later, their labor bears fruit. On April 18, Flameshovel will release We, The Vehicles. (Word on the street is that it's not bad at all. In fact, it's good.)

The band sez: "Maritime remains solidly tethered to pop perfection, but has taken space to let that pop cycle through all its permutations." It will be up to Us, The Listeners to decide if they really let it cycle through all its permutations, or if they just gave up after cycling through, like, 8 out of 10 of them.

They, The Songs:

01 Calm
02 Tearing Up the Oxygen
03 People the Vehicles
04 Parade of Punk Rock T-shirts
05 We Don't Think, We Know
06 No One Will Remember
07 Young Alumni
08 Don't Say You Don't
09 German Engineering
10 Twins
11 Protein and Poison
12 Before You Were Born
13 Call Me Home

The vinyl version of the LP will come out on Foreign Leisure on March 7. Look for a copy on eBay by the time the CD is out, because they're only printing 1,000 of these babies, on blue vinyl no less. Take that, iTunes!

When Maritime head out on tour in support of Vehicles, don't look for Axelson on stage. Earlier this month, Axelson posted on the Maritime website that he is no longer sailing the high seas with von Bohlen and Didier. "After a little more than two years of playing in the band, I decided it was time for me to call it a day on touring," he wrote. "I've been on the road a ton in the past 7 years of my life and wanted to stay closer to home. It's been nothing but fun playing with Maritime and we're all on good terms, I just wanted them to be able to tour as much as they felt necessary without me holding them back."

Justin Klug (Decibully) will take over on bass duties, and along with touring guitarist Dan Hinz, Maritime will hit the road in March.

Cheer up, emo kid:

03-13 Springfield, MO - Outland Ballroom *
03-14 Tulsa, OK - 1974 &@
03-15 Austin, TX - Lava Lounge Patio #%@ (Flameshovel SXSW showcase)
03-17 Austin, TX - Lucky Lounge (Riot Act Media SXSW party) @#$
03-18 Houston, TX - Walter's on Washington ^!
03-19 Little Rock, AR - Vino's ^
03-24 Madison, WI - Club 770 +
03-25 Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
03-27 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle =

* with Playing With Matches, Allister, Tight Phantomz, Short Histories of Powerful
& with Appleseed Cast, Criteria
@ with Russian Circles % Lying in States, Low Skies
# with Bound Stems
$ with Metal Hearts, Crystal Skulls, Headphones
^ with Aloha
! with the Velvet Teen
+ with Rainer Maria, Head of Femur, Mendoza Line, Mike Park, the City on Film
= with the Race, Matthew Kerstein