***US MAPLE was an American avant-garde rock band. The group was formed in 1995 at Chicago's Northern Illinois University by former members of SNAILBOY aka SHORTY & THE MERCURY PLAYERS. The band consists of AL JOHNSON, MARK SHIPPY, PAT SAMSON, and TODD RITTMANN, who banded together with the intent of becoming the deconstructionists of rock & roll. "It twists around an idea without warning and transforms into another then snaps back to the first. It rambles, seemingly aimlessly at first glance, but by the end, everything has taken its natural course, and nothing was truly out of place."—Pitchfork.