Maritime’s new album, Human Hearts, is out today. And not only did the band allow Buzzgrinder to stream the whole thing, but the guys were also kind enough to take over posting duties for the day. Gives us time to prepare for our IFOCE fantasy league draft.

An editor over at The Onion/The AV Club named Steven Hyden once tweeted (yes, I am quoting a tweet, get over it) “I’ll say it again: Interviewing older musicians with nothing to lose is WAY better than talking with the next big thing. So much more candid.” When I read that, I thought it couldn’t be more “right on” to the way I feel right now in my so-called “career.”

In Davey’s and my old band, The Promise Ring, all we heard from fans and writers alike was, “you guys are going to be huge!” We hear it so much that I felt we continually triple guessed ourselves (or even didn’t triple guess ourselves enough) at every move, so as to not ruffle any feathers that might stop us from reaching that preconceived notion these people had. In fact, I feel it wasn’t until Wood/Water (which is the greatest “fuck it” record ever, if I do say so my damn self) that we were OK with who we were and willing to be.

Anyway, my point is that we always stayed away from being openly political because it was all about the music, man. So a few days before we — I am talking about Maritime now — were to play with the reunited Dismemberment Plan in Chicago, I was shopping at a Toys ‘R Us with my wife and kids. Then I thought we (Maritime again, not my wife and kids) should really do something to show how we feel about the decisions our governor (well, not our governor… we didn’t vote for him) in Wisconsin is making and how it will affect all of our lives.

So I did what any mid-30s dude would do when he’s about to speak his mind — I went to a craft store and bought some iron-on letters. Above is a photo of us after we played that night. It shows us being, as Mr. Hyden says about older musicians with nothing to lose, “so much more candid.”

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