The group's most recent release, Purple on Time, is probably the most accessible of its five-album canon; there's actually a bit of sense -- and even some near-hummable melodies -- to be found amid the grating guitar lines, willfully weird dynamics, vagrant rhythms, and "singer" Al Johnson's oblique phrasings and discomfiting wheeze. But compared to, say, Sonic Youth, this is some out-there shit. Not sure if you're up for the U.S. Maple challenge? Only way to know is to experience it for yourself.
U.S. Maple is scheduled to perform on Friday, May 28, at Modified Arts.