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Maple Mars

"Beautiful Mess" available now!

About Me

Beautiful Mess hits number 17 in the Audities Top 20 of 2007 poll!

The votes are finally in, comments (mostly grousing) to follow:
1. Fountains Of Wayne -- Traffic And Weather (685 points)
2. The Red Button -- She&8217;s About To Cross My Mind (501)
3. The Nines -- Gran Jukle&8217;s Field (326)
4. Future Clouds & Radar --Future Clouds & Radar (269)
5. Paul McCartney -- Memory Almost Full (268)
6. Bruce Springsteen -- Magic (241)
7. Amy Winehouse -- Back To Black (231)
8. John Hoskinson -- Pancho Fantastico (225)
9. Wilco -- Sky Blue Sky (217)
10. The Broken West -- I Can&8217;t Go On, I&8217;ll Go On (206)
11. Nick Lowe -- At My Age (205)
Robert Plant and Allison Krauss -- Raising Sand (205)
13. Crowded House -- Time On Earth (202)
14. Spoon -- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (198)
15. Rooney -- Calling The World (194)
16. The New Pornographers -- Challengers (192)
17. Maple Mars -- Beautiful Mess (171)
18. Lewis Taylor -- The Lost Album (168)
19. Farrah -- Cut Out And Keep (165)
20. Ken Sharp -- Sonic Crayons (156)
And the rest of the Top 50
21. The Shins -- 155
22. Frisbie -- 136
23. The Clientele -- 134
24. Jason Falkner -- 130
25. Ryan Adams -- 129
Jackdaw 4 -- 129
27. Ian Hunter -- 126
28. Silverchair -- 123
29. Band Of Horses -- 105
Jens Lekman -- 105
31. Myracle Brah -- 102
Automat -- 102
33. Ice Cream Hands -- 100
Kaiser Chiefs -- 100
35. Apples In Stereo -- 92
36. Lily Allen -- 90
37. P. Hux -- 88
38. LCD Soundsystem -- 86
39. Rilo Kiley -- 85
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists -- 85
41. Travis -- 84
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings -- 84
43. Everybody Else -- 83
44. The Weakerthans - 82
Relient K -- 82
46. Graham Parker -- 81
47. Nushu -- 78
The Well Wishers -- 78
49. Mike Viola -- 76
50. Nicole Atkins -- 74
Josh Rouse -- 74
Well the Audities 1 didn't even crack my top 125. Of course my list is more focused on power pop and some offshoots whereas the Audities lists invariably have a lot of "indie rock" on them. However, FoW is as power pop as it gets, but Traffic & Weather just didn't do anything for me. It's not that I have anything against them - their previous three proper releases would have been on my lists had I done them those years, especially 1999's Utopia Parkway. This effort sounded like FoW by the numbers, and although they've always had a "formula" (just ask Robbie Fulks ), this disc was all formula and little inspiration when it came to the tunes. The short stories they're famous for in the lyrics continue to be great, but it seemed that they were concentrating on the lyrics at the expense of the music this time around. It wasn't a bad disc, just not a particularly memorable one.
Meanwhile, what seemed to me uninspired efforts from big names (McCartney, Wilco, Crowded House) took high spots, the inevitable result of democratization of a list (97 participants here) where name recognition often trumps quality. Of course it's all subjective, but that's where I come down. I thought The Red Button might take the prize, but I'm still glad to see my 1 at 2 here. The Nines won last year, so third place wasn't a surprise. Interestingly, although I prefer last year's Calling Distance Stations to Gran Jukle's Field, I had the former at 23 last year and the latter at 10 this year, mainly due to this year's top 25 being weaker from 5-25 than last year's was. I'm also glad to see The Broken West, Ken Sharp and Maple Mars get their due. Speaking of name recognition, I see Jason Falkner at 24; luckily, this was a Japan-only release or it would have likely received an unwarranted top 10 spot.
I'm not even going to discuss Amy Winehouse. - From Absolute Powerpop

Pop Garden Radio Interview- July 21st

KSCU Radio Interview - Friday, Aug. 17th


I was not keen on Maple Mars' "Circular Haze" which I thought got too trippy and tried a bit too hard. So I wasn't sure what to expect four years later with "Beautiful Mess" and I was pleasantly surprised. Guitarist Rick Hromadka (formally of the LA based Double Naught Spies) has done an excellent job here balancing the power pop and the psychedelic sound that he does so well. The opening song "Beautiful Mess" is equal parts Mick Ronson and Queen with a little Beatles thrown in. "Listen" is an awesome mix of the psychedelic and lush pop orchestration, sounds like it belongs on Badfinger's "Straight Up." A lighter touch on tracks like "Breathe Deep" make this release so enjoyable. The guitar work on "Fell Of The Cloud" rivals The Cloud Eleven for smoothness and laid back California style. This approach works beautifully to a cover of 10cc's "I'm not in Love" that will give you goosebumps for sure. The ballad "Between Two Worlds" shimmering guitar solo is similar to a lost ELO tune sung by Todd Rundgren and will demand repeat listens. There are other ballads here "Apology" and "Sweetest Dream" do an amazing job of establishing an atmosphere and the vocal overlays and chords in "Sweetest Dream" remind me of classic Cyrkle. With no misses and so many hits, this easily makes it a Top Ten contender of 2007. - Powerpopaholic

Beautiful Mess out now!

"Beautiful Mess" is one of the top pop cds of 2007" - Jeremy (Jam Records)


ORDER YOUR CD NOW AND RECEIVE A SPECIAL BONUS DISC CONTAING 6 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACKS - "WELCOME TO MAPLE MARS" (demo), "GOLDEN PEOPLE" (demo), "THE BEGINING" (acoustic), "FACE IN THE CROWD" (demo), "SOFT CAROUSEL" (demo), AND A "MARS REMAKE" OF THE THEME FROM "DARK SHADOWS"!

Order Your Copy Now! - And for more music samples check out our website


Myspace Layouts at Pimp-My-Profile.com / The desert

"Butterfly Effect" video from Maple Mars!

A dash of Pink Floyd, a sprinkle of Cheap Trick, some Jellyfish on the side, and a big dollop of the Beatles describe the Los Angeles band Maple Mars. Veteran singer-songwriter, guitarist Rick Hromadka (formally of LA pop icons Double Naught Spies) fronts this psychedelic rock outfit with drummer Ron Pak, guitarist Steve Berns, and bassist Scott Halper. Their debut album entitled "Welcome To Maple Mars" (Permanent Press Recordings) had some critics naming the album one of the best indie pop-rock albums of 2001; and received rave reviews by such industry mags as Billboard, Album Network, Mojo, Hits Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, as well as many online publications. Songs from "Welcome To Maple Mars" have been featured on NBC's Thirdwatch and Fox's Felicity. Their second album entitled "Circular Haze" was released in 2003 on New Jersey label Kool Kat Musik, and upped the ante in the review category, also making many critics' top-ten lists for that year. "Beautiful Mess" - also on Kool Kat, and the third album from Maple Mars could be it's best yet, and made many lists as one of the best pop albums of 2007. The band has played on both coasts in the US, and in the United Kingdom

Landing in Los Angles from New Haven, Connecticut, Rick Hromadka first found a day job at Saban Entertainment and began penning songs for a variety of film and TV teen shows like Breaker High, Sweet Valley High, and the Power Rangers; also getting a track on the Power Rangers movie Turbo. Hromadka formed the power-trio group The Visionaries and released Every Other Saturday on Wrecking Ball Records. The band morphed into Double Naught Spies and was a fixture on the "LA Pop Scene" with their heavy 70's rock influence and melodic vocal arrangements. Their 1999 release The Shoephone Conspiracy (Cherry Boy Records) with engineer/co-producer Richard Bosworth (Dramarama, Wondermints, The Knack) brought the band major notoriety; being added to a number of college radio play lists, and was re-released in Japan on Air Mail Recordings (complete with bonus tracks and new liner notes). Songs from the CD have been used in several films and TV shows including Hanginaround (Winter Films) which also features music by The Who and Counting Crows; Piñata (Trimark Pictures) and King Cobra (HBO). Songs from The Shoephone Conspiracy - as well as the Maple Mars albums - have appeared on a variety of pop compilations from countries as diverse as Sweden, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada, which have brought the band an international following. Rick Hromadka currently works in Burbank, CA as a successful sound editor, and has won three Emmys for his work on the television shows ER and Thirdwatch.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/21/2005
Band Website: maplemars.com
Band Members:

RICK HROMADKA - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Keys
STEVE BERNS - BG Vocals, Guitar
RON PAK - Bg Vocals, Drums


Influences: Beatles, Zombies, Brian Wilson, The Who, The Move, Syd Barrett, James Bond, Lee Hazelwood, The Turtles, The Kinks, The Hollies, Yardbirds, Cream, Hendrix, Peter Sellers, Sly Stone, Elton John, David Bowie, Roman Polansky, Harry Nielson, Pretty Things, Big Star, Badfinger, Queen, Sweet, T Rex, Evil Knievel, Pink Floyd, Burt Bacharach, The Byrds, The Carpenters, Yes, The Raspberries, Todd Rundgren, Led Zeppelin, Ramones, Jeff Beck, Sex Pistols, Paul Westerburg, Flaming Lips, Elvis



Rick with Michael McCartney (The Time Machine - Maui Radio) and Adam Waltimer (Pop Garden Radio)

Cavern Club, Liverpooll

Genghis Cohen, Los Angeles

Sounds Like: See above influences!
Record Label: Kool Kat Musik
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Bootlegged!

It appears our album "Beautiful Mess" has been bootlegged! I've noticed advertisements on the Net with a cover that's different than the one used on the final version! This all happened in Japan, wher...
Posted by Maple Mars on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:35:00 PST

Beautiful Mess out in May!

From Kool Kat Musik:   Their third release (and second on Kool Kat) is a pure pop delight and sees the band stretching out a bit musically! Rick Hromadka explains - "'The new album picks up wh...
Posted by Maple Mars on Tue, 03 Apr 2007 10:33:00 PST

The Fate Of Beautiful Mess

It seems the name of our new album, which we titled "Beautiful Mess", was very appropriate, because it's release has turned into just that! Originally, the disk was to be released by japanese label Wi...
Posted by Maple Mars on Fri, 09 Feb 2007 04:37:00 PST

New Maple Mars Album

The new Maple Mars album is finally finished! The title is "Beautiful Mess" - kinda like my life as of late...The album will be released in early 2007 on the japanese label Wizzard In Vinyl. Besides...
Posted by Maple Mars on Sun, 06 Aug 2006 04:41:00 PST

Is There Life On Mars?

Damn right there is! As a matter of fact, there have been so many changes in the atmosphere here that the cosmic winds on the surface are churning! The result is a major creative pull towards the sun....
Posted by Maple Mars on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST