One of few official Poetry Bands in Los Angeles, Totem Maples got their start in 1997 playing the coffeehouse scene in the San Gabriel Valley east of downtown L.A. Named after the diverse relations on a Totem polediversity in sound and style is what gives TM its power. Lead by poet Larry Handy on vocals, this band consists of Joanne Kim on piano, Justin Punzalan on turn tables, Brian Sadler on electric guitar and organ, Erik Elsey on drums and percussion, and Matt Coleman on acoustic guitar and harmonica. They blend folk, jazz, hip hop, rock, experimental and of course spoken word poetry. What separates them from other poetry bands is their jam based feel. Instead of reciting poetry to background music, Larry Handy recites WITH the music. The music is fit to each poem and when the poem stops the music ventures off into free flowing improvisational solos. In the SLAM influenced spoken word scene poetry that captures the attention these days is the angry political kind. Totem Maples steps out of the way bringing a life message draped in deep symbolic language reminiscent of Arthur Rimbaud and Pablo Neruda. Their recordings are quite blissful and remind the listener of the one spoken word album recorded by The Doors: AMERICAN PRAYER. Their song "Gethsemane" was nominated for BEST SPOKEN WORD SONG at the 2004 JUST PLAIN FOLKS MUSIC AWARDS. Their song "Spoken Turd" reached NUMBER 6 in the AMERICAN IDOL UNDERGROUND TOP 50 ROCK SONG CATEGORY and stayed there for 3 weeks. At the 2006 INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS competition both albums Trip to the Sun and Ars Poetica were finalists for BEST JAM ALBUM OF THE YEAR. Trip to the Sun also received a second nomination for BEST RAP/HIP HOP ALBUM OF THE YEAR. Totem Maples.
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