Pitchfork

Maritime, the three-piece outfit made up of former Dismemberment Plan bassist Eric Axelson and two former Promise Ring members (vocalist/guitarist Davey von Bohlen and drummer Dan Didier), has signed to DeSoto Records. Maritime's debut full-length, Glass Floor, will be released on May 31st, , the label reports. Von Bohlen and Didier have been working together since the Promise Ring broke up in 2002, having released two albums on Kindercore under the name of Vermont. Upon picking up Axelson, the band was known briefly as In English before settling on Maritime, perhaps drawing the inspiration from a visit to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, just up the Lake Michigan coast from the band's Milwaukee home.

Maritime has been recording and touring since last year, and has already released a five-song EP called Adios to "keep the fires burning" while the band recorded Glass Floor. An MP3 of the title track from Adios can be found on their official website. J. Robbins produced the EP as well as the forthcoming full-length (in fact, an MP3 of Glass Floor's "King of Doves" can be found on his own site). Tracklist:

01 The Window Is The Door
02 Sleep Around
03 Someone Has To Die
04 King of Doves
05 We've Got To Get Out
06 James
07 A Night Like This
08 Souvenirs
09 Adios
10 I'm Not Afraid
11 If All My Days Go By
12 Lights
13 Human Beings

A tour in support of Glass Floor is expected to begin in late spring and continue for most of the summer. The band is already planning a follow-up album, and seems to be generally chomping at the bit for their new music to be heard. As Davey writes on the bands' site: "I feel like we've been sitting on the record forever, and we can't wait to have it drop." Coincidentally, "drop"is on the short list of words the news staff has vowed to try and stop using, because, as features editor Kristin Sage Rockermann once pointed out, it makes it sound like the band is laying an egg.