It's now twenty years since U.S. Maple and Talker were sent tot he Drag City offices. Their third album took the egretions and abrasions of their early music to a new height of quiet horror, their contribution to the summer of '99 - a hot, trying season, one that won't soon be forgotten. Talker was recorded by Martin Bisi and produced by Michael Gira at Bisi Studios. U.S. Maple made two more records after Talker before dissolving in the mid-aughts. Talker has been out of print on vinyl since 2008, but returns now, newly replated for vinyl with all original packaging (gatefold sleeve, notebook paper insert, poster, cover sticker), because some experiences, like high school, should keep getting replayed over and over again, forever.

As Maple lead singer Al Johnson said at the end of last century, "if we could erase rock 'n' roll as we saw it, and reorganize it, and present it again while keeping its most important elements-mischief, elegance, songs, terror - if we could do all of those things... it was going to be a new form of rock 'n' roll." Twenty years on, it sure as hell is.

Drop out all over again - order your copy of Talker now, or get it in stores August 16th!