PREVIEWISSUE ONE

FEATURING

1.21 GIGAWATTS IS PROUD TO PRESENT A PREVIEW TO THE LONG-AWAITED FIRST ISSUE. THE ARTICLE ON THE OPPOSITE PAGE FEATURES BROOKLYN BAND AND FRIENDS OF 1.21 GIGS, LIFE SIZE MAPS.

WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THE ART, PHOTOS AND WRITING. IF YOU ENJOY THE ARTICLE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD SOME FREE MUSIC BY LIFE SIZE MAPS ON THEINTERWEBS. if you have downloaded this in pdf form YOU CAN GET TO THEIR BAND PAGE BY TAPPING/OR CLICKING THE BIG BLACK CIRCLE WITH THE BAND NAME IN IT.

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND THANKS FOR READING.

On any random night you can walk into 285 Kent and see a myriad of great bands. One

night in February that band happened to be Life Size Maps. Their sound was unlike anything else in recent memo-ry. It was reminiscent of bands from a couple decades ago, yet it still sounded fresh and new. Fast forward to a few nights later and the 1.21 Gigawatts crew is sitting in an old bus on the patio of a bar in Williamsburg with the three members that make up Life Size Maps, Mike McKeever, Rob Karpay and Jor-dyn Blakely. They spent the night talking about the band and where the music comes from and normal band interview things, but Life Size Maps is far from normal. They’re a three piece made up of guitar, drums, cello and an iPod. The songs go from extremely loud and noisy to accessible sing-along parts. McKeever talked about how he goes about constructing the songs, “I spend half my time listening to the poppiest, hookiest stuff I can get my hands on, and the other half of my time listening to weird noisy stuff that’s maybe orchestral or strange.” Jordyn chimed in saying she was into everything from Grunge, Rock and Punk to Avant-Garde Jazz, and Rob

came out of left field with his influences citing “Video game music and Uber Russian Classical music.” Mix all of these and you get Life Size Maps newest release, the Weird Luck EP. Our relationship with Life Size Maps goes far be-yond that night on the weird c old bus though. After check-ing them out live countless times since February, it’s be-come clear that Life Size Maps is constantly growing and changing. The past couple gigs they’ve been playing a new song here and there. After telling McKeever one night that his new song sounded a lot like My Bloody Valentine he got excited, and then I woke up to a text message the next morning asking “What part of the new song reminds you of MBV?” It’s this kind of attention to their music that makes Life Size Maps so interesting. They’re constantly growing and taking things that the listener might be familiar with like My Bloody Valentine, capturing it in their own way, twisting it and turning it into something unique yet famil-iar enough to draw you in. Words and Photos by Danny Krug

Illustrations by Brandon Elijah Johnson