ARTIST BIO:
AARON SMITH aka SCIENTIFIC MAPS
Aaron Smith (Schenectady, 1976) is a Brooklyn based collage artist who gathers images from magazines and ephemera between the 1950s-70s. Smith creates colorful and often psychedelic artwork with occult and sci-fi undertones. Themes include puzzles from popular advertising, the elevation of the absurd, and giants of outer space.
Smith’s collages have been shown during Bushwick Open Studios (2021) through the Brooklyn Collage Collective. His art has been used for album covers for recording artists including The Parlor, Brent Gorton (of the Better Pills,) and Warrender Chase (Hidden Things, Swimclub.)
Currently, the primary output is collage art. Music is on the back burner, on a stove in some other dimension. All original art is available for purchase here.
THE MUSIC:
Scientific Maps is a recording and art project run by the multi-instrumentalist songwriter, Aaron Smith. Here’s some history:
The band/project began in 2003 and has released FIVE full length albums titled: “Get Off The Moon,’ “Hold On Whoever You Are,” “Shrill Spectre,” “Fangs Death Deep,” and “Warm Apparitions,” as well as three E.P.s: “Galvanic Wizardry,” “Food For Witches,” and “Over Levitation Nights.”
A blurb about “Food for Witches” -“written by Aaron Smith and recorded over a two-year period with band members and friends at Collar City Sound in Troy, N.Y. The seven song E.P. plays like a ghost story told during a full moon by a reluctant hermit living in a cave covered with Kinks, Karloff and Carl Sagan posters.”
***In 2006 and 2009, Metroland voted Scientific Maps “BEST POP BAND” in the Capital Region and in 2008 Aaron Smith was named “BEST MALE SONGWRITER”.
***From Best of the Capital Region Metroland 2009 Best Pop Band
Scientific Maps
They took this one in 2006, and Aaron Smith emerged from the scrum last year as Best Male Songwriter, but with Hold On Whoever You Are, Smith’s record for this year’s RPM Challenge, the Maps still craft the smartest, catchiest crypto-zoological tunes in the land. With song titles like “Wherein We Are Introduced to the Author as He is Tortured and Transported via Ship from Portugal to an English Prison,” it’s tough to be the competition.
***From BEST OF the capital region Metroland 2008 —-Best Songwriter (Male) Aaron Smith Chief cartographer for hometown heroes the Scientific Maps, Smith packs volumes into his three- to four-minute garage-pop gems—midnight cemetery raids, love requited and otherwise, and a touch of the mysterious behind the mundane. His bittersweet, sometimes inscrutable lyrics are underscored by arcing trumpets, buzzing guitar solos, and a rare gift for the devastating chord change. Smith’s tweaking of conventions belies a near mastery of the form—meaning total galactic domination by Smith and the Maps is at this point inevitable. Just remember who told you so when it finally happens.
****From BEST OF the capital region Metroland issue 7/20/06
—Best Pop Band Scientific Maps Aaron Smith writes some of the quirkiest, catchiest geek-pop tunes weve heard since . . . well, since Smiths old band (the Stars of Rock). And his recently revamped Scientific Maps have a full-time theremin player, which is pretty freakin sweet.
—-MOVE OVER by John Brodeur/Metroland
Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, Dirty on Purpose, Scientific Maps
Valentine’s, Feb. 18
One-time Stars of Rock guy Aaron Smith and his Scientific Maps opened–and damn near stole the show. Consider them the best new old band in the area: While the Maps have been a growing concern for several years, this was the inaugural performance for the new lineup, and the lengthy off season has proven productive.
—–UPSTATE FASHION and ART/Autumn 2006
Like a good cup of coffee that can be savored in a few minutes, the Scientific Maps songs percolate the senses with their sci-fi charged pop idiosyncrasies