raised on mars, the land of fine spices; Developed an allergy to martian milk (the only ingredient in martian meals); Sublet their garden apartment, and moved to a more suitable home with less martian madness (a side effect of a menacing bacterial infection acquired through too much martian milking.)

With their songs of traintracks and setbacks, leaving and longing, the Lost Cartographers fit well into Chicago’s always vibrant alt.country and Americana scene. But check out one of their shows and you’ll discover a sound that lives in the margins of half a dozen genres, from the melancholy beauty of “Metronome” and “Killing Time in Nashville” to the hillbilly stomp of “Goodbye Ohio” (on which drummer Jason Haaheim plays a metal washtub), and from the retro folk-rock of “Walk On” to the the feedback-soaked psychedelia of “Golden Record.”