[Dr.Mambo]

What're your favourite math rock acts?

[evollove]

I like enough of the genre to throw on a mix now and then. I like the tapping guitar sound. Can't think of any bands I adore, though I'm open to suggestions.

[Bytor Peltor]

Mr. Mambo - WELCOME to SYG! (where-O-where did you live in Alaska?)

We've had the MATH ROCK discussion before......hard to believe it was eight years ago.

I still don't understand why Don Caballero is considered Math Rock?

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Slint. All Jeff Muellers stuff...and Magnapinna. The new Parlour got boring quick.

You mean Mueller's solo album, or his bands like Rodan, Shipping News, etc.? Not because it matters, just curious.

I was BIG into Rodan and June of 44 when I was a wee boyman, playing in my first couple bands and such. I think Mueller had a major had a massive influence on my guitar playing, as I used to jam on "I Get My Kicks For You" constantly, trying to replicate the sound and vibe of the riff.
I would say Slint did as well, but as a band their sound was defined more by the dynamic between players than by any individual instrument. The result being that you really needed a four-piece band of likeminded individuals to duplicate the sound. Mimicking the guitar parts alone just didn't do it.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor

Mr. Mambo - WELCOME to SYG!

We've had the MATH ROCK discussion before......hard to believe it was eight years ago.

I still don't understand why Don Caballero is considered Math Rock?

Really? Well, I'd say listen to American Don and What Burns Never Returns (or listen more) for the best answer to that question. Maybe you're thinking those records are more closely related to post-rock, but really, if you're talking about math-rock as a style defined by changing signatures and organic energy, I actually think American Don might be the purest example of it.

Earlier on they were certainly more metallic, and later on they turned into something tactless and a bit pathetic. But I think they definitely fall into the greater math-rock family. And again, if math rock was ever "mathematical rock," then I think they exemplified that more than a lot of bands that usually get the label.

[Severian]

So in answer to the main question, I guess if you asked me years ago, I'd have said hell yes, love math rock. But now I don't spend much time on it at all, not even the classics. I still love Slint and Rodan and so on, but rarely listen to them.

I think I've had more of a lasting interest with bands that never quite fell under that reductive label, but were still at the very least "math-rock adjacent." Bands like Unwound, Lungfish, Bitch Magnet. Also the stuff Fugazi got into in the second half of the '90s ("Turkish Disco" from Instrument is a great example, as is a lot of the material from End Hits and Argument). Even Gastr Del Sol kinda.

These bands had too broad an approach to music to fall under one sub-genre of a sub-genre, but there are elements of the sound and aesthetic that defined Slint & co. in all of their music.

I don't think math rock quite exists anymore. There was a latter-day renaissance with Hella and Lightning Bolt and, a bit later on, Battles, but the styles morphed and changed and Battles last album had more in common with Discopunk stuff like Holy Fuck than with any vestiges of Don Cab.

Holy shit, Engine Takes to the Water is almost 22 years old. Rusty is 23. Spiderland is more than a quarter century old. Wow.

[Toilet & Bowels]

I always thought of Don Cab as the mathiest of math bands. I still wack them on once in a while. Rodan too, plus their various offshoots. A mathy band that I came across in recent years is Ruby Falls (they aren't new, I'm just catching up) they're kind of like math Babes in Toyland.


Dazzling Killmen just popped into my mind. I had forgotten them and haven't thought about or listened to them in years, I think I will tomorrow, and see how they've held up.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Diesel

This may sound naive but I didn't realise he had a solo album. I was talking about the bands he's played in.

Not naive at all.

But yeah, Fold and Perish is his solo album from 1999. Pretty much all acoustic stuff, but close in spirit to June of 44 in particular. You should check it out. Not sure if it's on Spotify but it's on Apple Music and iTunes.

 

[GravitySlips]

Originally Posted by Severian

Not naive at all.

But yeah, Fold and Perish is his solo album from 1999. Pretty much all acoustic stuff, but close in spirit to June of 44 in particular. You should check it out. Not sure if it's on Spotify but it's on Apple Music and iTunes.

 

I've been a big Rodan/June of 44 fan for many years and didn't know about this.
Thanks!

[Severian]

No problem. I used to be really into this stuff. Found some nice treasures along the way.

[Rob Instigator]

I used to love seeing bands like A Minor Forest, Paul Newman (Austin TX), Faraquet, etc... never knew which bands were "math rock" and which were not.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

I used to love seeing bands like A Minor Forest, Paul Newman (Austin TX), Faraquet, etc... never knew which bands were "math rock" and which were not.

Wow, A Minor Forest? That's a name I haven't heard in a while. Loved them when I was younger. Nice one.

I also loved Three Mike Pilot, Drive Like Jehu, the aforementioned Bitch Magnet. Oh, and Polvo. Not sure what is and isn't "math-rock" myself. To me, that's not a great descriptor. Isn't it all just basically post-hardcore of some stripe?

[Rob Instigator]

Drive Like Jehu ad Polvo rule. some say mathy, some do not.

[pepper_green]

uh, don't know. I like Slint. Polvo is kinda cool. I have nothing to contribute here. post rock is something im a little better at. I've heard of three band in here. you could just listen to Yes instead. shouldn't Captain Beefheart be math rock too? never understood the meaning. more like prog indie rock.

oh, I got it, calling it Math rock makes it nerdy. because only nerds listen to it. gotcha.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by pepper_green

uh, don't know. I like Slint. Polvo is kinda cool. I have nothing to contribute here. post rock is something im a little better at. I've heard of three band in here. you could just listen to Yes instead. shouldn't Captain Beefheart be math rock too? never understood the meaning. more like prog indie rock.

oh, I got it, calling it Math rock makes it nerdy. because only nerds listen to it. gotcha.

It's a stupid genre name and should be stricken from the record. It's just post-hardcore often overlapping with post-rock. For instance, you never hear Unwound or Shellac referred to as "math rock" but both bands have almost all the same sonic signifiers as the Slints and Rodans. Also, Squirrel Bait begat Slint, but you never hear them referred to as math-rock.

Instead you hear "emocore" or whatever. Or just plain punk. But June of 44 had more "emocore" elements than SB, and yet they're "math-rock." Makes no bloody sense.

It all comes from the same place. The sound we're talking about was really forged by Sonic Youth, Wire, Big Black, Black Flag. Some fucked confluence of those bands makes the "math-rock" sound that I think eventually peaked in terms of "mathiness" with Americans Don, which basically acted as the blueprint for Hella and Lightning Bolt. It is what it is.

[pepper_green]

well, I love Squirrel Bait but thought of them as something maybe more emo that begat more emo with pre-Fugazi bands. Shellac maybe is more noise rock in the vein of Jesus Lizard.

ur, what a retarded sub term for a sub genre. I like post hardcore better.

[Bytor Peltor]

Originally Posted by Severian

Really? Well, I'd say listen to American Don and What Burns Never Returns (or listen more) for the best answer to that question.

Guess I don't hear things the same as others......or it's probably because I suck at math

[PLips]

This isn't really math 'rock' yet it's math sound
My research into bitmap circuits with xyz axis designation
For chords has been on the backburner, but when I do get back to it i'll post in this thread again. The diagrams are still there if you right click on the angelfire dud images. I couldn't afford my webhost anymore.

http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/sho...t=noise+shapes

[Din0queen]

Nuito is definetely one of my favourites, also Pryapisme and Ruins, but I don't know if they could be considered Math Rock

[Count Mecha]

I remember reading somewhere once, probably on here, someone telling stories about the origins of 'math rock'. And someone had said this one guy had coined the term from watching really technical bands play and he would pull out a calculator as a joke and start punching numbers in order to calculate how good the band was.

Anyway, two bands I really enjoy that I didn't see mentioned are Piglet, which just released that one EP in the 00's somewhere. It's pretty alright.

The other is that japanese math pop whatever band Tricot. That's one of my recent favorites, they're so fucking tight.