Math Rock

[tzvibish]

OK, I need a sound off of good bands in this genre. I'm just discovering this scene, and I absolutely love it. Bands I'm liking right now: This Town Needs Guns, American Football, Maps and Atlases. Recommendations?

[TheAmazingRando]

Minus the Bear is the first that springs to mind, also Drive Like Jehu. You may also like Spiderland by Slint, though they're a bit slower and more sparse than other math rock bands, and it's hard to really pigeonhole them into a genre.

[scrt_rbt_agnt]

i second drive like jehu and am adding polvo since they just got back together.

[Midnight]

Battlesis good. This song Atlas is.. interesting. But I can't stop listening to it. Even though their "choice of vocals" in this song are a thing that usually I hate passionately and find gimmicky. and I hate it. passionately.

Except in this song.

[blubloblu]

Giraffes? Giraffes!

[oxy]

I'm a pretty big fan of Marnie Stern.

[Jesse]

Once again, you have all forgotten about 65daysofstatic. Also, that math rock as a genre was made up as a joke, and therefore most of these bands consider themselves post-rock, if I remember correctly.

[tzvibish]

Well, to me, math rock means that you have to engage in some kind of math to analyze the music. And with some time signature work I've heard... it gets interesting.

[Midnight]

Well, to me, math rock means that you have to engage in some kind of math to analyze the music. And with some time signature work I've heard... it gets interesting.

Kind of a weird definition though. I never "engage in math" when I listen to a song. And if you want pretty crazy polyrhythms and such, math rock isn't always the place to be. See Meshuggah.

[McCaber]

There's a little indie band I've been listening to called Choke the Word. It's pretty good stuff.

[Eastwinn]

Algernon Cadwallader falls under math rock, I guess.

[tzvibish]

Well, to me, math rock means that you have to engage in some kind of math to analyze the music. And with some time signature work I've heard... it gets interesting.

Kind of a weird definition though. I never "engage in math" when I listen to a song. And if you want pretty crazy polyrhythms and such, math rock isn't always the place to be. See Meshuggah.

I just went from listening to Philip Glass to meshuggah.

i hear what you're saying about metal being technical, but I don't think it's very creative most of the time. Most of the time, it's the same dissonance over and over again, to increasingly complex versions of 4/4. And yelling.

So far, I think Maps and Atlases is what I've been looking for. They've got a great sound, and manage to spice things up technically without becoming too avant-garde and dissonant.

[shoebox]

Foals - maybe? but Battles definitely!

Also Rolo Tomassi,The Dillinger Escape Plan. I've also heard Slint referred to as math rock but I wouldn't classify them as that myself.

[Eliminator Jr.]

The Edmund Fitzgerald: Awesome math rock band from earlier this decade. They broke up without releasing an album, however there are torrents where you can get all known recordings of them. Unfortunately I can't find anything of them on Youtube, but they're crazy nonetheless. Possibly the best math-rock band ever. The drummer and vocalist/guitarist are in Foals now. Link.

Lite: Pretty cool guys from Japan. I've got the album Phantasia and it's pretty crazy stuff. Link.

My Disco: Not math rock but it's minimalist and people who like math rock seem to like it. Pretty awesome. If you're getting an album get Cancer first, Paradise is REALLY minimalist, like sometimes just one note for the whole song and takes ages to get used to. Link.

[frogman]

Am I the only one who thought of Schoolhouse Rock when they saw the topic? Huh.

[dubsola]

Pivot
Radian

[Buddha with a bra on]

Because I'm listening to them now, Sikth were often called 'Math Metal'. I have no idea what that means, but they were awesome.

[The Great Communist]

Between the Buried and Me
Arsonists Get All the Girl (more deathcore)
Meshuggah
Fear Before (local denver stuff, amazing)

[martyatc]

UK based Instrumental math-rock trio Alright the Captain have made their 123.EP available for FREE download over at http://www.alrightthecaptain.bandcamp.com/

The debut album will be available through Field records in september.

"Alright The Captain interlace complex and obscure melodies with some extremely sensible song structures" - Drop-D.ie

"the varying time patterns and distortions used give the band a wider scope for avoiding repetitive sounds that haunt some bands" - The Silent Ballet

Enjoy x

[bosonicyouth]

Heavy Vegetable - Rob Crow of Pinback's first band. A lot of people I know don't seem to like them but if you like quirky and insanely catchy short pop songs you will love them to death. Rob Crow has also been in another similar band called Thingy and super math-rock collaboration with the drummer from Hella called The Ladies, which is pretty good.

Unwound - between their start as a pretty furious post-hardcore band and their spectacularly drony and sombre final album, they churned out a few really solid noisy math-rock albums. The highlights in my opinion being Repetition and New Plastic Ideas.

Rodan - their LP, save for a couple songs, was a pretty sparse affair and is often compared to Spiderland. Their other releases (a demo, a few 7"s and a Peel session) go relatively ignored, which is a shame because they are almost all amazing.

Drill For Absentee - somewhat obscure late 90s math rock, in the vein of June of 44.

Faraquet - Dischord bands were certainly fellow travellers with the Chicago, Louisville, San Diego scenes and in the 90s tended to flirt with math-rockist expressionism but something like tradition make them decide to keep it simple and play one chord for a while instead. Faraquet were and sounded like a DC band that went fuck it, why not.

Owls - I find most post-Cap'n Jazz bands pretty irritating but this one (incidentally same lineup as Cap'n Jazz I think?) works quite well for me

Also as an Aussie I must second the mad props to My Disco. Cancer is solid but their earlier releases are even better in my opinion. Feedback-loaded and (possibly a bit too) hectic, but sublime if only for a few seconds at a time.

[bosonicyouth]

Ah I got preoccupied with American bands and forgot some great ones from here.

Colditz Glider - short-lived Melbourne band, kind of Don Caballero worship but the interesting music / wanking ratio is much higher.
To The North - super noodly, positive, sincere Brisbane band - kind of like Tim Kinsella's bands but not obnoxious
Love of Diagrams - more straightforward and post-punk, but great
Ricaine - heavy Shellac-influenced riffy rock from Melbourne donkeys years ago

Ah screw it, here's more American bands from the 90s - recommended if you are interested in yelly, deconstructed art-hardcore:
Maximillian Colby - I cannot reccommend this band highly enough. Nearly instrumental hardcore band with dynamics that put most modern post-rock bands to shame. They listened to a lot of Steve Reich.
Clikatat Ikatowi - dark tumbling off-kilter hardcore, the drummer went onto Thingy, Black Heart Procession, etc
Ethel Meserve - a sad and noodly band with kind of endearing off-key singing

Aaand some 90s Canadian bands - Okara, Blake, Rockets Red Glare

[HermanBlount]

Deadguy http://www.amazon.com/Screamin-Deadguy-Quintet/dp/B000000IG6/ref=pd_sim_m_2
This is an older album that I think fits within this genre. I really enjoyed this particular album of theirs. If you like it, don't bother with any of their other albums. This one happens to be a stand-out of their work. (you can listen to it streamed if you follow the link.)

[nlism]

List of San Diego Math rock bands

THINGY is definitely cool.

DRIVE LIKE JEHU

SLEEPING PEOPLE (instrumental, great overlapping textures)

NO KNIFE (more pop oriented than mathy)

WITT (elements of free jazz + math)

FEVER SLEEVES ( good mix of indie and math complexities)

[cjmcjmcjmcjm]

The Klein Four

[traveltheory]

This is considered math rock?

[Midnight]

Why do math rock bands have such weird names?

[Роберт]

Because math rock bands... are bands? And bands have weird names?

[Midnight]

Arcade Fire is a bit odd.
Clikatat Ikatowi, Drill For Absentee, Algernon Cadwallader, Maximillian Colby.... those are weird names.

[Роберт]

So is tunabunny. I'm not sure I get your point.

[Midnight]

It's less a point than an observation.

[cba]

first band I thought of when I saw the title: Mathletes
Not entirely sure what math rock really is... but these guys have math in their name (obviously! lol)