Math rock
Encyclopedia
Math rock is a rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock
that emerged in the 1980s and that was very influenced by progressive rock
like King Crimson
, Frank Zappa
, Henry Cow
- and 20th century composers such as Steve Reich
and John Cage
. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythm
ic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant
chords.
Math rock shares its place of origin in the late 80s underground music
scene of the American Midwest. Some earlier bands have characteristics of both math rock and post-rock
, using instruments for textures rather than melodies and riffs, featuring atypical rhythms and some dissonance. The genres soon diverged: math rock concentrated on angular melodies, atypical time signatures, start-stop rhythms, and dissonance, while staying closer to rock music in sound and instrumentation. Post-rock, on the other hand, concentrated on heavy use of dynamics
, creating soundscape
s, and expanded the variety of instruments used, used a jazzier drumming style, and incorporated elements of shoegaze music.
(however accented
or syncopated
), math rock frequently uses asymmetrical time signature
s such as 7/8, 11/8, or 13/8, or features constantly changing meters based on various groupings of 2 and 3. This rhythmic complexity, seen as "mathematical" in character by many listeners and critics, is what gives the genre its name.
The sound is usually dominated by guitars and drums as in traditional rock, and because of the complex rhythms, drummers of math rock groups have a tendency to stick out more often than in other groups. It is commonplace to find guitarists in math rock groups using the "tapping" method of guitar playing, making for an unusual sound, and loop pedals are occasionally incorporated to create a machine-like effect, such as in the group Battles
. Guitars are also often played in clean tones more than in other upbeat rock songs, but distortion is also used, depending on the group.
Lyrics
are generally not the focus of math rock; the voice is treated as just another sound in the mix. Often, lyrics are not overdubbed, and are positioned low in the mix, as in the recording style of Steve Albini
. The historically tragic third album by Dis- is a perfect example of Albini's recording style. Many of math rock's most famous groups are entirely instrumental
such as Don Caballero
or Hella
, though both have experimented with singers to varying degrees.
The term math rock has often been passed off as a joke that has developed into what some believe is a musical style. An advocate of this is Matt Sweeney
, singer with Chavez
, who themselves were often linked to the math rock scene:
, Frank Zappa
, Henry Cow
, Cream
, Captain Beefheart
, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
, Genesis
, Jethro Tull
, Gentle Giant
, Yes
, Rush
, King Crimson
, Gong
, Cardiacs
, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Pink Floyd
. The music of these and others from this era sometimes had hard rock
or metal
leanings, but such groups were generally classified as "progressive rock
".
Canadian punk rock group Nomeansno
(founded in 1979 and active as of 2011) have been cited by critics as a "secret influence" on math rock, predating much of the genre's development by more than a decade. Though never finding or even seeking mainstream attention, Nomeansno's music typically blends dark humor, punk energy and aggression, drastic shifts in tempo and structure and acclaimed instrumental prowess in their quest for transcendence. An even more avant-garde group of the same era, Massacre, featured guitarist Fred Frith
and bassist Bill Laswell
. With some influence from the rapid-fire energy of punk, Massacre's influential music used complex rhythmic characteristics. Black Flag
's 1984 album My War
also included unusual polyrhythms.
In the 1990s, a heavier, rhythmically complex style grew out of the broader noise rock
scenes active in Chicago
and other Midwestern cities, with influential groups also coming from Japan
and Southern California. These groups shared influences ranging from the music of 20th century composers such as Igor Stravinsky
, John Cage
, and Steve Reich
, as well as the chaotic free-jazz approach of John Zorn
's Naked City
, and critics soon dubbed the style "math rock".
", ranging from Minneapolis to Buffalo, with Chicago being a central hub. The Chicago-based sound engineer Steve Albini
is a key figure in the scene, and many math rock bands from around the country have enlisted him to record their albums, giving the genre's recorded catalog a certain uniformity of sound, and lumping his bands past and present—Shellac
, Rapeman
, and Big Black
—into the pigeonhole as well. Also, many math rock records were released by Chicago-based Touch and Go Records
, as well as its sister labels, Quarterstick Records
and Skin Graft Records
.
Some key bands of this period include Bastro
, Table, Cheer-Accident
, Shellac, Kiriller and Breadwinner
. Hailing from Chicago’s north side was The Great Brain, who infused their twisted experimental punk with mathematical precision. Performing live with the likes of Sweep the Leg Johnny
, Blunderbus, and a litany of Skin Graft Records bands (U.S. Maple
, Dazzling Killmen
, The Flying Luttenbachers
, Big’N, Mount Shasta) The Great Brain forged a unique musical taxonomy using carefully plied dissonance and thickly textured sound fields over skewed, angular riffs, adding disruptive bits of sonic trickery, rhythmic layers of feedback and changing time signatures. Also from the Chicago area, from nearby DeKalb
, Illinois
, is U.S. Maple, which formed out of the ashes of the Jesus Lizard
-esque Shorty
. U.S. Maple took a more deconstructive approach to their brand of rock music, similar to that of Captain Beefheart
. Their music has a free-form approach to rhythm, with songs only occasionally coalescing into conventional rock beats. Thus, aesthetically, the group is not as "mathy" as other bands in the genre, but the same thought process of dismantling rock music still applies.
One of the few math rock bands from the Detroit area was Philo Beddow. The band originally leaned toward an aggressive and dissonant sound that would be more associated with mathcore. They went on to develop a warmer sound that often consisted of more traditionally melodic vocal lines laid over angular instrumentation in patterned mixed meters and triplet-time. These compositions tended to emphasize the range and counterpoint between bass lines that were influenced by progressive rock, and guitars that balanced ostinato figures with textural harmonies.
Several other math rock groups of the 1990s, all characterized by extreme rhythmic complexity and sonic brutality, were based in Midwestern cities: Cleveland
's Craw
and Keelhaul, St. Louis
's Dazzling Killmen
, and Minneapolis' Colossamite
. These groups were notable for compositions with a relentless and often dark quality, along with especially thick layers of sound.
. Formed in 1991 after the breakup of Sludgehammer (which featured Ian Williams
and Karl Hendricks), "Don Cab" as the group is affectionately known, blends heavy noise rock sounds with avant-garde jazz
influences. Like many other bands in the style, Don Caballero's members despise the "math rock" label applied to them by critics. Even so, it should come as no surprise that a temporary bass player Matt Jencik, a member of another former Pittsburgh math rock band, Hurl, also spent time in Don Caballero. The group's former guitarist Mike Banfield
has noted Breadwinner
to be an important early influence on the band's sound. Their other former guitarist, Ian Williams, drew quite heavily from the minimalist works of Steve Reich, shown especially in the group's final release with him as guitarist, American Don
. Don Caballero disbanded in 2000 after a van accident that abruptly ended their support tour of American Don. Damon Che also was involved in a collaboration called Bellini
between Catania, Italy's duo Agostino Tillota and Giovanna Cacciola of Uzeda
. Today, the math rock genre is growing in the Sicilian region, such as Suzanne's Silver, and Diane and the Shell.
Later, Che reformed Don Caballero in 2003 with an entirely different lineup consisting of members of the Pittsburgh-based math rock band Creta Bourzia.
Aside from Don Caballero, other groups that were active during the mid-1990s heyday of math rock included Shale, Jumbo, Blunderbuss, Creta Bourzia, and Six Horse (featuring original Don Caballero bassist Pat Morris
), all of whom shared similarities with their local contemporaries in the sound of "mathy", precise, metallic rock. The genre has persisted in Pittsburgh to the present, represented by such recent act as Red Team Blue Team, Black Moth Super Rainbow
, A Voice Like Rhetoric, Token Black Guy, Tabula Rasa
, Hero Destroyed, Adam Koisor's current band Mail Order Brides, Kalon and Knot Feeder
.
, which featured the off-kilter guitar of John Reis
from Rocket from the Crypt
, was an example of technical rock music, demonstrated on the band's swan song
, Yank Crime
. The group disbanded in 1994. Other San Diego bands of the time that have been likened to Jehu include Antioch Arrow
, Clikitat Ikatowi, Tristeza
, No Knife
, and Heavy Vegetable
, who took a more melodic approach than the first three. Heavy Vegetable also featured the songwriting of Rob Crow
. The scene is still relatively alive today with the likes of Sleeping People
(Kenseth Thibideau from Rumah Sakit
on bass), Fever Sleeves, Japandi and WITT. This scene is often tagged as the origin of "screamo
".
also contributed to the sound of math rock with the bands Kerosene 454, The Dismemberment Plan
, Shudder to Think
, Hoover
, Faraquet
, Avoca 1.6 Band
, Autoclave
, later Jawbox
, and Circus Lupus
among some others. The latter is said to have influenced the sound of early Q and Not U
. However, since D.C.-oriented bands tended to throw in odd-meters into their already eclectic mix of influences, some were branded with the genre name.
(starting in the mid to late 1980s), who incidentally are to be credited for creating the niche genre from an early review of their music, spawned a number of later rock bands in the town. While direct descendants of Breadwinner include Sliang Laos and Ladyfinger, and precedents include Honor Role and Butterglove, there were many other notable Hampton Roads-area bands tied in with the genre: Buzzard, Kenmores, Sordid Doctrine, MEN, Alter Natives, Hoi Polloi, Guana, Kill/Joy, Loibon, Mao Tse Helen, Hell Mach 4, Hose.got.cable, Mulch, Hegoat, King Sour, chutney, Fulflej
, HRM, Nudibranch, Ebonite, Engine Down, Gore De Vol and Human Thurma. Most recently the band Hex Machine, composed of members of Human Thurma, Discordance Axis (from New York/New Jersey) and Sliang Laos, carries on the Richmond tradition. Richmond's Lamb of God
cite Breadwinner and Sliang Laos as major early influences.
Polvo
, formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
in 1990, is widely considered to be another math rock standard bearer, although in interviews the band disavowed that categorization.
called Slint
released its second album Spiderland
. It is considered an extremely influential landmark album to not only math rock but across the underground music network and beyond. The short-lived group's sound, based on the interlocking of multiple "clean" (non-distorted) guitars playing in generally compound meters, was more sedate and less metal-influenced than most other math rock groups, and thus its style (and those of its imitators) represents a separate branch of the category. Several groups which followed Slint's lead (including a few that featured ex-members) also used unusual meters; such bands include Rodan
, Crain
, The For Carnation
, June of 44
, Sonora Pine, Stick People, Roadside Monument
, Separation of M.A.Y., Shipping News
, and August Moon.
gave rise to a movement called Vanguarda Paulistana ("São Paulo Vanguard" in English) that flourished in South America's largest city as the Brazilian military dictatorship
began to crumble. The original Vanguarda Paulista was an avant-garde
wing of Popular Brazilian Music (MPB
) championed by artists like Arrigo Barnabé, Alice Ruiz, Hélio Ziskind, Patife Band. It had a 'faccao zona norte' (Northerners) called 'Pracianos' as they were known for gathering at Praça Santo Eduardo (Vila Maria), formed by Dari Luzio, Pedro Lua, Paulo Barroso, Le Dantas & Cordeiro, Carl Guerreiro. Dari Luzio was the first to release an LP on his own label EKO, marked by an innovative approach, inspired by Heitor Villa-Lobos
to bring to the main-stream the style at the time seen as 'second class music', the Brazilian country, which is booming today.
Other artists took part in this underground movement, like Itamar Assumpção
, Lingua de Trapo, Premeditando o Breque, all of them were regular performers at the Lira Paulistana theater and owner of their labels.
Among the influences the movement had an angular jazz-rock with constantly shifting time signatures reminiscent of Frank Zappa
or Henry Cow
. In the early 21st century, there is a New Wave
of art-rock bands emerging, such as Objeto Amarelo, Retórica, Debate and Matema that have been heavily influenced by sounds from the Northern Hemisphere
made by all of the bands mentioned elsewhere in this article. These newer Brazilian groups are sometimes referred to as the Vanguarda Nova or New Vanguard.
, Boredoms, Aburadako
, and YBO2. (Yona-Kit
is a collaboration between Japanese and U.S. musicians.) It is very likely that Japanese math rock exerted an early influence on some (if not many) of the earliest U.S. math rock groups, as both Zeni Geva and Ruins were formed several years before their North American counterparts became active in the genre. John Zorn
is known to have been a key importer of the Japanese math rock styles into the West. Other Japanese groups which incorporate math rock in their music include Panic Smile, té
, toe
, Zazen Boys
, the band apart, and Lite
. Nipp Guitar, Chicago's Skin Graft and John Zorn's Tzadik label are some of the key labels which have released Japanese math rock in the United States.
(France), Honey for Petzi (Switzerland), Papier Tigre (France), Perils of Penelope
(Belgium), Room 204 (France), The Redneck Manifesto
(Ireland) and many more.
) was a hub for math rock inspired bands. Bands such as Colditz Glider, Because Of Ghosts
, The Sinking Citizenship and My Disco
emerged around this time.
Other math rock bands from Australia, or bands that have math rock elements include: Ricaine, True Radical Miracle, Truth From Facts, Scul Hazzards, When Chimps Attack, To The North, Drowned Out, Ohana.
East Coast groups There is a small yet steadily growing contemporary math scene out of New England. This includes groups such as: giraffes? giraffes!, Kendra, Mirrors and Dios Trio
had disbanded and the genre had, like most musical movements identified in the ever-shifting and elusive underground rock scene, been roundly disavowed by most bands labeled with the "math rock" moniker. However, the influences of the movement can clearly be heard in the abiding avant-garde and indie rock
scenes. Many more bands, consisting of both those from the original wave of the genre and those of the new generation, have managed to be tagged with the moniker of "math-rock". Cinemechanica run contemporary math rock label Hello Sir Records out of Athens, Georgia. The British band Foals exemplify the angular guitar sections and start/stop dynamics of the math rock sound particularly in their earlier demos; however they lack the mixture of time signatures or the odd time signatures needed to be thought of as a proper math rock band. The Edmund Fitzgerald
is a band containing members of the band Foals, with the addition of the use of complex time signatures and time changes. Other British
math rock acts of the 21st century such as The Murder of Rosa Luxemburg who toured with screamo
band Circle Takes the Square
before breaking up in 2004 have stood out in the UK scene but have been less successful. Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies are another British band who use angular guitar sections, as well as some post-rock
techniques and the use of different time signatures. This Town Needs Guns
, an Oxford based band, predominantly use asymmetrical time signatures, typical math rock characteristics, as well as complex finger picking.
In the mid-2000s, many math rock bands have enjoyed renewed popularity. Slint
and Chavez
embarked on reunion tours, while Shellac
toured and released their first album in seven years
. The members of the short-lived Seyarse formed a new band under the name of Piglet
, releasing Lava Land in 2005, putting them on the chart as a pioneering new math rock band. Don Caballero
reunited with a new lineup and released an album in 2006, while several of its original members joined new projects; Mike Banfield
has formed the band Knot Feeder
in 2006, while bassist Pat Morris joined The Poison Arrows in 2005.
Experimental rock
Experimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments with the basic elements of the genre, or which pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique....
that emerged in the 1980s and that was very influenced by progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
like King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
- and 20th century composers such as Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
and John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
ic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant
Consonance and dissonance
In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...
chords.
Math rock shares its place of origin in the late 80s underground music
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
scene of the American Midwest. Some earlier bands have characteristics of both math rock and post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
, using instruments for textures rather than melodies and riffs, featuring atypical rhythms and some dissonance. The genres soon diverged: math rock concentrated on angular melodies, atypical time signatures, start-stop rhythms, and dissonance, while staying closer to rock music in sound and instrumentation. Post-rock, on the other hand, concentrated on heavy use of dynamics
Dynamics (music)
In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...
, creating soundscape
Soundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
s, and expanded the variety of instruments used, used a jazzier drumming style, and incorporated elements of shoegaze music.
Characteristics
Whereas most rock music uses a basic 4/4 meterMeter (music)
Meter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...
(however accented
Accent (music)
In music, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note,either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark.Accents contribute to the articulation and prosody of a performance of a musical phrase....
or syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
), math rock frequently uses asymmetrical time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
s such as 7/8, 11/8, or 13/8, or features constantly changing meters based on various groupings of 2 and 3. This rhythmic complexity, seen as "mathematical" in character by many listeners and critics, is what gives the genre its name.
The sound is usually dominated by guitars and drums as in traditional rock, and because of the complex rhythms, drummers of math rock groups have a tendency to stick out more often than in other groups. It is commonplace to find guitarists in math rock groups using the "tapping" method of guitar playing, making for an unusual sound, and loop pedals are occasionally incorporated to create a machine-like effect, such as in the group Battles
Battles (band)
Battles is an American experimental rock group, founded in 2002 in New York City, comprising guitarists Ian Williams and Dave Konopka , and drummer John Stanier .-Biography:...
. Guitars are also often played in clean tones more than in other upbeat rock songs, but distortion is also used, depending on the group.
Lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
are generally not the focus of math rock; the voice is treated as just another sound in the mix. Often, lyrics are not overdubbed, and are positioned low in the mix, as in the recording style of Steve Albini
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...
. The historically tragic third album by Dis- is a perfect example of Albini's recording style. Many of math rock's most famous groups are entirely instrumental
Instrumental rock
Instrumental rock is a type of rock music which emphasizes musical instruments, and which features very little or no singing.Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style, most notably Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Link...
such as Don Caballero
Don Caballero
Don Caballero are an American rock group from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group took their name from the character Guy Caballero, portrayed by Joe Flaherty, on the sketch comedy show Second City Television...
or Hella
Hella (band)
Hella is an American band from Sacramento, California. They play a technical blend of math rock, noise rock, and experimental rock. The primary members of the band are Spencer Seim on electric guitar and Zach Hill on drums...
, though both have experimented with singers to varying degrees.
The term math rock has often been passed off as a joke that has developed into what some believe is a musical style. An advocate of this is Matt Sweeney
Matt Sweeney
Matt Sweeney is a guitarist, vocalist, and producer who has worked with various musicians and groups.-Biography:Sweeney's high school band Skunk released two albums on Twin/Tone records...
, singer with Chavez
Chavez (band)
Chavez is an alternative rock/math rock band from New York, formed in 1993. After a period of inactivity, the band reformed in 2006. They released two independent non-charting albums in the mid-1990s...
, who themselves were often linked to the math rock scene:
Early influences
Some rock musicians who emerged in the 1960s and '70s experimented with unusual meters and structures. Notable examples include The BeatlesThe Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
, Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
, Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...
, Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
, Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
, Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant
Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band was known for the complexity and sophistication of its music and for the varied musical skills of its members. All of the band members, except the first two drummers, were multi-instrumentalists...
, Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
, Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
, King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
, Gong
Gong (band)
Gong is a Franco-British progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. Their music has also been described as space rock. Other notable band members include Allan Holdsworth, Tim Blake, Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Francis Moze, Mike Howlett...
, Cardiacs
Cardiacs
Cardiacs are an English alternative rock/psychedelic pop band formed in 1977 and led by Tim Smith. Noted for their complex, varied and intense compositional style and for their eccentric, theatrical stage shows, they have been hailed as an influence by bands as diverse as Blur, Faith No More and...
, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
. The music of these and others from this era sometimes had hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
or metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
leanings, but such groups were generally classified as "progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
".
Canadian punk rock group Nomeansno
Nomeansno
NoMeansNo is a Canadian progressive punk rock music group originally from Victoria, British Columbia and now located in Vancouver.The band has never had, nor have they seemed to pursue, strong mainstream success, but they do have a devoted underground following in North America and Europe...
(founded in 1979 and active as of 2011) have been cited by critics as a "secret influence" on math rock, predating much of the genre's development by more than a decade. Though never finding or even seeking mainstream attention, Nomeansno's music typically blends dark humor, punk energy and aggression, drastic shifts in tempo and structure and acclaimed instrumental prowess in their quest for transcendence. An even more avant-garde group of the same era, Massacre, featured guitarist Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
and bassist Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
. With some influence from the rapid-fire energy of punk, Massacre's influential music used complex rhythmic characteristics. Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
's 1984 album My War
My War
My War is the second full length album by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag. It was released in 1984 on SST Records.Black Flag's founder and primary songwriter Greg Ginn played bass guitar in addition to his usual guitar; "Dale Nixon" is a pseudonym.My War was released after a long period...
also included unusual polyrhythms.
In the 1990s, a heavier, rhythmically complex style grew out of the broader noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
scenes active in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and other Midwestern cities, with influential groups also coming from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Southern California. These groups shared influences ranging from the music of 20th century composers such as Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, and Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, as well as the chaotic free-jazz approach of John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
's Naked City
Naked City (band)
Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. Active primarily in New York City from 1988 to 1993, Naked City was initiated by Zorn as a "composition workshop" to test the limits of composition in a traditional rock band lineup...
, and critics soon dubbed the style "math rock".
Midwestern groups
During the 1990s, the greatest concentration of math rock bands was in the urban centers of the U.S.'s Midwestern "Rust BeltRust Belt
The Rust Belt is a term that gained currency in the 1980s as the informal description of an area straddling the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, in which local economies traditionally garnered an increased manufacturing sector to add jobs and corporate profits...
", ranging from Minneapolis to Buffalo, with Chicago being a central hub. The Chicago-based sound engineer Steve Albini
Steve Albini
Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...
is a key figure in the scene, and many math rock bands from around the country have enlisted him to record their albums, giving the genre's recorded catalog a certain uniformity of sound, and lumping his bands past and present—Shellac
Shellac (band)
Shellac is an American group composed of Steve Albini , Bob Weston and Todd Trainer...
, Rapeman
Rapeman
Rapeman was an American post-hardcore/noise rock group founded in 1987 and disbanded in 1989. It consisted of Steve Albini on guitar and vocals, David Wm. Sims on bass, and Rey Washam on drums.-History:In an interview, Albini reported that "'Rapeman' is .....
, and Big Black
Big Black
Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun...
—into the pigeonhole as well. Also, many math rock records were released by Chicago-based Touch and Go Records
Touch and Go Records
Touch and Go Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, USA.After its genesis as a hand-made fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s alternative and underground rock scenes, Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous...
, as well as its sister labels, Quarterstick Records
Quarterstick Records
-Artists:*Bad Livers*Calexico*DK3*Dead Child*June of 44*Kepone*The Mekons*Mi Ami*Peter Móren *Mule*Naked Raygun*Tara Jane O'Neil*Pegboy*Phono-Comb*Rachel's*Rodan*Henry Rollins*Shipping News*Sholi*The Sonora Pine*Therapy?...
and Skin Graft Records
Skin Graft Records
Skin Graft Records is an independent record label specializing in No Wave and noise rock music, originally based in Chicago, Illinois...
.
Some key bands of this period include Bastro
Bastro
Bastro was an American post-hardcore band in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's main line-up consisted of David Grubbs on guitar, Clark Johnson on bass guitar, and John McEntire on drums.-History:...
, Table, Cheer-Accident
Cheer-Accident
Cheer-Accident is an American indie rock ensemble headed by Thymme Jones. Jones took the name of the band from a Hallmark Cards shopping display, and first formed the group in 1981 with singer Jim Drummond and drummer Mike Greenlees.-Biography:...
, Shellac, Kiriller and Breadwinner
Breadwinner (band)
Breadwinner was a math rock-band based in Richmond, Virginia composed of: Pen Rollings , Robert Donne , and Chris Farmer . Rollings had previously been a member of hardcore punk outfit Honor Role...
. Hailing from Chicago’s north side was The Great Brain, who infused their twisted experimental punk with mathematical precision. Performing live with the likes of Sweep the Leg Johnny
Sweep the Leg Johnny
Sweep the Leg Johnny was a Chicago-based math rock band in existence from 1996 till 2002. The name is a reference to a line in the film The Karate Kid....
, Blunderbus, and a litany of Skin Graft Records bands (U.S. Maple
U.S. Maple
U.S. Maple was an American noise rock band. The group formed in Chicago in 1995. The band consists of Al Johnson , Mark Shippy , Pat Samson , and Todd Rittmann — who banded together with the intent of becoming the deconstructionists of rock and roll.-Formation and first single:U.S...
, Dazzling Killmen
Dazzling Killmen
Dazzling Killmen was a math rock band from the St. Louis, Missouri area. The band combining a punk-inspired noisy ruckus with jazzy Sun Ra-type intelligence and complex arrangements.-Biography:...
, The Flying Luttenbachers
The Flying Luttenbachers
The Flying Luttenbachers were an instrumental unit led by multi-instrumentalist / composer / producer Weasel Walter. The Luttenbachers have created a large body of work focusing on an agenda of musical extremity and dissonance...
, Big’N, Mount Shasta) The Great Brain forged a unique musical taxonomy using carefully plied dissonance and thickly textured sound fields over skewed, angular riffs, adding disruptive bits of sonic trickery, rhythmic layers of feedback and changing time signatures. Also from the Chicago area, from nearby DeKalb
DeKalb, Illinois
DeKalb is a city in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States. The population was 43,862 at the 2010 census, up from 39,018 at the 2000 census. The city is named after decorated German war hero Johann De Kalb, who died during the American Revolutionary War....
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, is U.S. Maple, which formed out of the ashes of the Jesus Lizard
The Jesus Lizard
The Jesus Lizard was an American alternative rock and noise rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas. They were "a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground…[who] turned out a series of independent records filled with scathing, disembowelling, guitar-driven pseudo-industrial...
-esque Shorty
Shorty (band)
Shorty was an American rock band formed in Illinois in 1991. The band consisted of vocalist Al Johnson, guitarist Mark Shippy, drummer Todd Lamparelli, and bassist Luke Frantom. After the group's breakup, Al Johnson and Mark Shippy would go on to form the underground art rock band U.S...
. U.S. Maple took a more deconstructive approach to their brand of rock music, similar to that of Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
. Their music has a free-form approach to rhythm, with songs only occasionally coalescing into conventional rock beats. Thus, aesthetically, the group is not as "mathy" as other bands in the genre, but the same thought process of dismantling rock music still applies.
One of the few math rock bands from the Detroit area was Philo Beddow. The band originally leaned toward an aggressive and dissonant sound that would be more associated with mathcore. They went on to develop a warmer sound that often consisted of more traditionally melodic vocal lines laid over angular instrumentation in patterned mixed meters and triplet-time. These compositions tended to emphasize the range and counterpoint between bass lines that were influenced by progressive rock, and guitars that balanced ostinato figures with textural harmonies.
Several other math rock groups of the 1990s, all characterized by extreme rhythmic complexity and sonic brutality, were based in Midwestern cities: Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
's Craw
Craw (band)
Craw is an independent band from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. They belong to the harder-edged branch of the math rock or post rock movement, in the same category as bands such as Colossamite, Keelhaul, Zeni Geva, Dazzling Killmen, and Ruins.- History :...
and Keelhaul, St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
's Dazzling Killmen
Dazzling Killmen
Dazzling Killmen was a math rock band from the St. Louis, Missouri area. The band combining a punk-inspired noisy ruckus with jazzy Sun Ra-type intelligence and complex arrangements.-Biography:...
, and Minneapolis' Colossamite
Colossamite
Colossamite was a mid-to-late 1990s math rock band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were one of the most prominent exponents of the genre....
. These groups were notable for compositions with a relentless and often dark quality, along with especially thick layers of sound.
Pittsburgh groups
The city of Pittsburgh is home to one of the most defining examples of the math rock genre: the four-piece instrumental band Don CaballeroDon Caballero
Don Caballero are an American rock group from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group took their name from the character Guy Caballero, portrayed by Joe Flaherty, on the sketch comedy show Second City Television...
. Formed in 1991 after the breakup of Sludgehammer (which featured Ian Williams
Ian Williams
Ian Williams is an American rock guitarist. He became noted for his finger tapping guitar playing in bands such as Don Caballero, Storm & Stress and currently in Battles.-Biography:...
and Karl Hendricks), "Don Cab" as the group is affectionately known, blends heavy noise rock sounds with avant-garde jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
influences. Like many other bands in the style, Don Caballero's members despise the "math rock" label applied to them by critics. Even so, it should come as no surprise that a temporary bass player Matt Jencik, a member of another former Pittsburgh math rock band, Hurl, also spent time in Don Caballero. The group's former guitarist Mike Banfield
Mike Banfield
Mike Banfield is a rock guitarist.Banfield was a founding member of math rock pioneers Don Caballero, playing guitar with the band from 1991 to 1998. Prior to that, Banfield was a member of the popular State College, Pennsylvania band Slag...
has noted Breadwinner
Breadwinner (band)
Breadwinner was a math rock-band based in Richmond, Virginia composed of: Pen Rollings , Robert Donne , and Chris Farmer . Rollings had previously been a member of hardcore punk outfit Honor Role...
to be an important early influence on the band's sound. Their other former guitarist, Ian Williams, drew quite heavily from the minimalist works of Steve Reich, shown especially in the group's final release with him as guitarist, American Don
American Don
American Don is an album by Don Caballero, a Pittsburgh-based math rock band, released on Touch and Go Records in 2000. It was recorded by Steve Albini....
. Don Caballero disbanded in 2000 after a van accident that abruptly ended their support tour of American Don. Damon Che also was involved in a collaboration called Bellini
Bellini
-People:*Vincenzo Bellini , opera composer*a family of Italian painters:**Jacopo Bellini , father of Gentile and Giovanni**Gentile Bellini **Giovanni Bellini , the most famous of the three...
between Catania, Italy's duo Agostino Tillota and Giovanna Cacciola of Uzeda
Uzeda
Uzeda is a Sicilian math rock group founded in 1987, consisting of lead singer Giovanna Cacciola, guitarists Agostino Tilotta and Giovanni Nicosia, bassist Raffaele Gulisano and drummer Davide Oliveri. Steve Albini recorded three of their records...
. Today, the math rock genre is growing in the Sicilian region, such as Suzanne's Silver, and Diane and the Shell.
Later, Che reformed Don Caballero in 2003 with an entirely different lineup consisting of members of the Pittsburgh-based math rock band Creta Bourzia.
Aside from Don Caballero, other groups that were active during the mid-1990s heyday of math rock included Shale, Jumbo, Blunderbuss, Creta Bourzia, and Six Horse (featuring original Don Caballero bassist Pat Morris
Pat Morris
Patrick Morris is a bass guitarist.Morris was a founding member of the math rock pioneers Don Caballero. Also played guitar in the Northern Bushmen and bass in Six Horse...
), all of whom shared similarities with their local contemporaries in the sound of "mathy", precise, metallic rock. The genre has persisted in Pittsburgh to the present, represented by such recent act as Red Team Blue Team, Black Moth Super Rainbow
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Black Moth Super Rainbow is an American experimental band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their music contains elements of psychedelia, folk, electronica, and pop...
, A Voice Like Rhetoric, Token Black Guy, Tabula Rasa
Tabula Rasa (Pittsburgh band)
Tabula Rasa was a post-hardcore math-rock band from Pittsburgh, PA. They were featured on Deep Elm’s Me Against the World: The Emo Diaries Chapter 7 and released a self-titled EP on One Day Savior Recordings as well as a full length album The Role of Smith on A-F Records.-History:The band was...
, Hero Destroyed, Adam Koisor's current band Mail Order Brides, Kalon and Knot Feeder
Knot Feeder
Knot Feeder is a math rock band from Pittsburgh featuring ex-members of Don Caballero, Tabula Rasa, and Southpaw. The band consists of guitarist Mike Banfield , drummer Rob Spagiare , guitarist Andrew Grossmann , and bassist Andy Curl . They recorded a CD with J...
.
San Diego groups
Formed in 1990, San Diego's Drive Like JehuDrive Like Jehu
Drive Like Jehu was an American post-hardcore and alternative rock band from San Diego active from 1990 to 1995. Formed by rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rick Froberg and lead guitarist John Reis following the breakup of their band Pitchfork, the band's lineup also included bassist Mike Kennedy and...
, which featured the off-kilter guitar of John Reis
John Reis
John Reis is an American musician, singer, guitarist, record label owner, and disc jockey. He is best known as the singer and guitarist for the rock band Rocket from the Crypt, which he formed and fronted for the entirety of its career from 1990 to 2005...
from Rocket from the Crypt
Rocket from the Crypt
Rocket from the Crypt was an American rock band led by John Reis, formed in 1989 in San Diego, California and disbanded in 2005.The band gained critical praise and the attention of major record labels after the release of their 1992 album Circa: Now!, leading to a recording contract with Interscope...
, was an example of technical rock music, demonstrated on the band's swan song
Swan song
"Swan song" is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that the Mute Swan is completely silent during its lifetime until the moment just before death, when it sings one beautiful song...
, Yank Crime
Yank Crime
Yank Crime is the second and final album by the San Diego, California post-hardcore band Drive Like Jehu, released in 1994 by Interscope Records. It was the band's major-label debut and its artwork was created by singer/guitarist Rick Froberg...
. The group disbanded in 1994. Other San Diego bands of the time that have been likened to Jehu include Antioch Arrow
Antioch Arrow
Antioch Arrow, from San Diego, California, was on the seminal post-hardcore label Gravity Records, responsible for putting San Diego on the map in the mid-90's as one of the centers of the movement....
, Clikitat Ikatowi, Tristeza
Tristeza
Tristeza is a post-rock band from San Diego, California. The band has performed in 19 countries.Tristeza is a California-based band, with most members currently living in Oakland, CA....
, No Knife
No Knife
No Knife were a band from San Diego, CA. They played an innovative form of rock that combined aspects of math rock, post-hardcore, and other indie rock....
, and Heavy Vegetable
Heavy Vegetable
Heavy Vegetable was a math rock band based in Encinitas, California, which featured guitarist and lead singer Rob Crow, singer Eléa Tenuta, bassist Travis Nelson and drummer Manolo Turner.-Discography:* A Bunch of Stuff EP7 1993...
, who took a more melodic approach than the first three. Heavy Vegetable also featured the songwriting of Rob Crow
Rob Crow
Robertdale Rulon "Rob" Crow, Jr. is an American singer and multi-instrumentalist from San Diego, California known for the long list of bands and projects he is associated with, mostly in the genres of indie rock and math rock...
. The scene is still relatively alive today with the likes of Sleeping People
Sleeping People
Sleeping People is an instrumental rock band from San Diego, California that formed in early 2002. They first started playing live at the end of that year as a trio consisting of Joileah Maddock , Kasey Boekholt and Brandon Relf . Bassist Kenseth Thibideau joined the group in 2003...
(Kenseth Thibideau from Rumah Sakit
Rumah Sakit
Rumah Sakit was an instrumental rock band from San Francisco, California. The group was signed to Temporary Residence Limited. "Rumah sakit" means "hospital" in Indonesian .- Discography :* Rumah Sakit...
on bass), Fever Sleeves, Japandi and WITT. This scene is often tagged as the origin of "screamo
Screamo
Screamo, though used loosely to generally describe music that features screamed vocals, is actually a musical subgenre of hardcore punk which predominantly evolved from emo, among other genres, in the early 1990s...
".
D.C. groups
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
also contributed to the sound of math rock with the bands Kerosene 454, The Dismemberment Plan
The Dismemberment Plan
The Dismemberment Plan is a Washington D.C. based indie rock band formed on January 1, 1993. Also known as D-Plan or The Plan, the name comes from a stray phrase uttered by insurance salesman Ned Ryerson in the popular comedy Groundhog Day. The band members included Eric Axelson , Jason Caddell ,...
, Shudder to Think
Shudder to Think
Shudder to Think is an American indie rock group. Formed in 1986, they released three albums on the Washington, D.C.-based label Dischord Records and were a post-hardcore band, although they drew upon a wide range of stylistic influences, including pop....
, Hoover
Hoover (band)
Hoover was an American post-hardcore band from Washington, DC. Formed in 1992, Hoover went on to produce some of the more intense music to appear on the Dischord Records label in the 1990s...
, Faraquet
Faraquet
Faraquet is an influential post-hardcore band from Washington D.C. sometimes placed in the math rock genre. They were formed in 1997, and disbanded in 2001. They were on Dischord Records, and were influenced by bands like Fugazi, Jawbox, Nation of Ulysses, as well as King Crimson...
, Avoca 1.6 Band
1.6 Band
1.6 Band is an American hardcore punk band consisting of Kevin Egan , Lance Jaeger , Vin Novara , and Mike Yanicelli .-Early History:The band was originally formed in 1989 by Jaeger, Novara, and Yanicelli in Holbrook, Long Island, New York,...
, Autoclave
Autoclave (band)
Autoclave was a post-punk band, based in Washington, D.C.. They were on local label Dischord Records. Formed in the summer of 1990, the group consisted of vocalist and bassist Christina Billotte, lead guitarist Mary Timony, guitarist Nikki Chapman, and drummer Melissa Berkoff.The group broke up in...
, later Jawbox
Jawbox
Jawbox was an alternative rock band from Washington, D.C., U.S.. Its original members were J. Robbins , Kim Coletta and Adam Wade...
, and Circus Lupus
Circus Lupus
Circus Lupus was a post-hardcore band based in the area of Washington, DC, U.S.A.. The band originally formed in Madison where one-time Ignition and Soul Side bassist Chris Thomson met guitarist Chris Hamley and drummer Arika Casebolt while attending school...
among some others. The latter is said to have influenced the sound of early Q and Not U
Q and Not U
Q and Not U was a post-hardcore band from Washington, D.C., signed to Dischord Records. Members John Davis, Harris Klahr, Christopher Richards, and Matt Borlik formed the band in 1998...
. However, since D.C.-oriented bands tended to throw in odd-meters into their already eclectic mix of influences, some were branded with the genre name.
The South
Richmond-based BreadwinnerBreadwinner (band)
Breadwinner was a math rock-band based in Richmond, Virginia composed of: Pen Rollings , Robert Donne , and Chris Farmer . Rollings had previously been a member of hardcore punk outfit Honor Role...
(starting in the mid to late 1980s), who incidentally are to be credited for creating the niche genre from an early review of their music, spawned a number of later rock bands in the town. While direct descendants of Breadwinner include Sliang Laos and Ladyfinger, and precedents include Honor Role and Butterglove, there were many other notable Hampton Roads-area bands tied in with the genre: Buzzard, Kenmores, Sordid Doctrine, MEN, Alter Natives, Hoi Polloi, Guana, Kill/Joy, Loibon, Mao Tse Helen, Hell Mach 4, Hose.got.cable, Mulch, Hegoat, King Sour, chutney, Fulflej
Fulflej
Fulflej were a rock band from Richmond, Virginia, United States, formed in 1986 by guitarist/vocalist Jason Greschke and bassist Andre Phillips. They were signed to Scratchie Records.-Biography:The band evolved from two previous projects...
, HRM, Nudibranch, Ebonite, Engine Down, Gore De Vol and Human Thurma. Most recently the band Hex Machine, composed of members of Human Thurma, Discordance Axis (from New York/New Jersey) and Sliang Laos, carries on the Richmond tradition. Richmond's Lamb of God
Lamb of God (band)
Lamb of God is an American heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia. Formed in 1994, the group consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler...
cite Breadwinner and Sliang Laos as major early influences.
Polvo
Polvo
Polvo is an American indie noise rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band, formed in 1990, is fronted by guitarists/vocalists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski. Brian Quast plays drums, and Steve Popson plays bass guitar...
, formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
in 1990, is widely considered to be another math rock standard bearer, although in interviews the band disavowed that categorization.
The Louisville sound
In 1991, a young band from Louisville, KentuckyLouisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
called Slint
Slint
Slint was an American rock band consisting of Brian McMahan , David Pajo , Britt Walford , Todd Brashear and Ethan Buckler...
released its second album Spiderland
Spiderland
Spiderland is the second studio album by the American post-rock band Slint, released on March 27, 1991 on Touch and Go. Featuring dramatically alternating dynamics and vocals ranging from spoken word to shouting, the album contains narrative lyrics that emphasize alienation...
. It is considered an extremely influential landmark album to not only math rock but across the underground music network and beyond. The short-lived group's sound, based on the interlocking of multiple "clean" (non-distorted) guitars playing in generally compound meters, was more sedate and less metal-influenced than most other math rock groups, and thus its style (and those of its imitators) represents a separate branch of the category. Several groups which followed Slint's lead (including a few that featured ex-members) also used unusual meters; such bands include Rodan
Rodan (band)
Rodan was an American math/post-hardcore band in the early to mid 1990s. The best known lineup of the band consisted of Jeff Mueller , Jason Noble , Tara Jane O'Neil , and Kevin Coultas .-History:...
, Crain
Crain (band)
Crain was an indie band spawned from the same fertile early 1990s Louisville, Kentucky math rock scene that also gave birth to Slint and Rodan. Combining complex meter and composition with a hard-edged attack, the band was a fixture of the scene but failed to attain the same acclaim as their more...
, The For Carnation
The For Carnation
The For Carnation are a post-rock band from Louisville, Kentucky who formed in 1994. The band was formed by Brian McMahan, who is the only constant group member. McMahan's previous band Slint hinted at the distinctive sound and sombre aesthetic he would create in The For Carnation...
, June of 44
June of 44
June of 44 was an American rock band which was formed in 1994 from ex-members of Rodan, Lungfish, Rex, and Hoover. The band's music is often described as 'math rock'. The band's name refers the period during which erotic fiction writers Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin corresponded.The band toured...
, Sonora Pine, Stick People, Roadside Monument
Roadside Monument
Roadside Monument was a Christian math rock band from Seattle, Washington who were signed to Tooth & Nail Records. They were active from 1994–1998 and then again from 2002–2003.-History:...
, Separation of M.A.Y., Shipping News
Shipping News
Shipping News is an American post-rock/post-hardcore band. The group formed in the fall of 1996 when members Jason Noble and Jeff Mueller, who were both in Rodan, collaborated to create music for the Chicago-based syndicated National Public Radio program This American Life. Kyle Crabtree was later...
, and August Moon.
Toronto/Windsor Ontario
Toronto, ON and Windsor, ON are known to have a small math rock scene. In Windsor, a few bands under the names of Red Red Run, The Bulletproof Tiger and Fin occupy the math rock scene.Vanguarda Paulistana
In the early 1980s, São PauloSão Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
gave rise to a movement called Vanguarda Paulistana ("São Paulo Vanguard" in English) that flourished in South America's largest city as the Brazilian military dictatorship
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
began to crumble. The original Vanguarda Paulista was an avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
wing of Popular Brazilian Music (MPB
Música Popular Brasileira
Música Popular Brasileira or MPB designates a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music. It is not a discrete genre but rather a constellation that combines original songwriting and updated versions of traditional Brazilian urban music styles like samba and samba-canção with contemporary...
) championed by artists like Arrigo Barnabé, Alice Ruiz, Hélio Ziskind, Patife Band. It had a 'faccao zona norte' (Northerners) called 'Pracianos' as they were known for gathering at Praça Santo Eduardo (Vila Maria), formed by Dari Luzio, Pedro Lua, Paulo Barroso, Le Dantas & Cordeiro, Carl Guerreiro. Dari Luzio was the first to release an LP on his own label EKO, marked by an innovative approach, inspired by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
to bring to the main-stream the style at the time seen as 'second class music', the Brazilian country, which is booming today.
Other artists took part in this underground movement, like Itamar Assumpção
Itamar Assumpção
Itamar Assumpção , born in Tietê, SP, Brazil. Itamar was a Brazilian songwriter and composer, who stood out in the independent/alternative music scene in the 80s a 90s, especially in São Paulo...
, Lingua de Trapo, Premeditando o Breque, all of them were regular performers at the Lira Paulistana theater and owner of their labels.
Among the influences the movement had an angular jazz-rock with constantly shifting time signatures reminiscent of Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
or Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
. In the early 21st century, there is a New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
of art-rock bands emerging, such as Objeto Amarelo, Retórica, Debate and Matema that have been heavily influenced by sounds from the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
made by all of the bands mentioned elsewhere in this article. These newer Brazilian groups are sometimes referred to as the Vanguarda Nova or New Vanguard.
Japanese groups
The most important Japanese groups include Ruins, Zeni GevaZeni Geva
Zeni Geva is a Japanese heavy metal group led by singer and guitarist KK. Null, together with guitarist Mitsuru Tabata and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida...
, Boredoms, Aburadako
Aburadako
is a Japanese punk group. Their name means "Greasy Octopus". A notable oddity is that none of Aburadako's albums have titles and are only distinguished by their packages.-Singles:...
, and YBO2. (Yona-Kit
Yona-Kit
Yona-Kit was a math rock quartet active in 1994.A U.S.-Japanese collaboration, the group consisted of KK Null , Jim O'Rourke , Darin Gray , and Thymme Jones . All but Null were contemporaneously members of the group Brise-Glace.Yona-Kit released one album, Yona-Kit on Skin Graft Records...
is a collaboration between Japanese and U.S. musicians.) It is very likely that Japanese math rock exerted an early influence on some (if not many) of the earliest U.S. math rock groups, as both Zeni Geva and Ruins were formed several years before their North American counterparts became active in the genre. John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
is known to have been a key importer of the Japanese math rock styles into the West. Other Japanese groups which incorporate math rock in their music include Panic Smile, té
TE
Te or TE may refer to or be used for:* Te , a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet* Te , a Japanese kana* te, the ISO 639-1 language code for Telugu language* Tight end, a position in American football...
, toe
Toe (band)
Toe is a Japanese music group. While mentioned in many post-rock circles, their song structure and dynamics are similar to many popular math rock artists....
, Zazen Boys
Zazen Boys
Zazen Boys is a Japanese band formed by former Number Girl guitarist and vocalist Mukai Shutoku. Stylistically, their music consists mostly of complex rhythmic songs reminiscent of math rock, as well as extended improvisational songs characterized through live performances.-History:After the...
, the band apart, and Lite
LITE (band)
-Biography:Formed in 2003 in Tokyo, Lite played many gigs around Tokyo and self-released two demo CDs. They have released one mini-album, Lite, and one full-length album, Filmlets, through Transduction in the UK and Cargo in Europe....
. Nipp Guitar, Chicago's Skin Graft and John Zorn's Tzadik label are some of the key labels which have released Japanese math rock in the United States.
European groups
In Europe (and particularly in France), a lot of famous math rock bands started to play in the late 90s - early 2000. At this period the American bands touring in Europe had influenced the whole indie scene. The most famous European math-rock band is Chevreuil but a lot of other names deserve to be paid attention to such as: 37500 Yens (France), Aucan (Italy), Casse Brique (Belgium), Cheval de FriseCheval de frise
The cheval de frise was a Medieval defensive obstacle consisting of a portable frame covered with many long iron or wooden spikes or even actual spears. They were principally intended as an anti-cavalry obstacle but could also be moved quickly to help block a breach in another barrier...
(France), Honey for Petzi (Switzerland), Papier Tigre (France), Perils of Penelope
Perils of Penelope
Perils of Penelope is an instrumental rock band from Tournai, Belgium that formed in 2007. The band released their debut album This product is not a toy through Gaw ! Bastards Records in 2011...
(Belgium), Room 204 (France), The Redneck Manifesto
The Redneck Manifesto
The Redneck Manifesto has two different meanings.* The Redneck Manifesto is a book written by American author and publisher Jim Goad* The Redneck Manifesto are an instrumental rock band based in Dublin, Ireland, formed in 1998...
(Ireland) and many more.
Australian groups
In the early 2000s in Melbourne, The Good Morning Captain (a cafe/venue named after the song by SlintSlint
Slint was an American rock band consisting of Brian McMahan , David Pajo , Britt Walford , Todd Brashear and Ethan Buckler...
) was a hub for math rock inspired bands. Bands such as Colditz Glider, Because Of Ghosts
Because of Ghosts
Because of Ghosts is a three-piece post-rock band based in Melbourne, AustraliaThey are often compared to bands such as Dirty Three or Godspeed You! Black Emperor....
, The Sinking Citizenship and My Disco
My Disco
My Disco is an Australian rock band.-Background:Formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2003, their first public appearance was performed at The Good Morning Captain, a cafe in Collingwood, a suburb of Melbourne...
emerged around this time.
Other math rock bands from Australia, or bands that have math rock elements include: Ricaine, True Radical Miracle, Truth From Facts, Scul Hazzards, When Chimps Attack, To The North, Drowned Out, Ohana.
East Coast groups There is a small yet steadily growing contemporary math scene out of New England. This includes groups such as: giraffes? giraffes!, Kendra, Mirrors and Dios Trio
Contemporary math rock
By the turn of the 21st century, most of the later generation bands such as Thumbnail and Sweep the Leg JohnnySweep the Leg Johnny
Sweep the Leg Johnny was a Chicago-based math rock band in existence from 1996 till 2002. The name is a reference to a line in the film The Karate Kid....
had disbanded and the genre had, like most musical movements identified in the ever-shifting and elusive underground rock scene, been roundly disavowed by most bands labeled with the "math rock" moniker. However, the influences of the movement can clearly be heard in the abiding avant-garde and indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
scenes. Many more bands, consisting of both those from the original wave of the genre and those of the new generation, have managed to be tagged with the moniker of "math-rock". Cinemechanica run contemporary math rock label Hello Sir Records out of Athens, Georgia. The British band Foals exemplify the angular guitar sections and start/stop dynamics of the math rock sound particularly in their earlier demos; however they lack the mixture of time signatures or the odd time signatures needed to be thought of as a proper math rock band. The Edmund Fitzgerald
The Edmund Fitzgerald (band)
The Edmund Fitzgerald were a math rock band from Oxford, England, who disbanded in 2005. Their final line-up consisted of Yannis Philippakis on lead guitar and vocals, Lina Simon on rhythm guitar, and Jack Bevan on drums...
is a band containing members of the band Foals, with the addition of the use of complex time signatures and time changes. Other British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
math rock acts of the 21st century such as The Murder of Rosa Luxemburg who toured with screamo
Screamo
Screamo, though used loosely to generally describe music that features screamed vocals, is actually a musical subgenre of hardcore punk which predominantly evolved from emo, among other genres, in the early 1990s...
band Circle Takes the Square
Circle Takes the Square
Circle Takes the Square is an American post-hardcore band from Savannah, Georgia. Their debut release was a 7-track self-titled EP in 2001, followed later by a 7" split with Pg. 99...
before breaking up in 2004 have stood out in the UK scene but have been less successful. Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies are another British band who use angular guitar sections, as well as some post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
techniques and the use of different time signatures. This Town Needs Guns
This Town Needs Guns
This Town Needs Guns, are a math rock band originating from Oxford in the United Kingdom. They were formed in 2004, and are currently signed to Sargent House , Zankyo as well as Big Scary Monsters which ended in August 2009.Their debut full length album, Animals, was released in UK via Big Scary...
, an Oxford based band, predominantly use asymmetrical time signatures, typical math rock characteristics, as well as complex finger picking.
In the mid-2000s, many math rock bands have enjoyed renewed popularity. Slint
Slint
Slint was an American rock band consisting of Brian McMahan , David Pajo , Britt Walford , Todd Brashear and Ethan Buckler...
and Chavez
Chavez (band)
Chavez is an alternative rock/math rock band from New York, formed in 1993. After a period of inactivity, the band reformed in 2006. They released two independent non-charting albums in the mid-1990s...
embarked on reunion tours, while Shellac
Shellac (band)
Shellac is an American group composed of Steve Albini , Bob Weston and Todd Trainer...
toured and released their first album in seven years
Excellent Italian Greyhound
Excellent Italian Greyhound is the title of Shellac's fourth album. It was released on June 5, 2007. The album's title is a reference to drummer Todd Trainer's Italian Greyhound, Uffizi. The album was recorded at Electrical Audio and mastered at Abbey Road by Steve Rooke. The drawings for Excellent...
. The members of the short-lived Seyarse formed a new band under the name of Piglet
Piglet (band)
Piglet was a short-lived, Chicago-based instrumental math rock band formed by the former members of the band Seyarse. Their style of music is labeled such things as "math rock," "post rock" "experimental rock," and instrumental rock, among others...
, releasing Lava Land in 2005, putting them on the chart as a pioneering new math rock band. Don Caballero
Don Caballero
Don Caballero are an American rock group from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group took their name from the character Guy Caballero, portrayed by Joe Flaherty, on the sketch comedy show Second City Television...
reunited with a new lineup and released an album in 2006, while several of its original members joined new projects; Mike Banfield
Mike Banfield
Mike Banfield is a rock guitarist.Banfield was a founding member of math rock pioneers Don Caballero, playing guitar with the band from 1991 to 1998. Prior to that, Banfield was a member of the popular State College, Pennsylvania band Slag...
has formed the band Knot Feeder
Knot Feeder
Knot Feeder is a math rock band from Pittsburgh featuring ex-members of Don Caballero, Tabula Rasa, and Southpaw. The band consists of guitarist Mike Banfield , drummer Rob Spagiare , guitarist Andrew Grossmann , and bassist Andy Curl . They recorded a CD with J...
in 2006, while bassist Pat Morris joined The Poison Arrows in 2005.
See also
- MathcoreMathcoreMathcore is a rhythmically complex and dissonant fusion style of hardcore punk and Metal. It has its roots in bands such as Converge, Botch, and The Dillinger Escape Plan. The term mathcore is suggested by analogy with math rock. Both math rock and mathcore make use of unusual time signatures...
- Noise rockNoise rockNoise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
- Post-hardcorePost-hardcorePost-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
- Post-rockPost-rockPost-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
- ScreamoScreamoScreamo, though used loosely to generally describe music that features screamed vocals, is actually a musical subgenre of hardcore punk which predominantly evolved from emo, among other genres, in the early 1990s...
- Progressive metalProgressive metalProgressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
- Twinkle Punk
- List of musical works in unusual time signatures
- Music and mathematicsMusic and mathematicsMusic theorists often use mathematics to understand music. Indeed, mathematics is "the basis of sound" and sound itself "in its musical aspects... exhibits a remarkable array of number properties", simply because nature itself "is amazingly mathematical"...
External links
- Another list of math Rock bands on www.everything2.com.
- Electrical Audio Forum, a message board run by Steve Albini and populated by math rock followers.
- http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/40055/Interview_Interview_Chavez Interview with Matt Sweeney of Chavez citing the mathrock concept as a joke.
- A blog showcasing math rock.
- Russian Math-Rock Community