these kids today and their not-math rock

According to the oracle¹, "math rock" is a style of rock music characterized by "complex, atypical rhythmic structures" and "asymmetrical time signatures." I don't love the term, but it's there, and it actually does fit. But I've been noticing it getting a lot of use lately, and none of the bands it's being applied to these days, as far as I can tell, ever stray from 4/4 time. It seems some of the other qualities that commonly went along with the weird time signatures, such as "angular" melodies (whatthefuckever that means), or "strident" vocals, or simply a lack of vocals at all, are enough these days to qualify for the genre. Battles, Les Savy Fav, and Foals are examples that come to mind, along with what I think of as "new prog" bands like Explosions in the Sky. (How much better Mogwai were than Explosions will ever be is another post.) These bands get labeled math rock because they sound a little weird, I guess.

I guess that's my only point. I'm just getting a little Andy Rooney on the indie rock scene. Heh.

Real, good math rock: Jetpack, Don Caballero, June of 44, Rodan...


¹On a side note, a Yale undergraduate I mentored this year, who is now going on to one of the top medical schools in the country, cited Wikipedia more than all other sources combined in her final term paper, and then complained about getting a B+ in the course. Yeah.