JETPACK - S/T - 1999

This fall, I started playing with a few dudes from Sick Electric (Haywire is one of my favorite albums).  They’ve been around playing music for a little longer than I have.  Jimmy (the guitarist/vocalist) knows I’m pretty deep into the maths, and he dropped a major nugget on me:  Jetpack’s one and only full-length album, released in 1999. 

“Who is Jetpack?”, you may ask.  Jetpack is Keith Souza’s band from the late ‘90s.  “OK, but who is Keith Souza?” 

Well:  have you heard Battles’s Mirrored?  Fang Island’s Fang Island?  The Body?  The Psychic Paramount?  Lightning Bolt?  Neptune?  Daughters?  Tyondai Braxton’s Central Market?  Six Finger Satellite?  The Chinese Stars?  Yeah.  Keith Souza recorded all of those at his studio, Machines with Magnets. 

“Well that’s all well and good, but what does the thing actually sound like?”  You’re pretty insistent with the questions there, chief.  But trust me, the thing sounds fucking awesome.  Angular riffs.  Fuzz bass.  Strained vocal harmonies.  Weird songs.  Snaky grooves.  You’re gonna want to listen to this thing over and over and over and over and over. 

Jetpack has no internet presence whatsoever, and it seems like the only way to get this sweet, sweet album is through your good friends at Plenty of Swords!

So get to it, already! 

Manray - Tournament (2011)

One of the newest editions to the great Athens, Georgia based label, Hello Sir Records (home to Cinemechanica, Bronzed Chorus, Antarctic) this is some intense, driving, math ROCK. Think early Adebisi Shank with occasional shouted vocals or Battles crossed with Fugazi. Also reminds me of Alarma Man. If you dont know them, perhaps I should post that next. Check it!

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STNNNG

Aggressively angular guitars mixed with spoken word vocals and shouting are always a recipe for success in my book. Clearly there is a deep love with Fugazi going on as well but I'd say its harder to find bands that aren't influenced by them so no points will be deducted.  There is also a liberal sprinkling of mathy structures but certainly not enough to be overbearing. At times I'd say they remind me if Slint was angrier and played faster, all in all a high compliment.  Not for everyone but a great redux of some classic 90's alternative indie rock with an edge

 Dignified Sissy
Fake Fake
The Smoke of My Will

PS. The cover art for Dignified Sissy is awesomely representative of how they sound

Tera Melos

Math Rock

Or as Nick Reinhart (guitarist) describes it as "bands that like Fugazi". I honestly could never hope to say enough about this group. They remain a constant favorite of mine not because of chops, emotion or anything like that but because of their evolution as a group over time. Most Math groups are content to rest on notions that we all know and love that have been paved through by father Don Cab. Not so at all with Tera Melos.
    With four major releases under their belt it isn't hard to see why they are all so loved. Spazzy Jazz core with ambient bits thrown in with electronic portions. Yet at the end of the day this band can crush you with guitars. I saw these gents play last year and actually got to spend a long time speaking with them as they were staying at a friends. What I gleaned from all three of them was a restless nature of moving on to the next best thing. When it comes to art in music this is the key to the golden city for me.

Self-titled - First full length. A very tight outing with memorable riffs. All 4 original members were a part of this release. The most "conventional" of all their albums but certainly turned heads when it dropped.

Drugs to the Dear Youth EP- Minus guitartist Jeff Worms. This is a wholly different group. Where riffs were titanic they are now manic and abrasive. Space is given to the songs yet the harder parts are that much harder. Vince Rogers drumming has become more free jazz in nature and all the better for it. EXCELLENT

Complex Full of Phantoms - Another EP this time split with another math group "By the End of Tonight" This is a compounding of both previous releases together into a glorious cohesive mess. Also vocals make their shy appearance. This is a stand out among their releases and many feel their strongest. Everyone is firing on all cylinders.

Patagonian Rats Minus Vince Rogers. For me (and many) this was a large blow for the group. Nick had been expressing his love of pop music around this time and it seems to me this was his stab at using these elements. Some good songs but just not as strong as we are used to.