By: Will Covert
The recently released Math & Atlases: Chicago compilation focusing on some of the best math rock / post punk / whatever bands from the eponymous city caught our attention so we asked the man behind it, Will Covert from Space Blood, to give us a bit of an insider’s view of the scene in the Windy City.
I’ve always imagined the 2007 album City of Echoes by Chicago post-metal masterminds Pelican had to be about the city from which they hailed from. Chicago is a 20th Century city functioning in the 21st Century, and it’s evident from everywhere you go, from the old and mostly abandoned industrial corridors that snake their way through the vast city landscape to the rows of early to mid-century skyscrapers that stand out like living ruins amongst the ever changing communities and neighbourhoods that stretch far from the fields and beyond the reach of the city skyline. Chicago is a city of echoes, and those can echoes can also be heard in the local music scene.
The past couple years has seen a resurgence in the popularity of the music that put the Chicago math-rock/post-rock music scene on the map in the 1990’s. There is a definite changing of the guard that has slowly been taking place over the past half decade, with a new generation of musicians ushering a new sound not necessarily knowing or caring of the lush history to the music scene, led by the old vanguard of the previous generation, they now populate and are influencing. Echoes of the past are still very apparent in the scene, and it’s easy to go to a local math-rock show and hear people talk about the good old days of seeing Tortoise at Lounge Ax or Don Caballero at Fireside Bowl, and yearly music fests like PRF BBQ (Professional Recording Forum is run by Steve Albini’s recording studio Electrical Audio) where one can be lucky enough to see a rare show by 90’s local legends like Dianogah or Pinebender, which to someone like me who wasn’t around to see what the scene was like 10-20 years ago it’s like seeing a glimpse into the past. Places that represented Chicago’s music past like the legendary Fireside Bowl are doing shows again, but now the bands playing there are local up-and-coming math rock, emo, and post-punk bands, some of which weren’t even born yet when bands started packing the place 20 years ago.
One thing Chicago has that’s hard to find in other places is a very diverse musical landscape within music sub-genres. While much of recent music memory in the Chicago DIY scene has been dominated by clean-tone, tapping guitars or the so-called emo driven “Twinkle-Core” there has been a growing growl of noise-rock starting to rise to the surface and finger-tapping started to make way for angular riffs and loud drums. Terms like post-metal or post-rock or noise-rock can’t be assumed for any given musical expectations, and a house show or venue show with 3-4 math-rock bands can have each band sounding totally different from each other with different approaches and influences steering bands in different directions within one local scene. Shows advertised as noise or noise-rock shows can have bands interpreting what noise as a genre is or can be in a multitude of ways that can either hit or miss the mark, but continues the tradition of Midwestern DIY culture and experimental music. There’s definitely a feeling in Chicago in the scene that anything is possible musically, and experimentalism in not just bands’ music, but also in live performance is gaining speed without a track to guide it and has made Chicago again a really interesting place for music.
Math & Atlases: Chicago is a compilation album my band Space Blood curated with the goal of trying to showcase some of our favourite bands in Chicago right now. Here are some bands we like and recommend:
- Paper Mice
Paper Mice have become a fixture in the Chicago DIY and math rock community since the late 2000’s, blending an interesting style of post-punk with experimental song structures that sounds like pure Chicago rock. The lyrics of their songs are derived from current events and news stories, and most of their songs don’t last past the two minute mark while flowing in and out of complex poly-rhythmic displays of musical prowess. Their live shows are some of the best you’ll see in the Windy City, and they bring a lot of punk energy to their experimental math-funk sounds that at times what Talking Heads would have sound like if fronted by Steve Albini instead of David Byrne.
- Snort
Snort started when friends going to music school in Appleton, WI decided to play the kind of music they wanted to hear. Last year, Snort moved to Chicago, to continue as a band and quickly began adding their mark to the local math-rock scene. Their sound brings together the energy of punk, the complexity of math rock, and the catchiness of pop music into a genre the instrumental four piece likes to call “party math rock” or “goofcore.”
- MegaMaul
MegaMaul is a new band that’s come on the scene in the past year, but they have deep rooted connections to the old vanguard of the Chicago scene. Drummer, Scott Picco, also drums in the mathy noise-rock band Bear Claw, who’ve been Chicago heavyweights for the past decade and were invited by Shellac to play All Tomorrow’s Parties. MegaMaul is a straight punch to the gut of angular rock that invokes elements of math-rock and noise-rock as well melodic indie-rock, but without staying in one area for too long.
- Evasive Backflip
One of the most original bands in Chicago right now is Evasive Backflip. They bring with them a style that sounds like a mix of This Heat with NoMeansNo and Primus. Energetic punk mixed with oddly funk-ish and almost prog-like interplay between guitar, bass, and drums. Marcus Drake is one of the most inventive bassists you’ll find playing in Chicago today.
- DEN
Noise-rockers DEN are definitely in the running for being the loudest band in Chicago. Their sound is huge and pummeling and at times sound like what Hawkwind may have turned in to if Lemmy stayed in the band and they cranked up their space rock madness to 11. They create an ever impressive wall of noise as a three-piece band and continue to further develop their sound with every release they do.
- Secret Means of Escape
Secret Means of Escape is a new experimental noise project from Chicago native Mark Shippy (U.S. Maple, Shorty, Invisible Things). The project serves as a vessel for Shippy to conduct musical explorations based in noise experimentalism and musical improvisation (another hallmark of the Chicago underground music scene). The live line-up of the group changes based on the gig, and can venture anywhere from a more mathy and prog direction that sounds similar to Shippy’s work with his former band and local 90’s music legends U.S. Maple to an even further experimental realm draped in sound collages and noise leanings.
Listen to the full Math & Atlases compilation below and check out the previous release focusing on acts from the UK.
