The Indie Equation

The Unholy Marriage of Music and Math.

10.16.2005

Equation #21: mewithoutyou



mewithoutyou


I recently saw these guy in concert and, though they were the opener for the opener for the opener, I think I got my ticket and service charge money out of their performance alone. My brother has tried to get me into them for some time but for some reason I wasn't ready. Most people would be put off by Aaron Weiss' way of putting across his journal-esque stream of thought lyrics, specifically speaking them loudly over layers of guitar fuzz and cascading delays in a style that can only be described as Scream-o meets Poetry Slam, but once you let the whole sound sink in you realize that if he just sang they lyrics it would sound like any other broody, literate musing by some suburban kid with a Fender and a Five Star notepad. Not to say that the band doesn't carry the words in a fitting way, the addition of swirling, space rock noodlings over the grind gives the music a dreamlike, often warm sound to what could be just the same old indie noise. Though these guys are just barely breaking into the scene they've already played hundreds of tiny shows in places you've never heard of. However, if you catch wind of their arrival in your town make sure you check them out. I was literally standing there with my jaw dropped and being a jaded, cynical hipster elitist that doesn't happen too often.

10.01.2005

Special Edition: Children of the New Order




In the meantime, whilst I'm away conjuring new equations, (yes that's right, I haven't completely given up on this thing yet) please enjoy this special piece I did for Subter.com a few months ago. The idea was to make a sort-of family tree for the highly influential electro-pop band New Order. A lot of it I just pulled out of my own ass and linked them loosely, basing the ties more on general sound than hard research. But those who reviewed it at the magazine thought it was fairly spot-on, so I don't question it. It's by far the most involved piece to date and it uses no math to speak of, simply a flow chart type of web mess.

Thanks to the arrival of a few nice new comments resulting from the Damien Rice Equation I've decided to do my best to revive the IEQ to at least half of it's former self, meaning I'll give my all to update you with new equations every 2 weeks starting tomorrow. So... new update a fortnight from tomorrow. Send in ideas if you want to see someone special. I heard that I should do one fo da ladiez, so I just might. But now I'm rambling so just stop reading........ now.