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A recommendation list of Math Rock, Midwest Emo, Lofi, etc and their associated genres, along with extra lore tidbits like articles, documentaries, etc.
This page will be in constant construction. A changelog will be appended at the end.
Math Rock
Spiderland by Slint (1991)
There's so much I could say for my retrospective on Spiderland. This record changed my life, and remains my number one album of all time.
Its lyrics and sound are meticulously crafted, characterized by quiet, haunting refrains that get churned into crunchy, fuzzy, velvety explosions of sonic catharsis. Its conception itself is marked by legends of mental breakdowns and psychological ruin.
All of its members had been previously active in Punk, Hardcore, and/or Metal projects. This is made obvious when you listen to Slint's lesser-known first album, Tweez, an experimental project in which each of its tracks are named after a band member's father or mother. Within its sound is a grotesque irreverence inspired by the likes of Fugazi and squeezed through a barely-constrained pretense of music.
The deposit that resulted from Tweez's filtering became the soil for Spiderland. Its starting track, Breadcrumb Trail, a vaguely analogous story about a boy and a girl fortune teller riding a rollercoaster, acts as a prologue for not only the album as a whole, but Slint's newly refined sound, which features spoken word interludes intersected with raw, throaty screams of post-adolescent confusion and anguish, as well as patterns of soft-hard/slow-fast instrumentality.
Jarringly concluded in the closing track Good Morning, Captain, Spiderland isn't just a progenitor of MathRock, but a masterpiece in its own right, and a timeless confrontation with your own subconscious.
Its lyrics and sound are meticulously crafted, characterized by quiet, haunting refrains that get churned into crunchy, fuzzy, velvety explosions of sonic catharsis. Its conception itself is marked by legends of mental breakdowns and psychological ruin.
All of its members had been previously active in Punk, Hardcore, and/or Metal projects. This is made obvious when you listen to Slint's lesser-known first album, Tweez, an experimental project in which each of its tracks are named after a band member's father or mother. Within its sound is a grotesque irreverence inspired by the likes of Fugazi and squeezed through a barely-constrained pretense of music.
The deposit that resulted from Tweez's filtering became the soil for Spiderland. Its starting track, Breadcrumb Trail, a vaguely analogous story about a boy and a girl fortune teller riding a rollercoaster, acts as a prologue for not only the album as a whole, but Slint's newly refined sound, which features spoken word interludes intersected with raw, throaty screams of post-adolescent confusion and anguish, as well as patterns of soft-hard/slow-fast instrumentality.
Jarringly concluded in the closing track Good Morning, Captain, Spiderland isn't just a progenitor of MathRock, but a masterpiece in its own right, and a timeless confrontation with your own subconscious.
Analphabetapolothology by Cap'N Jazz (1998)
Analphabetapolothology (which I will henceforth abbreviate as Anal) exists at an inflection point where Math Rock branched off into Midwest Emo, at least imo. It has qualities of both genres but it's more visceral in its sound and energy. More specifically, the band, CapnJazz, originated in Illinois (woo 🌽 ), which is one of the hotbeds of Midwest Emo. Our most notable product was AmericanFootball, formed by Cap'n Jazz drummer Mike Kinsella in Champaign; Cap'n Jazz got together in the Chicago 'burbs, which also generated one of the biggest mainstream Emo bands ever, a little project called FallOutBoy, but that's further down the timeline.
Anal has a sort of poppy feel to it, which makes sense given it was recorded at the end of the 90s vs the beginning. Cap'n Jazz's leader singer, Tim Kinsella, brother of Mike, later formed JoanofArc. Their first two albums have a robust, mature vibe that carry a lot of Math Rock and Midwest Emo influences, as if Cap'n Jazz's boyish, ephemeral sound had stayed in the oven a little longer to fully bake.
Once a hidden gem, now a cult classic, Anal is considered a hallmark record in Alt/Indie/PostPunk/PostHardcore history--distilling the strongest ingredients of Math Rock and recombining them with punchy, unique personality that laid the groundwork for Midwest Emo's characteristic sound.
Anal has a sort of poppy feel to it, which makes sense given it was recorded at the end of the 90s vs the beginning. Cap'n Jazz's leader singer, Tim Kinsella, brother of Mike, later formed JoanofArc. Their first two albums have a robust, mature vibe that carry a lot of Math Rock and Midwest Emo influences, as if Cap'n Jazz's boyish, ephemeral sound had stayed in the oven a little longer to fully bake.
Once a hidden gem, now a cult classic, Anal is considered a hallmark record in Alt/Indie/PostPunk/PostHardcore history--distilling the strongest ingredients of Math Rock and recombining them with punchy, unique personality that laid the groundwork for Midwest Emo's characteristic sound.
Changelog
10/10/24: Created blog post. Added Spiderland and Analphabetapolothology.
10/12/24: Added Spiderland/Analphabetapolothology retrospectives.
Comments
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John Paul
spiderland is a trip 10/10
Right!! I'm glad you dig it. I truly think it's a masterpiece.
by Xavier; ; Report
John Paul
hell yeah bro i didn’t know i needed this
thank you
No problem! Lmk what you think! :)
by Xavier; ; Report