New Math Walks Among Us Again (Part 2 of 2)

Continued from Part One…

Never one to shy away from calling out characters who make things difficult, Howie has only good things to say about New Math. “Sometimes,” he says, “you get involved with people who are so tough to work with that you think, ‘Oy, there’s not much that we’re going to get out of this.’ You have to put so much into it in terms of psychic energy or fighting with people.” He says that New Math was “the opposite of that. They made everything so easy.”

Patrick says that the band financed the EP recording sessions, but it wasn’t a major investment. “When you combine a very small amount of money – maybe we would have saved $1,000 or something to go into a studio for a day or two – and the fact that it was just a local band, it was just a fun thing to do when you’re a young kid,” he says.

“We didn’t know what we were doing,” Patrick says. “So to economize as much as possible, we just did a few takes and maybe a few overdubs and [hoped we] captured it.” What the band and producer Thompson captured was a kind of minor-key, gothic-flavored rock that owed a debt to The Psychedelic Furs. After the 1979 power pop single, the new EP represented a major stylistic change for the band.

photo by Duane Sherwood

“I think we just were like lots of kids,” Patrick says. “You just tried to mimic your favorite band at the time, or your favorite sort of moment in music.” By the time of the EP, New Math’s tastes had “moved on to The Gun Club and The Cramps,” he explains.

After the EP’s release, the band booked dates at New York City’s Mudd Club and Peppermint Lounge. And through their association with Thompson, New Math was able to play dates all around the Northeast, opening for The Psychedelic Furs and Wall of Voodoo. “The general consensus,” says Yockel, “is that we held up own on the same bill with them, which is pretty cool.”

Back in Rochester, the group was a popular opening act, placed on bills with The Ramones, The Pretenders and other nationally touring acts. Trainer also recalls that New Math did “a tour for 415 Records,” including dates in Milwaukee. “We all had jobs,” he says. “So we did the tour on a long weekend.”

The success of Romeo Void’s Never Say Never led directly to the 415 deal with Columbia/CBS, taking Romeo Void along with it. But New Math’s fortunes didn’t follow suit; CBS didn’t offer them a deal. “I was surprised that New Math didn’t become more successful,” says Chris Knab. “Who knows why they do or don’t sign certain artists?” “They weren’t interested,” Patrick says, recalling that Columbia executive Don DeVito “came to see a show and decided they didn’t want to pursue it. And it ended there.”

New Math didn’t exactly end; the band changed its name. “‘New Math’ didn’t reflect what we sounded like,” Patrick says, so the same lineup became Jet Black Berries. Signing with Enigma Records, the renamed band released three albums. Yet again, the group of Rochester musicians changed its sound. Trouser Press described 1984’s Sundown on Venus as cowpunk, “an offbeat concept album that almost carries off an attempt to meld two familiar cultural idioms, science-fiction and westerns.”

Today, the musicians of New Math are more likely to identify as former members of Jet Black Berries; New Math is viewed as something of a footnote, a stepping stone toward their major-label incarnation. But Gary Trainer emphasizes his appreciation for Howie Klein. “People like that at the time were sort of like patrons of the arts. Howie must’ve lost his shirt on our deal,” he says. “I am forever, forever, forever in his debt.”

Postscript/addendum: In 2023, Propeller Sound Recordings released Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979-1983). The 11-track compilation featured New Math material not included on their 415 EP. Early singles and some later tracks make up the set. And in 2024, the label reissued the original They Walk Among You EP in a remastered and expanded edition. Pressed on CD and vinyl, the set appended the original five-song set with three self-produced studio recordings (including a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “We Love You” and three live tracks from dates at Scorgie’s in 1983.

Pressed on beautifully swirled purple vinyl, the 2024 Propeller LP features an inner sleeve packed with memorabilia images (gig posters, review clippings, photos and more). The sleeve – or the booklet on the CD version – features reminiscences about each track from Gary Trainer, Kevin Patrick, Roy Stein and Chris Yockel, and makes kind mention of my book Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave of which this history you’ve just read is the 28^th chapter. – bk