{"id":28331,"date":"2024-10-24T05:30:45","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T09:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28331"},"modified":"2024-10-25T10:43:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T14:43:55","slug":"new-math-walks-among-us-again-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/24\/new-math-walks-among-us-again-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"New Math Walks Among Us Again (Part 1 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A newly reissued and expanded set from goth rockers New Math is a reminder that in the early \u201880s, there was more good music being made than could possibly get a proper hearing or even distribution. New Math was such a group. I researched and interviewed New Math for my second book, 2021\u2019s Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave<\/i><\/strong>. On the occasion of the reissue, herewith is that chapter, with an addendum that brings things up to date \u2013 bk<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Most every band associated with 415 Records had its roots in \u2013 or at least connections to \u2013 the Bay Area. Even Texas\u2019 Roky Erickson and New Orleans-based Red Rockers would make San Francisco their base of operations for a time. But New Math, a band from Rochester in upstate New York, had no ties to the Bay Area. Their 1981 EP for the label, They Walk Among You<\/i> was a slice of goth rock that represented the group\u2019s latest stylistic metamorphosis.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIn every little town like Rochester, there was a scene of a bunch of people who would go to the import [record] shop, and the guy who bought the records would save them for all of us,\u201d explains lead singer Kevin Patrick. \u201cEvery week we’d go in and get whatever: The Damned or The Vibrators or The Cramps or whoever had released.\u201d And many of those same people formed bands. \u201cThere was this culture where you would make [gig] fliers and put them on telephone poles, and everybody of that age who liked anything other than the Lee Abrams-forced radio\u201d would be interested, he says.<\/p>\n

Patrick believes that most every place like Rochester had two or three bands that became popular. Big fishes in small ponds, bands like his did it \u201cbecause it was a fun thing to do,\u201d he says. When a new local bar called Scorgie\u2019s opened, Patrick convinced the owner to let him fill the jukebox with punk and new wave singles. The music caught on, and when the club started booking live music, Patrick\u2019s band New Math was a logical choice. \u201cWe would get 300 to 500 people a showing,\u201d says guitarist and songwriter Gary Trainer.<\/p>\n

New Math\u2019s music wasn\u2019t without its local detractors; fans of more established corporate rock often outnumbered those who enjoyed the moody, new wave-flavored sounds of the five-piece group. Drummer Roy Stein remembers a gig at a Rochester club called the Penny Arcade. \u201cI walk in, and I notice the bartenders are all wearing \u2018Punk Sucks\u2019 T-shirts. I couldn\u2019t believe it; they were insulting the style of music that has just packed their bar on a Tuesday night!\u201d When the band took the stage, several people in the audience started pelting them with raw eggs. \u201cThey hated our music so much<\/i>\u201d he laughs. \u201cThey loved bands like Journey, Styx and Kansas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the former members of the band aren\u2019t even clear how they ended up on 415 Records. \u201cA lot of it,\u201d surmises Trainer, \u201chad to do with Kevin Patrick.\u201d Patrick demurs. \u201cNo idea,\u201d he says. \u201cI literally don\u2019t have an answer to that.\u201d Asked for his perspective, drummer Roy Stein says, \u201cI have no idea. I just played drums.\u201d<\/p>\n

The connection was likely helped along through the efforts of Howard Thompson. UK-based Thompson was an established producer with credits including John Cale\u2019s Guts<\/i> and The Psychedelic Furs\u2019 debut album. A serious record collector, Kevin Patrick first got to know Thompson through record trading.<\/p>\n

Using the pseudonym Howard leCanard, Thompson produced a 1979 New Math single (\u201cDie Trying\u201d backed with \u201cAngela\u201d) and saw to its release in England on the CBS label. That single was very much in a power pop style. \u201cAnything you could get released on a major label \u2013 good, bad or indifferent \u2013 was a thumbs-up at the time,\u201d says guitarist Chris Yockel.<\/p>\n

Thompson was also involved in the UK release of the new album from Roky Erickson and the Aliens. When Howie Klein looked into a stateside release of material from those sessions on 415 as The Evil One<\/i> he connected with Thompson. And that professional relationship gave Thompson an opportunity to tell Howie about his latest production project, New Math\u2019s They Walk Among You<\/i>. And he had an additional reason to do so: songwriter Gary Trainer was a serious Roky fan. \u201cI got The Evil One<\/i> early on,\u201d he says. \u201cI was totally blown away by it; you can tell that I just ripped him off.\u201d<\/p>\n

That lines up with Howie\u2019s recollection as well. \u201cOnce we put out the Roky Erickson record, [the guys in New Math] thought, \u2018Any label that would put out Roky Erickson might be interested in us, too!\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cSo they sent me the music, we started playing their demo on our radio show, and we got such a good reaction. People liked it so much that we then made a deal with them to put out a mini LP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A newly reissued and expanded set from goth rockers New Math is a reminder that in the early \u201880s, there was more good music being made than could possibly get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,62,64,65,73],"tags":[4390,5534],"class_list":["post-28331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-post-punk","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-415-records","tag-new-math","cat-53-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28444,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28331\/revisions\/28444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}