Cool Band Alert - University

Today's lesson: math rock.

Welcome to Bandcamp Notes, a free music discovery newsletter published by Bandcamp.

Playlist of the week: “a soft breeze: trip hop for the 21st century & beyond” by arnim137

RIP Brian Wilson <3

Name: University
From: Crewe, UK
Members: Joel Smith (drums), Zak Bowker (vocals/guitar), Ewan Barton (bass), Eddie (mascot—yes, really)
RIYL: Hella, The Armed, Drive Like Jehu, Lightning Bolt, The Fall of Troy
The Gist: Math rock for people who flunked out of calculus

Here’s your thought exercise for the day: Supposing four tour vans—belonging to hardcore, emo, math rock, and noise pop bands, respectively—approach a four-way roundabout with a busted stoplight, while going 20 miles over the speed limit, at the same time; what’s the end result? A loud-ass wreck, naturally (minus the rubbernecking, because this is a metaphor) as well as the debut album from this week’s Cool Band. Hailing from Crewe, England, University take the standout elements of each aforementioned style and melt them down into some of the rowdiest, giddiest, devilish heavy rock we’ve heard all year. Their spindly, intricate fretwork, nasally vocals, and cheeky textures are suggestive of a Midwest emo band; their math-y rhythms are frenetically theorycrafted moment-to-moment; their harmonically stacked, distortion-heavy choruses are red meat for the mosh pit; their intros are riddled with glitches. Mind you, all of this can be heard on track one, “Massive Twenty One Pilots Tattoo”: a megaton sugar rush that swerves between dynamic and textural extremes, the kind of song that’ll leave fans of The Armed and Hella swooning. If you like things loud and crazy, you’ll love University. Class dismissed.

McCartney, It’ll Be Ok is out June 20 on Transgressive. Pre-order it here.

Photo by Steve Gullick

Dig this record and want more like it?

Start with our recent guide to math rock, obviously…peep these recommendations from Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt, who helped pave the way for University’s sound….on the newer side, there’s Brooklyn noise miscreants YWHW Nailgun, who dropped their whopper of a debut earlier this spring…North Carolina power duo Cloutchaser and their wild-boy antics…and for a milder alternative, Australian jazz experimentalists Dropbear Lounge, whose arrangements follow a similar math-rock logic.

Listening Party Picks, June 12th - June 18th

Come hang in the chat with artists celebrating their record release this week on Bandcamp.

June 12: Scalameriya & Cam Lasky for Burning Chrome. RSVP.
June 12: Abstract Orchestra for Big Bad Wolf ft. Guilty Simpson. RSVP.
June 13: DJ LOUIE (Jupiter4) for Amplificado. RSVP.
June 13: I Am Fya for Homeland. RSVP.
June 14: The Black Monolith for Wreathed in Serpents, Crowned in Thorns. RSVP.
June 14: Vacío for their reissue of Los Monaguillosh’s Lamentos A La Luna. RSVP.
June 15: Fergus McKay and Nothing Concrete for The Imperfectionist. RSVP.
June 17: Elijah Johnson for Stupid Soul. RSVP.
June 17: ZÖJ for Give Water To Birds. RSVP.
June 18: Susana López for Materia Vibrante. RSVP.
June 18: University for McCartney, I’ll Be Ok. RSVP.
June 18: SELM for dehNUNG. RSVP.

To see the full calendar, go here.