Being associated with a lesser-known genre of music is probably coolest if it was coined for or by you first. Second-place pigeonholing just doesn't hold the same cachet.
"Math rock" has been linked to numerous bands since the '80s, but Seattle's Minus the Bear only got lumped in this century. Even then, bassist Cory Murchy says he isn't entirely sure the tag adds up to the band, which is at the Starlite Room tomorrow night.
"We have heard the term before and I guess it can be applied to our band in terms of time changes, but I don't really know if it's an accurate description," he says.
"I don't think math and rock go together at all - math seems not fun to me; rock seems fun to me. Someone must have made it up. I hear there's a lot of counting in it, but we can only count up to four - it seems like as good a number as any."
At its best, math rock is a progressive, polyrhythmic style, using odd-time meters like 7/8, 11/8 or 13/8, unlike most of rock 'n' roll's 4/4. The genre's been described as mathematical in its complexity by some listeners, hence the name.
At its worst, math rock has sometimes, and perhaps unsurprisingly, been called "formulaic." But Minus the Bear manages to transcend that, infusing an experimental, jazz-like approach to rock with its shimmering guitars, melodies drenched in reverb and Jake Snider's distinct vocals.
"If push comes to shove, we usually say we're an indie-dance-rock thing," Murchy says.
With a name like "Minus" the Bear, however, it's tough to escape math metaphors when talking about the band.
Subtraction: the departure of one of the band's founding members earlier this year, Matt Bayles. Murchy says the band saw Bayles's leaving coming, and happily so.
"His career has really taken off with a lot of studio opportunities, so it only made sense for him to leave. It's ultimately what he wanted to do," Murchy explains. "It was a totally amicable split and we knew it was going to happen at some point. It was inevitable. I'm sure he'll be involved with the band for recording or something somewhere down the way."
Addition: in Bayles's stead, Alex Rose has taken over as keyboardist. It's hardly a shakeup; Rose and Murchy grew up together in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Minus the Bear is itself made up of members of several other Seattle bands: Botch, Killsadie and Sharks Keep Moving. The fertile ground of Seattle's fabled music scene is part of what drew Murchy there in the first place some seven years ago.
With two albums to Minus the Bear's credit, 2002's Highly Refined Pirates and last year's Menos el Oso ("Minus the Bear" in Spanish), Murchy says they seldom find themselves at home much, anyway - they're almost constantly touring.
Catching Murchy in one of those rare at-home occasions, he says he just finalized a deal to legally put the band's touring van under Minus the Bear's name.
Sure, it's mundane, he concedes with a laugh, but tending to such necessities enables the band to consider more fun things like prospective song titles for its next album.
"We're already playing a new song," Murchy says. "We don't really have a name for it yet, but it's a killer jam."
Advance $17.50 tickets are available at Megatunes, Listen, Blackbyrd or through Ticketmaster.
