Brooklyn’s beloved Experimental/Math Rock band Battles will play San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall at 8 pm today, November 1, 2007.
Emerging onto the scene in 2004, Battles wriggled through the muddle of pop music with the release of their short-form debut album, EP C, earning them legions of fans instantly. The band members have been said to work as a cohesive group, complementing each other’s talents, rather than competing against them. This type of synergy is part of the crux of Math rock, where music is set to varying time signatures such as 7/8, 11/8 or 13/8, rather than a standard rock music base of 4/4 time. The complexity of these groupings is mathematical in character, giving the math rock genre of music its name.
Before forming Battles, the group’s members had each served in the mainstream music world; John Stainer is the ex-drummer for Helmet, Ian Williams played guitar for Don Caballero, Dave Konopka is the ex-guitarist of Lynx, and Tyondai Braxton is the son of avant-garde jazz musician Anthony Braxton.
The group’s first full-length offering, Mirrored, was released in May 2007. “Atlas”, the first single from the album, was let loose as streaming audio on February 21 and then in streaming video on February 28. “Atlas” was voted “Best Single of the Week” by NME magazine, and received a very positive review in the British Clash Magazine. Their next single, “Tonto+” is slated for release later this year.
