WATCH: Rochester Punks New Math Return
The band shares video from forthcoming comp Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979 – 1983)
New York City might’ve been Ground Zero for American punk in 1976.
But about 340 miles north of Manhattan existed an annex of the burgeoning movement in Rochester, NY, led by regional greats New Math. When bands like The Ramones, The Cramps and The Damned came to town, it was this scrappy quintet who’d open for them at the smattering of extinct clubs that existed up there.
Teeming with catchy hooks and feral riffs, the band would find a little success amidst the rise of New Wave in the late 70s, releasing a 7-inch on CBS in the UK and a debut EP on legendary indie label 415 Records.
New Math, whose sound will no doubt appeal to fans of The Only Ones and Blondie alike, are simply too good to fade out of memory like an old upstate amusement park. But thanks to the folks at Propeller Sound Recordings, the band lives on in the form of a new career-spanning compilation called Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979 – 1983) coming out on vinyl and CD on July 21, 2023.
Eleven tracks in all, this is a collection of unreleased demos and long out-of-print singles including their debut single, “Die Trying,” produced by Howard Thompson who was known for working with John Cale and the Psychedelic Furs. It was first released on Reliable Records in 1979 and then re-released on CBS in the UK with the same B-side “Angela.” “Die Trying” did receive some airplay on John Peel’s radio show and landed somewhere near the bottom of the British Charts back in 1980. In 1984, the band became the Jet Black Berries & signed to Enigma Records.
Today, the Rock & Roll Globe is proud to share the video for another crucial cut from the forthcoming collection in “Can’t Get Off The Ground,” whose propulsive energy will no doubt appeal to fans of that classic late ’70s/early ’80s era.
“This one’s about having big dreams and small resources to make those dreams happen and how that discrepancy can lead to depression, anger, and joining a rock ‘n’ roll band,” guitarist and songwriter Dale Mincey explains of the song. “I really dig the drumming here from Bobby ‘Bam Bam’ McCarthy. He came in for a very short while after Paul left the band to form the Hi-Techs.”
The footage used in the video, meanwhile, came from the collection of the original New Math drummer Paul Dodd.
“The video features some old super 8 film live film shot from a gig in Syracuse, NY,” he tells us. “Pretty dark looking. The other video footage comes from some of the band hanging outside the Record Archive on Monroe Avenue and goofing around the Mount Hope Cemetery both in Rochester. The video is like a time capsule of the band’s earliest days.”
Check out the video below and make sure you pre-order Die Trying & Other Hot Sounds (1979 – 1983) as soon as you can.
VIDEO: New Math “Can’t Get Off the Ground”
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