Math, noise & psychedelia…

Polvo

Polvo is a math rock legend, founded over 20 years ago in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They know how to write songs, but then they go and spoil it all with their noisy sound, dissonance, and out-of-tune guitars. They know how to write lyrics, but the words are so psychedelic that it’s hard to figure out what they’re about. The group dropped off the face of the earth in 1998, four albums into their career, only to reappear ten years later with performances at All Tomorrow’s Parties and Primavera Sound. It’s been three years, and they’re still on stage. Their latest album, In Prism, came out in 2009.

Oneida

Oneida is an experimental rock band from Brooklyn, known for their excellent albums (try their 2009 record Rated O!) and unpredictable concerts. Like their 11-hour, improvised, guest-packed set “Ocropolis,” performed last December at ATP. We’ll have another taste of Oneida’s uncompromising, psychedelic roller-coaster this June, when their new album Absolute II comes out.

Dan Deacon

Appreciated for his bold albums and famous for his one-of-a-kind concerts, Baltimore’s Dan Deacon wades deep into the crowd with his electronic toys at live shows, encouraging audience interaction. He’s currently working on his upcoming record with the Dan Deacon Ensemble, has just finished recording the soundtrack to the new Francis Ford Coppola production, and has as many projects in the air as he has hairs in his beard. We’re glad he’s found some time for us as well. Pitchfork regards Deacon’s work as representative of the “best new music,” and we would agree.

Emeralds

Minimalism, ambient, drone, psychedelia, and a smidgen of 80s synth-pop: this Cleveland trio really did their homework on Klaus Schulze, but they’re not here to erect musical monuments to the past. Emeralds want to invent the future. The writers of “Drowned in Sound” hailed their latest record, Does It Look Like I’m Here?, as “Album of the Year 2010,” one that “takes you where you want it to.”

Paris Tetris

Candelaria Saenz Valiente, Marcin Masecki, and Macio Moretti: a fresh, new take on the concept of the “power trio.” Especially now that they’ve essentially become a quartet (with Bartek Magneto), or even a quintet (if you count Robert Beza, who does the visuals). They’ve come out with two albums thus far, Paristetris (2009) and Honey Darlin’, which feature pop songs and lots of weird sounds. The concert are even better.

Karbido

This band from Wrocław conducts bold musical experiments inspired by the crème de la crème of the international avant garde. They’ve recorded theater music, collaborated on an album with the Ukrainian writer Yuri Andrukhovych, composed radio shows (the Orson Welles-style Hindenburg Disaster), and have even made records on which they play buildings (the Music 4 Buildings series). Their greatest achievement thus far has been the audio performance The Table, in which four men in black (and a table) perform a rip-roaring review of music from the four corners of the world.

Moja Adrenalina

You’ll find metal, noise rock, punk, and math core in the music of this Warsaw ensemble. Or rather: Moja Adrenalina rams all of the above together like a head-on train wreck. They debuted in 2004 with the excellent nietoleruje-bije, and promptly dropped of the radar. They made a comeback last year, stirring up attention with a series of excellently received shows and recordings, the latter of which ended up on the soundtrack to Jerzy Skolimowski’s Essential Killing.

Miss Polski

Inspired by the unrefined tunes blasted at dance halls in Communist Poland, but with a visible nod to British guitar pop, and bittersweet, ironic lyrics by Roman Szczepanek (a.k.a. Graftmann): we could use more debuts like Fitness, but Miss Polski is the last trio of its kind (and, oddly enough, the first).