Los Angeles math rock duo Standards went from nothing to everything seemingly overnight. The band achieved fame across the math rock and wider music community with their string of imaginative live videos, which quickly became viral sensations. There was the guitar-tapped live cover of the ‘Mii’ theme song from the Nintendo Wii console. Then there was the cover of CHON’s ‘Sleepy Tea’, where guitarist Marcos Mena blew the CHONossieurs away by playing both guitar phrases simultaneously. Then there’s the live version of ‘Astrology’, where drummer Jacob Richards was hitting his sticks on a Hello Kitty toy drum kit. Their videos have earned them a swathe of new fans, and it’s fair to say all eyes are on this duo and their upcoming release.
“It’s pretty awesome that people are into us just being goofy and playing our music in these ways,” says Marcos, “we’re inspired to try new things and play our music in different ways because of it, and it’s really fun that we’re building a community that appreciates it. We also think it’s super important in the InstaBookTube age to find as many ways as possible to deliver your art to folks who might be into it. this is just one of the ways we do it!“.
In short, you’ve heard this fantastic band but… you haven’t yet. And that’s why we are proud to be premiering Standards’ wonderful new track ‘Astrology’ from their upcoming self-titled EP. “We recorded the EP at a wonderful studio in downtown LA called Seahorse Sound,” says the band, “Samur Khouja engineered it. He’s worked with Devendra Banhart, Warpaint, Joanna Newsom, Esperanza Spalding and many more, so it’s amazing that we had the opportunity to work with him. the broad theme of the EP is a passion for living, and a love of the natural objects and beautiful foods that the world has to offer“.
This fiery second track, of which a rough cut incidentally featured on our recent Ear Buds cassette, features feel-good math rock guitar melodies atop rolling percussion with warped rhythmic tweaks. In other words, the best type of math rock.
So what can we expect from the guys on the goofy video front? Jacob tell us “Marcos has been shedding a lot of classical music lately, like the Bach Inventions, so we’re kind of working on mathy versions of classical tunes“. Spicy. You’s best keep an eye out for that…
Standards EP is out May 28th, but hey, you can start pre-ordering it right here on their bandcamp page. And if you’re one of the 7 people who following this band on Bookface, you can check em out here, where you can learn about the fantastic tour they have coming up…