Art Contest

With its mischievous chords and rhythmic horseplay, it's almost too easy to call Athens, GA's Art Contest a math rock band. There's something about Math Major, their first full-length, that resists this limiting label—something that's difficult to pin-point. Maybe it's the album's endearing lo-fi quality, which seems to muffle the Cole Monroe's wiggling guitars on songs like "Banana Boat" and subdue drummer Garrett Burke's more frenetic rhythms, including those on "Misty Flip" and "Riff Raff.