Math the Band/Harry and the Potters

Math the Band was born when students in a college-credit high school calculus class hacked their graphing calculators to make glitchy, mid-fi drum beats, dusted off their parents' Casios and transferred a life's worth of science quizzes and comic-book fantasies into song form. This back-story is (probably) completely inaccurate, but the sounds of Math the Band's seventh self-released album, Banned the Math, paint a delightfully immature portrait of angst-less teenage life on the suburban streets. The Rhode Island band's über-nerdy, yelping, prepubescent synthpop (think Atom and His Package covering the Rentals) tackles tough issues such as algebra teachers, water evaporation/condensation, and the scandalous rift in nomenclature of a classic recess activity ("Four Square vs. Square Ball"). Boston bookworms Harry and The Potters headline.