Recalculating

Recalculating’s forthcoming album, Do You Like To Laugh?, is a burning missive from the depths of the pandemic. Frothing over with jagged guitars, pent-up emotionality, and intriguing cultural and literature references, the record confronts vulnerability, absurdity, isolation, and big feelings with the trio’s trademark abstractly insightful poetics. 

“There is less armor and the songs aren’t as bleak—there is a healthy dose of hope—but Scott’s puckishness, my oozing id, and Michael’s from-the-gut perspective remains,” bassist/vocalist Sean Wiederkehr shares. “There is a cathartic nature to these songs. They’re visceral and some wear their heart on their sleeves, but not in obvious ways.”

The exhilarating 12-song collection of wiry post-punk and scruffy indie rock was engineered and mixed by the late alt-rock legend Steve Albini (Pixies, Nirvana, the Breeders) at his legendary Chicago studio Electrical Audio on two-inch tape.

Recalculating playfully describes its angsty and arty sensibility as “riot dad,” nodding to the 1990s riot grrrl movement. The trio has garnered favorable comparisons to Pavement, Fugazi, Wire, Talking Heads, and Mission of Burma. The band’s critically-acclaimed previous album, All Talk, came out in 2020, and received praise from tastemaker Jack Rabid's Big Takeover magazine, and radio airplay on The Sonic Blender, a college and community radio show out of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Recalculating’s latest album is a long time coming.

The songs on Do You Like To Laugh? masterfully meld 1970s post-punk abrasion with 1990s alt-rock hooky song craft. Sean’s tune “Bargain Bin” features a detached-cool vocal delivery supported by chiming guitars punctuated by thrilling jolts of guitar-heavy dissonance. The song’s laid-back vocal delivery intriguingly contrasts with the song’s real-life-frustration origins. “I got laid off, and I was feeling lost, like I was put in the bargain bin. The last line is like ‘get off your ass and move,” Sean shares. Here, he sings: I'm just a seeker sinning always beginning/So start again it's only time wasting.

The album’s concluding track, “Sometimes The Chicken Wins At Tic Tac Toe,” offers forth a wry but sagely wise life lesson. “You think you have control of a lot of things, but, at the end of the day, sometimes the chicken wins at tic tac toe,” Scott says. The song is a mesmerizing, groove-oriented post-punk anthems that recalls Wire and Talking Heads. Here, the intricate drum pattern and sliding bassline creates a deep pocket while serrated guitars skitter above.

The talk-sing vocals and the surrealistic beat-punk lyrics recall the Minutemen. Scott sings: Over here, right this way! Mighty tuneful around the graveyard these days/Push past along parallel tracks of irrelevance/Kindly ignore that there roomful of elephants/Measure up against the height strip on the way out the door. “Scott’s lyrics can be hard to decipher, but it feels like he’s singing them with an impish gleam in his eye that makes you want to find out more,” Sean says. “Plus, I love the bassline. I love playing it for six minutes straight.”