Have you noticed that the new Oasis record, despite a recent tour and good press, is but a few steps from the discount bins? It's not a mystery why Oasis fans are among the most undevoted: their once-loved band possesses no singular, unique vision within their songs. Despite having interesting personal flaws, the Gallaghers don't use this potential strength at all, leaving us with songs that you can do without -- even when they sound great. I mention all this because I think Mike Downey and Dan Marsden's group Mathlete is a great contrast. Their earlier tapes, most of which were recently compiled on Lincolnwood Tech, showed a band you could enjoy even when they misfired. Sometimes the songs lacked lyrics or melodies as winning as "A Couple of Ohms" ("We need Radio Shack/We need a couple of ohms/We need to place in the Science Fair"), but they were always -- even at their most abstract -- interesting. You could tell Mike and Dan were singing songs about their lives and their music, and while it might be surprising, you'd find out how you always cared when they rambled about an amplifier or a nice new tape machine. Just as Jad Fair could go down a list of groceries and make it compelling, so too has this gift been granted to amiably unique individudals like Mike and Dan.

This is a long introduction to a Teleport Parthenon review, but I'm hoping, prior to making comparisons to other groups, to convey that a group like Mathlete makes music which does not make you say, "So Gary Numan's in their record collection..." Instead, you stay within the songs and arrive at comparisons only after the choruses and melodies have temporarily left your head. Now, as for similarities, obvious comparisons can be made to Gary Numan, but I always got the impression a song like "Cars" was written specifically and solely for synthesizers. In contrast, the power-synth pop of Mathlete's "Steel Wheels '89" and "I Think I'm Power Down" could easily be converted into a Cheap Trick rocker. These and the majority of Mathlete numbers seem held together more by the guitars than the keyboards; they have a rock-n-roll drive which some listeners might not expect from a Wolfie side project. (Dan's the member of that band, who did, among others, the ode to "Steely Dan".)

The greatest strength of Teleport Parthenon seems to be its consistency -- the way in which all 20 songs can be heard from first cut to the last -- and the great vocals (which sound as if the guys were singing through paper cups). If they were created simply by using a different mic, then kudos to that mic. Another strength, which will hopefully be utilized further down the line, is the appearance of Kim Klienfeldt on vocals (and synths) for two of the album's standout tracks, "Memorial Hill" and "An Afternoon Emergency". As Amanda does for Wolfie, Kim's contributions give Mathlete's songs a poppy touch which keeps the band's aggressive aspects in check. With lyrics that are often hilarious ("All that you've done to scare me, well it's adding up/But I'm a good mathematician, I subtract and stuff") and beats already penetrating the ghettos of your suburbs, I think Mathlete is a band which even those who haven't been won over by Wolfie can admire and love. In place of breezy la da moments that make you smile (or cringe), Mike and Dan place their respective visions against harder new wave stones, giving their songs an edge which can cut any dance step in two and make everyone "geek out"!