Thanks for the suggestions. Faraquet was a hit as was Q and not U (although the Q and Not U guy's voice does annoy me a bit -- pretty whiney). The guy from the Karate album you recommended has that am-I-singing-or-talking kind of thing going on. Not bad but... what I'm sort of fleeing from. I'm gonna give U.S. Maple, Polvo and Chavez more of a shot once my eMusic songs refill although they didn't initially grab me.
I don't know the heck "math rock" or "mathcore" mean. I just know that the I hear those labels in association with the sorts of instrumentation I like and I know that I dig use of "different" time signatures which seems to be a staple of being "mathy". Cutting through the labels I guess I could say I like songs with a lot going on. I hate being hit over the head again and again with the same sound (to me this means a band like Spoon where I love the sound but get totally bored halfway through each song). However, I also really like to have a vocalist who knows what they're doing to bring things together and tend to get bored with instrumental rock no matter how good.
As for "good" singing, yeah, obviously that's very subjective too. I just know that lately a lot of "indie" music has been annoying me with its vocals. Wolf Parade's sound is exactly the sort of thing I dig and I also really liked several of the songs that were done by Sunset Rubdown. Unfortunately during half their songs or more I'm just cringing at Spencer Krug's voice. And it doesn't sound like singing to me, it sounds like some failed attempt to be different or ironic. Another example is Botch. Love the sound and yet I've no interest in listening to some guy screaming over the music. A lot of bands have this reaction for me. I start checking out what people consider to be "math rock" and I keep finding more songs dominated by shouting, screaming, talk-singing, whiney singing, etc. It always seems like a bunch of smart, talented musicians got together, started playing some fun stuff and then realized, "oh shit, one of us has to sing".
Maybe I just mean I like more mainstream ideals of what a vocalist should be? Sounds about right. But the mainstream quality singing tends to come with more pop-like instrumentation which turns me off and so it's hard for me to find stuff I like. I need more Chris Cornell and less Conor Oberst. Some bands other than Minus the Bear that seem to have hit the sweet spot: Pretty Girls Make Graves, TV on the Radio, Tokyo Police Club, The Big Sleep, Broken Social Scene, The Postal Service.
