It's back to school time around town, and so we're going to assign you some math homework. Relax, Emerson students and liberal arts majors: we're talking about MATH THE BAND, the quirky synth-pop group. Download their new track, "Why Didn't You Get a Haircut?" below.

LISTEN: Math the Band, "Why Didn't You Get a Haircut?" (mp3)

DJ AM had been scheduled to perform at Gypsy Bar next month. Instead, we'll have to make do with this, which we've raved about in the past:

Rappers are especially skilled at saying things that aren’t so. In my travels as a hip-hop journalist, I’ve heard countless lies about everything from hustling and serving time to drinking Dom and sexing Mariah Carey. What’s even worse is how so many rap clowns hammer home their faux-points with exhausted clichés: “Nobody’s ever seen a grind like this;” “I’m a one-man movement, son;” and so on.

Everywhere youlook, writers just can’t get over how “mysterious” BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW are. Their aliases! Their rural(ish) Pennsylvanian home base! Their name! The bearing-scrambling enigma of it all. Perhaps the greatest mystery is who came up with this “mysterious” shit in the first place.

^{Yeah Yeah Yeahs}

ON SALE AUGUST 27

The Hidden Cameras | November 1 at the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge | $16 | On sale Thursday, August 27, at 10 am | //www.worldmusic.org

Ray LaMontagne | November 3 at the Providence Performing Arts Center, Providence | $25.50-$35.50 | On sale Thursday, August 27, at 10 am | //www.

There are two breeds of Rush Limbaugh fans: middle-aged conservative failures who wear awkward promotional baseball hats that they got from their cable company, and those of us who tune in for sheer entertainment. Assuming that the former group includes as many bigots as the latter does hip-hop fans, Limbaugh's latest spat with Jay-Z is fascinating entertainment for all audiences.

The origin of the word "reality" is late 15th-cent.: via French from medieval Latin realitas, from late Latin realis, "relating to things."

1.) The world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them and/or a thing that exists in fact, having previously only existed in one's mind.

If you're placing a bet on who might become the next Boston band to make a dent on anyone's consciousness outside of Boston, then you could do a lot worse than TELEVANDALS, who put a Mass-pride punk spin on ultra-glossy electropop (or vice versa, if you prefer). Catch them at the Pill at Great Scott on September 4, and download their song "Good For Nothing" below.

DJs look out for each other. They cover gigs for one another, share clandestine information about which grooves grease backsides, and are always willing to help lug crates and coffins down stairs and through nightclub kitchens.

On Monday (August 24), cats including Supreme One, 7L, Miss Thang, Gucci Vuitton, and the Soul Clap guys will spin at Middlesex for their friend DJ Kon, who is currently under hospital care.

Harvard-educated pop chimps CHESTER FRENCH have been getting their swag on by Twittering with hip-hop luminaries, touring with Blink-182, and (see above) playing "She Loves Everybody" for any radio station that'll have 'em. But we fear they're about to make a huge, ginormous mistake.

CF have announced that they'll pull a Beck post YouTube vids of themselves covering random Top 40 hits on the regular, and to kick things off they're polling fans to determine what the jumpoff is gonna be.

Summer: what the fuck did we to to you to make you hate us this much? Whatever it was, Allston indie-rockers the Lights Out have an antidote. From the Facebooks:

Tonight in Brighton, The Lights Out will be instigating a Slush Puppie flashmob.

How did this come about?

The other day, the band was reminiscing over things we miss about summers from our youth.

I know what you're thinking: why give these tone deaf Fox News rap twerps more attention than I already did with my dis track (video below)? Well - it turns out that Stiltz and Serious C have stepped their game up. While they're still two of the worst MCs to ever bring it, the Dartmouth duo's new video for "Power of the Individual" (video above) is a vast improvement from last month's "Young Con Anthem

^{ZZ Top}

ON SALE AUGUST 19

The Disciplines (feat. Ken Stringfellow of The Posies) | October 21 at T.T. the Bear's Place, Cambridge | $11 | On sale Wednesday, August 19, at 10 am |

ON SALE AUGUST 21

Habesha Productions presents New Era Band (Ethiopian New Year's celebration) | September 12 at the Middle East downstairs, Cambridge | $35 | On sale Friday, August 21, at 10 am | //www.

As far as we know, nothing was ever released from a one-off studio session many years back when CONVERGE teamed up with CAVE-IN for what was to have been a collaborative project, which back then was code-named VERGE-IN. (Say it fast.) It was a natural pairing, since Cave-In frontman Steve Brodsky had filled in as Converge's touring bassist for a stint way back in the day.

If you missed their live debut back in June, OXYTOCIN returns to take over Beat Research tonight at Enormous Room. That would be a few feet down Mass Ave from the nondescript office above a Walgreens that features prominently in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine cover story on Harmonix and the creation of The Beatles: Rock Band