Math rock licks for post-punk kicks, Edwardsville, Ill.’s, So Many Dynamos take their name from a rather famous palindrome. And left to right, the quartet sounds an awful lot like Washington, D.C.’s, The Dismemberment Plan. (So much so that with the lights out, you’d swear front man Aaron Stovall was in fact Travis Morrison.) Turned the other way around, though, one still hears vestiges of other tastemakers from our nation’s capital — namely: Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Q and Not U — but only in smaller, almost trace amounts. Nowhere is So Many Dynamos’ new-found freedom of choice more apparent than The Loud Wars, its newest long player for Vagrant.

Free Times caught up with drummer Clayton “Norm” Kunstel via phone, making coffee and packing things up for the band’s upcoming tour.

Free Times: Reading the liner notes to the new record, a pretty big name jumped out at me, production-wise. I'm talking about Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla. How did you guys get him to sign on as a producer?

Clayton "Norm" Kunstel: Believe it or not, Chris came to us asking if he could produce the new disc.

FT: Really? Wow, that's incredible. How had he heard of the band? Did someone slip him a copy of Flashlights?

CNK: It's actually a pretty cool story — a long, cool story. To sum it up, we had had most of our equipment stolen, and we were this close to canceling the last tour. We were in really bad shape, in a really bad way. By some kind of miracle, Chris Walla stepped in and offered us all kinds of guitars, amps and pedals from his own personal stash. Ever since then, he's been like this champion of our music. We can't thank him enough for all he's done for the band.

FT: So it was him, I assume, that made the Vagrant Records deal happen.

CNK: Absolutely. That was all Chris' doing. He's the one who approached them about us, and he's the one who fronted the money.

FT: And he also offered up his home studio to all of you, right?

CNK: Yes, indeed. For the first two weeks, we hunkered down at this awesome studio in San Francisco called Tiny Telephone.

FT: Ah, yes, that's John Vanderslice's place there in the Bay Area.

CNK: Exactly, and since Chris is one of the house engineers there, we just decided to move the whole operation over to his place.

FT: And how long were you there, at Chris Walla's studio?

CNK: Oh, let me see, I guess it was only about a week or so. It wasn't that long at all, actually. Working with Chris ... well, it's not like work at all. He's the type of producer who will let the band figure things out for themselves first, before cracking the whip. And next thing you know, three hours have passed, and you got more than half the song in the can.

FT: So it's safe to say that The Loud Wars happened kind of quickly then, at least the recording part.

CNK: Sure, much more so than some of our previous efforts. After that week at Chris' studio, we spent about two more in Toronto, and then the record was more or less done. Save for the mixing and mastering, it all came to fruition in about a month — record time for a So Many Dynamos project.

FT: Speaking of mixing, I understand you guys got someone equally as gifted to help you out on that end.

CNK: Yep, that'd be the wonderful Alex Newport. We loved the work he'd done with At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta, as well as some of more obscure artists like Piebald and Polysics. Myself, in particular, really pushed to have his ears on this record.

FT: To have been put together so fast, one of the more startling things about the new record is its overall transparency. I can hear every guitar lick, every synth line most every time. Was that a conscious decision the band was going for, or just a matter of happenstance given the pace of the recording process?

CNK: It’s probably a little of both, I suppose. Above and beyond, we wanted The Loud Wars to be an album that could be played live from front to back. There was so much going on on our last record — horns, strings, etc. — and that certainly hindered our ability to reproduce parts of it during our live show. With just the four of us out there every night, we wanted to deliver on as much of the arrangement as we possibly could.

FT: Well, as The Whig is a relatively small venue, you’re going to need all the elbow room you can get.

CNK: Is that so? No problem, we totally dig intimate clubs like that. And we’ve heard good things about Columbia, and especially this Whig place, from our friends in Pattern is Movement.

FT: Awesome! Yeah, Andrew and Chris have come through town twice now. Their last gig was there at The Whig, if I recall.

CNK: Sweet, we always look forward to playing new cities and new venues — especially those that cater to our type of music.

FT: Honestly, I can’t think of a better place in town to see So Many Dynamos than The Whig. I have a feeling it’s going to be epic, least not for the confined quarters, and well, you know, The Loud Wars.

CNK: [luaghs] Epic, huh? We’ll see what we can do.

FT: Any last parting palindromes you’d like to leave us with? “Rise to vote, sir.” Or given the band’s math rock proclivities, perhaps “I prefer pi.”

CNK: Oh, let me think ... when it comes to So Many Dynamos, I’ve always been partial to the phrase “Never odd or even.”

The Whig is at 1200 Main St. Doors open at 9 p.m.; admission is free. Muscular Athens math-rockers Cinemechanica open. Call 931-8852 or visit thewhig.org for more information.