Today's Top Stop: Mass Movement of the Moth

Map It:  Silver Spring 

IN THE 1970s, punk stripped rock music down to its basest elements: Rudimentary riffs played fast, sloppy and with maximum attitude. Since then, bands have been busy throwing musical elements on top of punk's foundation. But won't building upon something intentionally stripped-down just lead us back where we started? Mass Movement of the Moth, an excellent local band just a few days away from the release its first LP, proves that the answer is yes and no.

MMM's vocals are largely screamed, making the band's punk "hardcore." Then they throw lots of metal-style guitar heroics on top of that. Now they're playing "punk-metal." Then they hit you with the keyboards, sound effects, ambient passages, frequent tempo changes, ska sections, relentless pop hooks, death metal vocals and general trippiness and behold, enter the realm of "prog-rock" -- the anathema of the original punks.

In its ethics and attitudes -- if not its members' facial hair -- MMM draws from the punk tradition. Plus, the band sounds like nothing else. Wasn't the larger point to be different by being yourself anyway?

The members of MMM are hitting the stage tonight with their buddies in the local political pop-punk band How We Tie Knots. California's punishing Acts of Sedition and the mysterious Roblatz, a band who allegedly covers the obscure punk act Blatz while wearing robot costumes, are also on the bill. Express' Tim Follos spoke with Moth keyboardist and screamer Adam Lake last night.

EXPRESS: How many tours have you been on?
LAKE: We've been on a bunch of different little weekend stints and stuff, and did a week-long tour with Polar in the beginning of 2005. That summer we did a tour with the Catalyst and we went out at the beginning of this year with Order of the Dying Orchid for two weeks. ... [I]n March we did a week-and-a-half-long tour. This summer we're touring the whole country for a month and a half.

EXPRESS: Did most of the band attend George Mason University?
LAKE: No, Ashley Arnwine [guitar] went to Corcoran College of Art in D.C. Christian Brady [bass] only went to Mason for a little bit. Joey Dubek [drums] was thinking about going to college, but he's just been hanging out in D.C.

EXPRESS: Did you graduate from George Mason?
LAKE: Yeah, I graduated in January.

EXPRESS: Congratulations.
LAKE: Thanks a lot. It didn't really teach me much, though. It's a bummer. It's like realization the past couple months -- man, they didn't prepare me at all.

EXPRESS: Did you watch a lot of basketball this spring?
LAKE: No, not at all. I was never much into sports.

EXPRESS: What are your goals for Mass Movement of the Moth?
LAKE: Just to keep having fun, really, and keep doing it on our level -- booking our own tours and recording with people we like and having people that are really solid put out our records and stuff. Just continue with that -- try and advance on our own level. It's been really fun and really awesome. Everyone just likes to play and go to different cities and hang out and eat food and play shows and meet people. That's what it's all about -- We're really surprised with how well we're doing -- we're not trying to be pigheaded about it -- it seems like a lot of people like us, so we're really surprised and really happy.

EXPRESS: You're surprised by that?
LAKE: It just kind of blows my mind when we go places I've never been before and people know the songs and they come and talk to you and are like, "I'm glad you guys are here, I like your stuff." It makes me happy.

EXPRESS: You think "progressive hardcore" is a good way to categorize your music?
LAKE: Yeah, I always try to say, like, "Progressive hardcore, or experimental, or fun, post-hardcore, kinda indie sometimes." I don't know. I always try to make up something new when I make a flyer.

EXPRESS: "Spastic screaming and bearded chaos?"
LAKE: Yeah, that's kinda the older stuff and one of the new songs, but that's a good way, I guess.

EXPRESS: So would you say you're progressive hardcore with progressive politics?
LAKE: I guess you could say that, but we're never too vocal about our politics. Sometimes I think that when you talk about some of the politics of songs you're preaching to the choir, so I'd rather use that time to play more songs. If anybody really wanted to know anything exact about our songs they should just come and ask. We'd be more than happy to explain.

EXPRESS: Can you give me an idea what some of your songs are about?
LAKE: A lot of the vocals I've been writing are about the world and technology and how we've become so dependent on it, and how it's gonna progress and change our lives. It's a big topic with me for some reason. We've also got songs about personal experiences and people we know.

EXPRESS: Why do you have to scream?
LAKE: Because I don't have a good voice for singing. Christian's [bass and vocals] got an amazing voice, singing and screaming. That guy should be a voice-over artist or something. So on the newer album that should be out on Exotic Fever in a few days, he does a lot of different type of vocals. He's really experimental with the way he records his vocals and what he does with his voice.

EXPRESS: How'd you guys meet [local dynamo, musician and Exotic Fever Records honcho] Katy Otto?
LAKE: I guess everybody just kinda knew her from going to shows. When you go to a show and you've heard things about Katy Otto being awesome -- people point her out, "that's Katy Otto!" She approached us after seeing us a couple times and asked us to play a couple of shows she was putting on. Then she asked us to do a CD with her.

EXPRESS: Has your sound changed since you guys started out?
LAKE: Yeah, definitely, it always keeps changing when new ideas happen. The full-length's a lot different from anything we have out. It's more developed and a little bit more experimental. We've been playing the songs a long time. Stuff evolved.

EXPRESS: What's the most money you've ever made at a show?
LAKE: I think from the door it's been like a hundred dollars, maybe, and sometimes when we play shows and have a lot of merch we can make like 200 dollars, but that's not normal, I think it's the most we've ever made.

EXPRESS: You have any idea how many records you've sold?
LAKE: I know the demo that we first did and self-released sold upwards of 550 and we did 400 cassette tapes and those are all gone. The Sing! Sing! Prison split, there were 525 pressed and about 100 are left; the Polar split 7-inch we did 300 and the first pressing is gone. We got a second press of 500 a couple months ago -- I have no idea how many we've sold. Alone records put out a re-recording of our first EP a month or two ago. I'm not exactly sure how many we've sold of that either. That's what surprises me, really: That we've sold so many different things and so many of them. It's mind-blowing.

EXPRESS:How important is it to you to sound different?
LAKE: I haven't really thought about that. We all kinda have the same mindset and just play what we want. I don't think we try to be different. It just turns out that way. We're all kinda weird people. That probably has something to do with it.

The Death Star, 8603 Cedar St., Silver Spring; 7 p.m., $2; 240-383-8619. (Silver Spring)

Photo courtesy of Mass Movement of the Moth

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