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Moss Icon

 
Artist: Moss Icon
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Similar Artists:

Straitjacket Fits, Love Spit Love, Rasputina, Souls, The Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, Ultra Vivid Scene, Cranes, Angelfish

Influenced By:

Peter Murphy, The Smiths, Ed Kuepper

Followers:

pg. 99, Bread and Circuits, Street Smart Cyclist, The Convocation Of...
  • Genres: Rock
  • Representative Albums: "Lyburnum

Biography

Even more obscure than they were groundbreaking, Moss Icon was an early emo band whose music remains chiefly the province of hardcore collectors and underground historians. Whether that music directly influenced or simply presaged modern emo, Moss Icon's shifting dynamics, chiming guitar arpeggios, and screaming, crying vocal climaxes helped set the template for much of the emocore that followed in its wake. Typical for many late-'80s emocore bands, Moss Icon led an unstable existence; due in part to the members' youth, they performed and recorded only sporadically, and were on hiatus as often as not. Their first CD release didn't occur until several years after their breakup, following distantly on the heels of limited chunks of material for very small labels. Thus, despite increasing name-checks during emo's rise to prominence, Moss Icon remained a mystery to many. Moss Icon was formed in Annapolis, Maryland in 1986, when its members were still in high school. Guitarist Tonie Joy, singer Jonathan Vance, bassist Monica DiGialleonardo, and drummer Mark Laurence played their first show as Moss Icon in the summer of 1987. In early 1988, they issued their debut 7," "Hate in Me" (aka "Greta Garbo") on Vermin Scum, the small indie label Joy co-founded in conjunction with members of fellow Annapolis band the Hated. A second 7," Mahpiua Luta, followed in 1989, after which the band alternated between spurts of rehearsals and inactivity. From 1989-90, Vance and Laurence also played in a side project called Breathing Walker with guitarist Alex Badertscher, which later came to include Joy and DiGialleonardo as well. Badertscher joined Moss Icon as second guitarist in time for their third single, 1990s "Memorial." Moss Icon remained together for approximately one more year after that, during which time they released a split LP with Silver Bearing. They had attempted to complete a full-length album, but the results of an initial session were abandoned, then redone at a later date. The LP went unreleased during the band's existence, and finally appeared on vinyl in 1994 on the Vermiform label, under the title Lyburnum (aka Lyburnum Wit's End Liberation Fly). Additionally, a half-live/half-studio 12" called It Disappears was released by Ebullition/Vermin Scum in 1995. The subsequent CD issue of Lyburnum appended the studio portion of It Disappears. By that time, Moss Icon had long since scattered across the country and beyond, to travel or attend college. Only Tonie Joy remained extensively active in music, most notably founding the Universal Order of Armageddon and the Convocation Of..., while also playing with Born Against, Great Unraveling, and Lava, among others. In 2001, Moss Icon reunited for several live shows with a lineup of Joy, Vance, DiGialleonardo, Badertscher, and one-time Breathing Walker drummer Zak Fusciello. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Moss Icon
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Moss Icon
Origin Annapolis, Maryland, United States
Genres Alternative rock, post-hardcore, emocore
Years active 1986–1991, 2001
Labels Vermin Scum
Troubleman Unlimited
Vermiform
Ebullition Records
Members
Jonathan Vance
Tonie Joy
Monica DiGialleonardo
Mark Laurence
Alex Badertscher
Zak Fusciello

Moss Icon was an Annapolis, Maryland emocore band from 1986 to 1991. Its original members were singer Jonathan Vance, guitarist Tonie Joy, bassist Monica DiGialleonardo, and drummer Mark Laurence. Moss Icon is best known for its influence on the hardcore punk splinter genre known as "emotive hardcore" or emo, and its affiliation with the original bands formed in the so-called "Revolution Summer" of 1985, including Washington D.C.'s Rites of Spring and Embrace, and Maryland's The Hated.

Contents

History and background

Formation to breakup

The band's identifying characteristics, and those that distinguished them from their contemporaries, included noticeable and abrupt transitions from loud to quiet, Joy's distinct arpeggiated guitar (often undistorted and picked), and Vance's esoteric, sometimes meandering lyrical content. Earlier recordings of the band are reminiscent of early Joy Division, particularly in guitar style, while later songs embodied a less blunt approach, noted by some detractors as making Moss Icon "like Grateful Dead for punks." The band championed, among other issues, the plight of indigenous peoples of the Americas, and opposed the U.S. government's involvement in Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Moss Icon recorded their debut 7", "Hate in Me", in January 1988, and entered the studio several months later to record their second 7", "Mahpiua Luta". Their "Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly" LP was recorded by Les Lentz and Tony French throughout 1988 and released in mid-1994 by Vermiform. Moss Icon's third 7", entitled "Memorial", was recorded in January 1991 along with a split LP with Silver Bearing. In 1994 Ebullition Records released the "It Disappears" LP, compiling songs from "Memorial" with live versions of several songs.

In 1990 a splinter project of Moss Icon was formed called Breathing Walker, containing all four members of Moss Icon plus Alex Badertscher on bass, Zak Fusciello on percussion, and Tim Horner on violin. Breathing Walker released a cassette that was re-released in 2001 by the Vermin Scum label along with live tracks.

Post-breakup and 2001 reformation

After the dissolution of Moss Icon, guitarist Tonie Joy was a member of the bands Universal Order of Armageddon, Born Against, Lava, The Great Unraveling, and The Convocation Of.... (later rechristened The Convocation). Other band members were less involved in music, excepting Laurence's drums in Lava, DiGialleonardo's Blue Condors, and Vance's solo debut LP.

Moss Icon reformed to play a handful of shows with Zak Fusciello on drums and Alex Badertscher on second guitar, including at the 2001 More Than Music Fest in Columbus, Ohio and at the renovated Charles Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland.

2008 activity

In July 2008, Moss Icon was named one of the "23 Bands Who Shaped Punk" by Alternative Press magazine.[1]

Currently, Tonie Joy, Jonathan Vance, Zak Fusciello, and Alex Badertscher are working on a new recording in Baltimore, MD with live shows being a future possibility.

Discography

  • Demo Tape cassette (1987, self-released)
  1. Hate in Me
  2. What They Lack
  3. Never Turning
  4. My Strength, My Weakness
  5. Mirror
  6. We Deny
  7. Sorrow
  1. Hate In Me
  2. What They Lack
  3. I'm Back Sleeping or Fucking or Something
  4. Kiss The Girls and Make Them Die
  • Mahpiua Luta 7" (1989, Vermin Scum)
  1. Ghost Dance
  2. Last Ditch
  • Memorial 7" (1991, Vermin Scum)
  1. Memorial
  2. Moth
  • Moss Icon/Silver Bearing split LP with Silver Bearing (1991, Vermin Scum)
  1. Guatemala
  2. Gravity
  3. Familiar Presides
  4. As Afterwards The Words Still Ring
  • Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly LP (1994, Vermiform Records)
    • reissued in 1997 on CD with selected tracks from It Disappears as Lyburnum on Vermiform Records
  1. Mirror
  2. I'm Back Sleeping or Fucking or Something
  3. The Life
  4. Divinity Cove
  5. Locket
  6. Kick the Can
  7. Lyburnum Wits End Liberation Fly
  8. Cricketty Rise
  9. As Afterwards The Words Still Ring
  10. Happy (Unbounded Glory)
  1. Guatemala
  2. Memorial
  3. Moth
  4. Gravity
  5. I'm Back Sleeping or Fucking or Something
  6. It Disappears

Compilation appearances

  • Panx Zine #3 compilation 7" - song "Mirror" (1988, Panx)
  • Life is Change comp CD - 1 song (1991, Bari Beri)
  • Superpowers cassette compilation - song "Sioux Day" (1992, Troubleman Unlimited)
  • Powerless II comp LP - 1 song (1992)
  • Fear of Smell comp LP - song "Excerpt From It Disappears" (1993, Vermiform)
  • False Object Sensor comp LP/CD - 1 song "Cornflower Blue" with The Hated (2001, Vermiform—also appears on The Hated "unreleased songs" bootleg LP)

Related bands

References

  1. ^ http://altpress.com/apmag/240.htm

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
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