Moss Icon

Moss Icon were a band founded in Annapolis, Maryland in 1987. They disbanded a mere four years later, but not without leaving a legacy that only grew as the increasingly homogenous punk-rock scene they sought to subvert slowly became one with the corporate machine that said scene purported to rage against. Moss Icon pioneered a progressive, highly emotive sound that stood in stark contrast to just about everything even remotely considered punk-rock at the time. In retrospect, they more resembled an inspired marriage of the bleak post-punk leanings of Joy Division with the raucous riffage of the Wipers, albeit considerably less accessible thanks to Moss Icon's more sinister tone, exploratory arrangements, and frontman Jonathan Vance's almost stream-of-conscious sociopolitical rampages. Many of their lyrical themes – the diminishing separation of Church and State, and the United States' military occupation of foreign countries, for instance – are even more relevant now than they were when originally committed to tape.