_Moss Icon_

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.

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.

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

* Hate in Me 7" (1988, Vermin Scum)

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)
o 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)

* It Disappears LP (1994, Ebullition Records/ Vermin Scum)

1. Guatemala
2. Memorial
3. Moth
4. Gravity
5. I'm Back Sleeping or Fucking or Something
6. It Disappears

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