Today DCist interviews the members of The Alphabetical Order, a local band making waves with their melodic, moody music. Friday, June 24 they'll be playing a show at the Velvet Lounge with Running With Scissors, The Rachel Nevadas, and Mic Harrison (formerly of Superdrag) - we highly recommend that you get your butt out there.

Can you give us a little bit of background on your band - reasons for forming, how you got together, what kind of goals you had in mind?

Kate: Gav & I got together because we were in a goth/synth-poppy band calledConscious Structure with a friend of his from high school. It really wasn't the style of music that either of us wanted to play, or a scene that I was used to at all, beyond occasionally attending DC-area goth/industrial dance nights back in 1999 and poking vague fun at on the Internet. We weren't having much fun at all, but we were both itching to play, so we did it until it occurred to us we could just secede and start our own rock thing. So, we did. Gav had played with Ben before and called him up after a few of my friends proved to be decent drummers but not exactly what we were looking for. He said, "This guy brings the rock." I thought, "Okay." But I sure wasn't prepared for the Dover. It was an instantaneous and amazing fit. Gabe was an add-on in late '04 after we'd seen him play a couple of solo shows around the area. He & Ben were good friends, and I thought he would make a good backup singer/rhythm guitarist. Instead he ended up adding some crazy experimental tones that I never even expected. I'd say the goals write themselves as we grow and develop. I mean, we've only been together with the 4-member line-up since November or so, with Ben for just over a year, and the Gav & Kate experience didn't even become a concrete idea until very late 2003/early 2004.

Gavin: I felt the need to save rock 'n' roll. Thankfully I got over that and now I focus on more important things like finding a Visa card with a low APR.

How long have the members of the band lived in the area?

Gavin: I was born in Burke, moved to McLean, went to Mary Washington in Frederickburg, then George Mason in Fairfax, and now I'm moving to Arlington. Something tells me I'm never going to get out of this place, and that doesn't seem like a bad thing...

Kate: I moved to Arlington when I was 2.5 and have been here ever since, flitting from south to north and spending a year in Old Town Alexandria to boot. I've been spending an awful lot of time in Falls Church lately, too.

Gabe: Born in Mount Pleasant in '79, moved to Falls Church in '84, left for JMU '97-'02, settled back in Alexandria.

Ben: I've lived in northern VA all my life, which I find both comforting and stifling at the same time. It is the snake to my mongoose. Or the Kahn to my Kirk, if you like.

How would you describe the kind of music you play? Musical influences?

Gavin: The running joke is that as soon as the current '80s retro craze ends, we're going to be on the cusp of the '90s retro movement. The band I normally mention when people ask what we sound like is the Smashing Pumpkins, but I am far more influenced by less-well-known bands such as HUM, Failure, The Afghan Whigs, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Jawbox. We won't go into my bordeline-obsessive love of Pink Floyd.

Ben: I'd call our style of music indie rock with elements of pop, prog, and math. 75% male, 100% geek.

Your bio says a couple of members were once in a goth band...what happened there, and how did you go from that to being a pretty straight-forward, catchy indie band?

Gavin: I've been in so many different types of bands: metal, blues, jazz, funky-pop, etc. So playing in my high school friend Dave Belazis' goth band Conscious Structure was just another genre to fool around in. Luckily I found a kindred soul in Kate; we wrote a few songs for Conscious Structure that were decidedly un-goth and we realized we needed to form our own group. Also I was really lousy at doing make-up and like wearing more colors than black.

When we recorded a demo and played our first few songs together, I had no clue what to call our sound. It definitely wasn't emo (though the whine does sometimes sneak in), far from modern rock, and god knows what the term alternative means. I can deal with the label "heavy indie rock"; it only makes me groan slightly.

Can you tell us a little about the sort of experience you've had being a band in Washington D.C.? Has the scene been encouraging or have you found it difficult to make headway?

Ben: There are parts I like and parts I don't like about the DC music scene. I really like the accessibility and close-knit nature of it, I like the fact that it's a challenge for us to find other comparable bands to play shows with, and how a lot of the the bands generally have a great rapport and comraderie with their DC peers. I like most of the original music venues, for one reason or another. What I don't like: the fact that there are so few original music venues, so few all-ages shows, so few drummers, so few bassists. There doesn't seem to be much of a tooth-and-nail, I'm-gonna-make-it-or-die-trying attitude in the scene. I also hate the fact that a lot of really coolunderground bands that are doing great things to push their genre, tend to completely skip DC....it seems their tours take them straight from New York or Philly to Richmond. And despite the existence of so many colleges in such a small area, the area seems to lack a cohesive college rock scene.

Gabe: My old band (the Hopeful Monsters) played a lot of shows in Fairfax, which I found to be kind of depressing. The Alphabetical Order focuses more on DC and Arlington, and the sense of community and the quality of the musicianship is a lot more encouraging. Not that Fairfax and the outer 'burbs are a talentless wasteland, far from it, but the emphasis seemed to be more on individual virtuosity instead of cohesive arrangements, as though everyone is hoping to stand out and be spotted by someone else. And no one's going to "spot you" in South Riding; your band is just a soundtrack for a bender. The Order plays shows where we're foreground entertainment, where people are there to see a band, not to have a bachelorette party. It's a much more comfortable and rewarding environment.

What are your favorite local bands?

(Answers compiled from all band members) The Fallen One, Gist, Run Silent Run Deep, Running with Scissors, Overhead Switch, Koshari, The Lost Atoms, Jebus, Viki Nova, Hot Young Tang, Enemy of Three, Greenland, Red Racer, Waking State, Overhead Switch, Q and Not U, Fugazi, Jawbox, Meredith Bragg, Andy Zipf, Laura Burhenn.

The Alphabetical Order are playing a show June 24 at the Velvet Lounge. What can people expect from a TAO show?

Gabe: Painfully awkward sexually-charged double entendres, especially if Kate and Gavin are in their cups. We've been moving around a lot more, trying to be more visually interesting, so injuries are a distinct possibility, I broke my guitar at the last show (I think I rolled over it). It's generally faster and looser than the recorded material, as one might expect, but it's also pretty clear that we're having fun doing it, which really improves a live show, in my opinion.

Ben: Profuse sweating, sex faces, flying drumsticks, witty stage banter. Flying emo waifs, dramatic aerial spin moves, broken pickguards. Spontaneous blood loss. Unimpeachable haircuts. Tongue-in-cheek irony, delivered with white-knuckle resolve.

Gavin: I'm sure Gabe and I will collide at some point during the night, and various objects will be jumped off of - I get so damn excited on stage I can't help it. There will probably be silly drunken banter, bloody fingers, an extremely sweaty drummer, Kate's breasts and booty, but most definitely the ROCK.

Kate: Loud rock music. Energetic, catchy songs. Good melodies, and eye candy since we're all so smokin' hot of course. All our friends are hot too. Plus this show is special because it's our EP release, and my birthday party to boot. Everybody come buy a JB & Schlitz for the Rears!

The interview with The Alphabetical Order had to be, sadly, cut short for publication on DCist. However, if you're interested in reading the complete answers, click on through here.