By DCist Music Contributor Justin Kielsgard.

The name Greenland refers not only to the world's largest island, which floats around in the North Atlantic, but to arguably the District's most underrated rock band. Like the territory of Greenland, this trio is quite misunderstood. Greenland the island isn't green. It's tundra, covered in ice. And Greenland the band isn't just another three-piece with a gig, but a band on the rise.

Blending British Invasion-era pop and early 1980's American rock (think The Kinks meet The Replacements) with literate, well-crafted lyrics, Greenland is a stylized mess of fun. Front man and lyricist Jamie Green's cinematic narratives reveal secrets and earned insights rather than hurling clichés. At one moment detached, the next personal, Green's lyrical sensibility is a compliment to the mélange in structure and style which the trio produces. A fertile bed of nuanced instrumentation, Greenland's creative approach is not only refreshing, but laudable.

Greenland is Jamie Green on guitar and vocals, Tony Acampora on bass and vocals and Adam Kissick on drums. Greenland can next be seen this Sunday, September 18, with Seattle veterans The Makers and Thomas Lunch and The Drugs at DC9. Doors open at 9 p.m.

Even for a trio, Greenland is amazingly in sync. How did the band come together?

Jamie: We all went to school together at William & Mary. But Tony and I have known each other since kindergarten. We were really good buddies until third grade when he moved to Paris. I didn't see him again until college, which was where I met Adam. Tony and I were playing together then with another drummer, but once Adam came on, we knew that was it.

Your sound is difficult to label. How would you classify it amongst the myriad of sub-genres in rock?

Jamie: It's hard for us to come up with a cohesive idea, or label, for what it is we're doing, though I think it's coming across. It's not really up to us to sum it up though. We all come up with music in somewhat different ways, but all love it just as passionately.

Tony: Anytime anybody asks me that I keep naming bands.

Adam: Yeah, it's so hard when someone asks me that. Especially since most people have no idea what I'm talking about when I start listing sub-genres or our influential bands. So I usually just end up saying that we are a rock band.

Personally, I find Greenland's sound to be nostalgic in one sense and current, cutting-edge, in another. There's a clear tie to Pavement, R.E.M., and I'd say The Kinks. Who are your greatest musical influences as a band?

Tony: We share a lot of common ground amongst the three of us. We love The Velvet Underground, Neil Young, The Who, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Replacements, Big Star.

Adam: My influences are all over the place. I listen to metal and hardcore and a lot of experimental stuff, but I also really love pop music, like Brian Eno, Prince and Peter Gabriel.

Jamie: I've been listening to a lot of hip-hop lately. I think we can be very rhythmic. We get those comparisons a lot [British-Invasion], but I think we're very American too.

With many bands, especially rock bands, lyrics more often than not operate simply as filler. Greenland's lyrics have real impact. They act like another instrument.

Tony: We all view songwriting as an art form. One of the reasons why I'm always in a band with Jamie is because he's such a great writer. His words make our songs even more emotive.

Adam: I have to agree, too. When we play, especially live, the lyrics definitely help me out a lot. They make me drum as hard as I can with as much emotion as I can.

The lyrics are quite cinematic, embedding narratives, which allow for abstract connections to occur between seemingly direct, common sentiments. Could you describe the process?

Jamie: It varies from song to song. I like lots of imagery. I'm inspired by poetry, too. But I'm equally as inspired by songwriting. Lately, I've been very interested in a coupling of Woody Allen and Billy Bragg. I wanted to do something that was direct and talking about myself in a cathartic self-psychoanalysis kind of way that would have me writing extremely frankly. I wanted to write the kind of songs that would make my friends hate me after hearing them. I wanted to be as candid as I possibly could.

Tony: In the beginning, with a lot of the songs, we were working off ideas we'd already had and then Jamie would adapt lyrics he'd have written. But now we're having more playing sessions, which make our songs happen more naturally. We just come in the room and start playing and see what develops, which is great.

To a certain extent, it's almost become commonplace for a band to alter the structure of a song mid-way through. Greenland does this on many songs. Are these alterations, breaks, consciously created and included?

Jamie: We've played around with structure since the beginning, but its nothing planned out necessarily. Especially with our newer songs, we've grown more organic. And it isn't that we're trying to do this, it's happening itself. For instance, Tony is a guitar player. Tony is a phenomenal bass player, but he plays it like a guitar. He has that energy and sensibility, that driving force. That and Tony’s vocals in a way result in those changes in structure.

The D.C. music scene is difficult to define. If anything, it's the absence of a scene. How do you feel about it?

Jamie: In general, I'm excited about it. I think there are a lot of great bands here. My favorite is The Child Ballads. And also The Bonapartes, RPM, and The Cassettes. There's really just too many to name.

Tony: We play New York a lot and even though they have no idea who we are, the fans are generally very receptive. Whereas in D.C. it seems like people only go out to see who they know or their friend's bands.

Do you not consider the D.C. scene supportive then?

Tony: I think it's the transient nature of the city itself. It defines the way people go out to see live music. They're there, and they're not there. It's tough to establish a good fan base.

Adam: But it's getting better for us. We've become more selective about the shows that we take, as a way to ensure that our fans will be come out and want to hear us every time.

What does the live show add to your music? Do you believe coming to a show is essential to gaining a sincere understanding of what it is you're creating?

Jamie: The live show is when I think we really come out. We spend the live shows evolving, developing. That's the kind of band we are. I think we get more natural as time goes by.