Out of all of the bands inside the Beltway, Food For Animals might just be the only act that’s better known overseas than in the District. The hip-hop/IDM/noise crew has toured Europe multiple times, been written up in U.K. mag The Wire and were listed among the highlights at last year’s CMJ festival by Pitchfork. Yet, all along, they’ve maintained strong ties with D.C., returning time and again to play their distinctive blend of experimental electronic music and hip-hop to a devoted following of folks in the know. The music of Food For Animals is an acquired taste, but their first full-length LP Belly proves that the Maryland three piece (MCs Vulture V and HY and laptop guru Ricky Rabbit) can’t easily be pigeonholed into any one movement, trend or scene. Rather, they pull sounds across genre lines, creating something cutting-edge and entirely original that evokes this city’s proud tradition of pop iconoclasm. DCist caught up with founding member Vulture V to discuss politics in music, the differences between D.C. and Baltimore and the myth of the “post-Dischord” sound.