We’ve all heard them before — the punk bands that rant and rave for no discernible reason. However, like many of their local predecessors, Mobius Strip‘s shouting actually has a sense of purpose. All three of the band members are dedicated vegans and everything from their lyrics (“If you fight/you might/live for two more years” is a sample lyric from “Battery Cage”) to their album art (Escalate demonstrates a floor plan for a food production factory) speaks out against animal cruelty. Unsurprisingly, their songs have the sort of righteous anger that initially identified punk rock as a viable creative outlet for social change.

We talked to singer and bassist Frank about the band’s activism, their change in musical direction and his unusual stage name, Pitt Stains.

Find them online: http://www.mobiusstripdc.com
Buy their music: From their website
See them next: Sunday at the Black Cat

How long has Mobius Strip been a band?

I think our first show was in early 2009 at the Red and the Black.

Are you excited about your album release show?

We’re gearing up for it. We’ve got our presses all up and ready to go and we’ll have twenty test presses at the show because our shipment was delayed because the first test presses had defects. So, we have extra test presses so that we’ll have something to show. The jackets and all that are here, so it’ll look pretty much right.

Tell me more about this release. How does this differ from previous work that you’ve done?

The recording was done in April this year by Don Zientara over at Inner Ear and it features our new drummer Shane Carlile. I think it’s actually a bit of a break from our previous stuff. We’re doing a lot more indie rock stuff on our first record and I kind of have been in all of my projects been pushing toward a rawer and more traditional punk rock sound and that came through on this record. Don was really awesome to work with and it sounded exactly how I wanted it.

I noticed that, too…that it sounded more punk rock than I had remembered.

Yeah, it sounds more like what I listen to and what I think I was trying to write before. It’s all kind of a trial and error process. Sometimes things don’t sound the way you think they will when you start writing songs and I think that’s where some of the other stuff ended up, with a more indie rock or poppier sound.

How did you get the stage name Pitt Stains?

That moniker was given to me by a long time friend and very briefly, roommate who had too much access to my laundry and saw that all of my… I’m very, very thrifty and so I will wear clothing until it cannot hold its shape to my body anymore. I had these old white t-shirts, like, undershirts, and they were like ten years old. It doesn’t matter how much you clean them or what you do to them. Ten years of sweat and deodorant makes a disgusting cake through the armpits. So, she called me that and it stuck, I guess. It’s a good stage name.

One thing that’s very obvious all over your web presence is that you’re very committed to the vegan cause.

That’s true and that’s something that we wear a little bit more on our sleeve now that everyone in the band is vegan. Our first drummer wasn’t vegan and so sometimes I feel like some people read that whatever the singer is saying is what everyone in the band feels like and I didn’t really want to put words in someone else’s mouth. But, since we’re all kind of in agreement about that, we kind of put that at the forefront of what we’re doing more. I’ve been vegan for ten years and Mark, who plays guitar in the band, has been vegan probably longer than that. I don’t think he’s hit the twenty year mark yet, but I’m sure he’s above fifteen years. It’s a big part of all of our lives. All of us have been vegan for at least a decade and have been working with or for animal rights organizations or organizations that promote vegetarian eating. And I guess that the songs that I write are inspired by anger. I find it hard to just sit down and make up a song or write words. Usually something has to be gnawing at me for me to write a song about it. Or I think it comes better that way than if I sit down and make something up. I’m just not that imaginative, I guess. For me, it has to be real. So, having worked really closely with this cause and having not turned away from the videos and the first-hand cruelty, it just stays in my psyche. It’s just a way of coping with it, I guess.

Do you think that your activism has led you to volunteer with Positive Force?

I’ve been a volunteer there for a couple of years. But, yeah, I go to the monthly meetings and I put on shows there sometimes and I help other people that want to put a show on with taking money at the door or setting up the sound or making sure that nobody’s putting holes in walls or whatever. And taken apart and taken as individuals they’re a great group of super people that just have a lot of positive spirit and are just trying to do something good with their time. A lot of times you can tie music and activism together.

Do you think that having that sort of activism within your bloodstream is a product of living in the area?

I actually am not from here. I went to school at the University of Florida and my freshman year, I co-founded a student animal rights group with my friend. When I started with that group, my school work was getting in the way of my activism and by the time I graduated, it was the other way around. I was totally focused on my activism and school was a distraction from that. So, when I graduated, it was obvious to me to join one of the groups that was working on these issues and the majority are based here in D.C., which is probably true in the case of most national advocacy causes. So, I moved up here and found a job working with one group and bounced around.

What are some of the venues in D.C. that you’ve enjoyed playing the most?

As far as proper venues, I like Black Cat best, I think. The sound is good, it’s all ages, they have green rooms in the back that make you feel like you’re important and most importantly, everyone there is really nice. I’ve played at some venues where the people are kind of jerky or just not that interested in what you’re there to do and everyone at Black Cat’s been really nice, really helpful and really engaged. Seemingly, they’re there for the right purpose, which is that they love music.

As far as DIY venues in this area, I really like playing at St. Stephen’s, not because the sound is great or anything like that because it’s DIY and sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don’t because you’re making it up as you go along. There’s more of a sense of community. The people who come out to the shows are there because they want to hear music or because there’s a fundraiser for a cause that they care about whereas at clubs bands sometimes play as background noise to drinking and so it’s much more gratifying as a band to play for people who are there to see music or hear music. Another great thing about doing benefit shows with Positive Force is that you can take pretty much anything you make at the door and send that to the nonprofit organization of your choice. Anywhere else that I know of that you want to do a benefit show at…they’re a business and still need to take their share at the door, whatever that means. So, it’s good to do a benefit where all of the money is going to the place where it’s intended.

Is the record release show benefitting any organization or is that a show for show’s sake?

We talked about it but we didn’t get our ducks in a row, so to speak, so it’s a regular old show. There’s no benefit.