Above: MTNS Crash CHBP 2012



MTNS have never officially been a part of Capitol Hill Block Party. But last year, they managed to sear themselves into the memory of anyone who went. 



“Me and Austin were talking, and it’s always been a dream of ours to play in the street,” says Dan Enders, MTNS’ drummer. “We had all our friends help us set up just lickety-split, fully expecting to be shut down immediately. Somehow we managed to draw a crowd, and the security guards ended coming out and, there’s actually video of them like, getting into it.”

Wearing nothing but his tighty-whiteys and a mask, Enders and MTNS bassist Austin Hund tore through an insane guerilla set of intense noise rock right outside the North entrance of the festival. By the time they finished, a huge mob had assembled around them, including the security guards (who loved it). 



“They never even attempted to stop us,” Enders says.



This year, MTNS are one-upping themselves by playing three sattelite unofficial shows at Capitol Hill Block Party.

“I know I’m probably gonna be mangled and sore, and my back’s gonna get fucked up. I’ll probably be bloody as hell after one of them, just depending on the intensity of the show, but there’s nothing I’d rather do,” Enders says. 



The unsanctioned MTNS marathon begins on Saturday at Vermillion in the form of MONAGA-MTNS, a hydra-headed monster collaboration between MTNS and their friends Monagamy Party. 



The project started at Octopus Fest down at The Black Lodge when Enders and Keith Tucker, the drummer of Monogamy Party who also books the Lodge, decided to make real on their long-standing mutual desire to play together. The bands all squeezed into a back room at The Black Lodge in between sets and did back and forth jams on each others’ songs, seamlessly blending the beginnings and endings into a continuous stream of intense music.

“When they are playing one of their songs, sometimes I’ll play drums, but other times I’ll just run around in the crowd and mess with people. Once I grabbed Kennedy (Monogamy Party’s vocalist) and threw him on my shoulders during a song,” Enders says. “We’ve done MONOGA-MTNS about five times now. We’ve worked out this really intense, heavy, Swans-esque build that we collaborated on to close the sets with.”

After Vermillion, MTNS are pulling double duty on Sunday at Chop Suey’s “Around the Block Party” in the evening, and “Cock Block Party” at The Comet at night.

“We’ll be playing in the window at Vermillion, so who knows where the show will move to by the end. At the Comet, we’ve definitely got some surprises in store,” Enders says. “I shouldn’t talk about them now, but we’ve got some unexpected stuff planned that I think people will dig. It’ll be intense, definitely very loud.”

Whatever surprises are in store, MTNS being very loud certainly won’t be one of them.

After their guerilla CHBP blitzkrieg, the group is working on writing their next album, which according to Enders is going swimmingly.

“I feel like we finally figured out the sort of tonal direction we are going for last night. I’ve never been more excited about anything we’ve written.”

Enders expects MTNS to go into the studio around September or October for the follow up to March’s excellent All Songs Are Spells LP. Be on the lookout for that after whatever destruction MTNS’ wreaks this weekend. 


MTNS’ Unofficial CHBP Blitzkrieg

As MONAGA-MTNS: July 27th at Vermillion

Around the Block Party

: July 28th (day show) at Chop Suey

w/ Dream Salon, Wimps, Dude York, Haunted Horses, Hot Victory, Child Birth, King Dude, Agatha

Cock Block Party

: July 28th (night show) at The Comet Tavern

w/ Phantom Tank, TBA