Moss Icon

Moss Icon was an Annapolis, Maryland punk rock band from 1986 to 1991. The original members were Jonathan Vance, Tonie Joy, Monica DiGialleonardo, and Mark Laurence. Moss Icon are most known for their influence on the splinter genre of pun

Moss Icon was an Annapolis, Maryland punk rock band from 1986 to 1991. The original members were Jonathan Vance, Tonie Joy, Monica DiGialleonardo, and Mark Laurence. Moss Icon are most known for their influence on the splinter genre of punk known as emo, and affiliation to the original DC emo-punk bands born in the so-called "Revolution Summer" of 1985, including Rites of Spring, Gray Matter, Rain, Embrace, and Maryland's Hated.

The band's identifying characteristics, and those that distinguish them from their contemporaries, include noticeable and abrupt transitions from loud to quiet, Joy's distinct arpeggiated guitar (often undistorted and picked), and Vance's esoteric, sometimes meandering lyrical content. Earlier recordings of the band are remniscent of early Joy Division, particularly in guitar style, while later songs embodied a less blunt approach, noted by some detractors as making Moss Icon "like Grateful Dead for punks." The band championed, among other issues, the plight of indigenous peoples in the Americas, and opposed the US Government's involvement in Nicaragua and Guatemala.