Moving Units about joy and pandemonium

It's about as predictable as asking Michael Jackson how the trial is going. But unfortunately, when it comes to the Moving Units - all the way from Los Angeles to play in Auckland tomorrow night - the obvious question has to be asked.

So, guys, what's this post-punk thing all about then?

That's how reviewers from Los Angeles to London to Sydney have described the Moving Units' danceable guitar music.

Heavy on the disco bass and violently catchy choruses, but with a staccato guitar, dark-humoured lyrics and strangled, snarling vocals, Moving Units have already been called a cross between the Strokes and Franz Ferdinand, as well as being likened to uber-cool 80s groups such as the Cure, Gang of Four, Blondie and A Certain Ratio. Crikey.

So do the band themselves mind continuously being thrown, guitars first, into this rather fashionable genre?

Blake Miller, singer and guitarist, is not completely sure. "Honestly," he says, searching for the right words, "it's kind of, just, well, not that imaginative.

"It's not offensive. It's inoffensive. I'm indifferent to it really. I know younger critics will use catchphrases like disco-punk or dance-punk to sort things out, to get a handle on what they're talking about. And I understand there's a certain kind of vernacular that needs to exist. I was the same when I was younger.

"But for the seasoned fan of music I think those terms are just limiting. I think most people who have a respectable music collection and a knowledge of the history of rock and dance choose to describe the music by the feelings they get. And they avoid buzzwords like that."

Miller himself is a seasoned fan of music with a respectable collection. After arriving in Los Angeles from Detroit, he befriended the band's drummer-singer, Chris Hathwell. Because they had large record collections and similar tastes in music, the pair started DJing at small clubs around LA together.

This must partially account for the eminent dance-ability of the music they now make together.

By the end of 2001 they had formed Moving Units with bassist Johan Boegli, after which they spent a lot of time playing live around the small and arty scene that was forming in their LA suburb of Silverlake.

And by the end of last year, the trio had played with the Pixies, and toured with Blur and contemporaries Hot Hot Heat, as well as releasing their first full-length album, Dangerous Dreams, which was two years in the making.

Since they started out, hipsters have gone from standing staring at their favourite band to dancing with gay abandon at each and every gig. Yet Moving Units have been dealing with that dread post-punk backlash and accusations of just following musical fashions ever since. However, as Miller has said: "Dangerous Dreams has little to do with the latest dance-punk phenomenon and more to do with the restless inner workings of three clumsy musicians who have no choice but to throw their heart and soul into these songs.

"The truth of the matter is, what we did at the time was a really honest emotional expression, but it just happened to coincide with a sort of musical zeitgeist."

Apparently this impetuous chucking about of heart and soul goes on during their live performances too. One magazine described a Moving Units show as "inspiring fanaticism and wild abandon". Another's description was: "A euphorically smutty, joyfully disenfranchised, danceable call to arms."

Miller simply has this to say when asked what New Zealand audiences can expect: "The best sort of pandemonium you can imagine."

Performance

*Who: Moving Units

*Where & when: Kings Arms, Auckland, tomorrow night; Indigo, Wellington, Wednesday night