MJ-XII bombards the Seacoast

MJ-XII’s synth player, Jonathan Truman, has all the necessary qualifications to play heavy music. He’s got a big amp, a beard and long, flowing hair that is perfectly suitable for all-night head-banging. His band mates have many of the same qualities, including even bigger amps. Truman also has a Rachmaninoff songbook resting on his Oberheim synthesizer, just in case the mood strikes him.

Truman’s collection of classical songbooks reflects the surprisingly diverse musical palette of MJ-XII, Dover’s fiercely interesting neo-classical stoner metal band. The group consists of Truman, who previously played synth and sang in Birth Rites, along with drummer Kyle George and guitarist Tim Lang-Grannan, who played together or separately in bands like Pray for a Plague, Grrrls Out of Hell and, most recently, Khartoum. The trio began playing as the mysteriously named MJ-XII at the end of 2006, when some of those other bands dissolved. The formation was not entirely haphazard.

“Yeah, we kind of had a vision,” said Lang-Grannan. “Kyle and I had this plan to steal all of our favorite musicians from other bands. We just wanted to combine all the shit that we like to listen to without doing it as a joke.”

The band has two shows lined up this week. The first is on Wednesday, April 9, at the North Berwick Legion Hall, with grindcore band Terminally Your Aborted Ghost. The second is on Friday, April 11, at the Salmon Falls Mills artist space in Rollinsford, with Vaast, Space Train and Picnic Casket. Both shows are all-ages, and the Rollinsford show, which is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. and is free, tops off an all-day open house at the growing artist space. It’s at these DIY types of shows that MJ-XII feels most at home.

“Our best shows have been in living rooms,” Lang-Grannan said. “We’re always looking to play houses, basements. A show with booze and a price tag at the door doesn’t work as well.”

Equally appealing to both metal-heads and music nerds, MJ-XII’s music spans multiple genres. The songs, some of which are earnestly melodic, have been known to stretch past the 10-minute mark. It’s uncommon for a band to take such risks, burning up genre stereotypes in a sweltering hellfire meant to piss off scenesters as much as enlighten them. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to translate the MJ-XII aesthetic when playing to an uninitiated crowd, the members say.

“We played a show in Boston last week, and we thought we’d play like four or five songs,” Truman said. “We got done playing two and they were like, ‘OK, those were your last two songs.’”

At the band’s core is a love for heavy metal, but that love only acts as a springboard for the unpredictable, psychedelic, prog-metal jams it creates. There is also a love for horror movies, reflected in the band’s sometimes-bizarre song titles. “Ripped from the Plasma Chamber” and “Battle for Wolfcastle (Vulture Hordes Envelop Vomitwolf)” both appear on the band’s self-released EP, “Zombie Vs. Shark,” the title of which refers to a beloved scene from Lucio Fulci’s “Zombie.”

When the three members of MJ-XII decided to start playing together, there was one major obstacle—no drum set. It was a minor setback, easily rectified.

“This is how we started playing music together,” George recalled. “Nobody played the drums, so I convinced a girl in Las Vegas online to send me a drum set. It came in five boxes. I opened it up …”

“And there was a band inside,” said Truman, finishing his thought.

While preparing for its upcoming shows, MJ-XII recently ran through a few songs at their Dover practice space, which is located inside a vacant warehouse near the train station. Some of the songs rehearsed can be found on “Zombie Vs. Shark,” including “Fugue in A Minor,” a song that, in name and in Truman’s boy-at-a-recital playing, proudly shows off the band’s reverence for classical music. Another new and still untitled song went on for more than 20 minutes and was a breathtaking piece of music. At times, the nameless track was noisy and atmospheric and at others it was heavy and complex. The tune seemed to morph into a new sound as each minute ticked away. This constant shift in style is a huge part of the MJ-XII appeal.

“The goal was to make music that didn’t get boring, because we didn’t have a singer,” Lang-Grannan said. “We wanted to have a mega-range, and a vocalist will just put a stamp on any jam.”

Sometime in the next few weeks, MJ-XII will enter the studio at Andrews Lane Recording Company in Eliot. The band plans to record two or three songs, including the unnamed 20-minute track, although there are no immediate plans for a release. Talks have been held regarding a possible split album with Vaast, but nothing is final. Already, MJ-XII has played shows in Rhode Island, Boston, Portland and just about everywhere in New Hampshire, but the musicians are getting restless.
“Ultimately, the goal is to tour as much as we can afford, to have no idea where we are,” Lang said. “We’re all pretty obsessed with music.”

Visit www.myspace.com/mjxii.