MACITAJS ON ACID

 

moa at club "Mad Mix", summer 1996, Riga, Latviafoto: Janis Daugavietis              

Fact: a few hundred thousand  Latvians live outside their homeland.  Most of them emigrated from Latvia after World War Two when the Red Army moved in.
MACITAJS ON ACID (english: PRIEST ON ACID, 'cause they saw a priest doing a mass like he was on acid) are the sons of Latvian immigrants to America.  They're the only "trimdas" (Latvians living abroad) Latvian band in the nineties who says: "We're playing fucking punkrock underground rock!" And as we've  heard/seen - they do it excellently!
        MOA was formed in the summer of 1992 by 2 Latvian brothers in America.  The main idea for forming MOA was to give underground rock to Latvia.  That was carried out through three tours of Latvia in 1993, 1995 and 1996. For KRISTAPS KRESLINS, the older brother,  MOA was not the first band he'd ever played in.  Starting in the mid eighties he was into indie/underground music and in a few young american bands playing drums.
   Kristaps also played in one Latvian "trimdas" teenager popband called GUZMA when he studied at the Latvian gymnazium in Minstere, Germany. This is  first serious band for  younger brother LARIS KRESLINS . Usually they perform as just a duo - LARIS on drums, backing vocals (and fantastic lyrics) and KRISTAPS - guitars and vocals. MOA used to have a ton of different occassional bassplayers, the most famost one was TREIOPS TREYFIDS from PITCHBLENDE and formely from the Teenbeat band EGGS .
         The first summer they toured they gave a surprisingly new look and feel to Latvia's growing underground music scene.  Each other MOA tour through Latvia was a great event for the Latvian underground music scene and a good inspiration too.  Their music is frantic and fun, not easily pinned down, although they sort of have a punk rock take on psychadelia through punk.  MOA says: "We sing in English", but actually sing in Latvian. 
They occasionally also dip into English's vaults for sentiments not easily expressed in Latvian, example: "tu suck" (tu=you).
       The band practices really sparodically, because the brothers live in different cities, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.  They still have had quite a lot of recording sessions and in summer of 1995 realised a 3 song 7" called "The Grasis is Greener on the Otra Puse".
The summer after that MOA and KAVUNE (a Ukrainian band from the states) released a split cd called "Rock Bridge."  The songs on MOA's "side" were recorded by Treiops Treyfids at his house.
       Besides the MOA rock and studies, LARIS is a zinister (he did #5 of "D" zine and a mag called "SOUND COLLECTOR") and is a DJ at the radio station at his college.  KRISTAPS on the otherhand has realised his dream of opening a bar. Since the last Latvia tour in summer 1996 MOA began shortening their rock activity: they saw that an underground scene had taken hold here in Latvia.  This was their main reason for starting the band.        
We don't know what to expect next from MOA, but we're waiting!        

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