Today's Top Stop: Snuggle Up

THE ASSROCKERS, of course, rock. They're a blatant throwback band and they do it well enough to get booked to play the Black Cat's backstage on a weeknight. The Assrockers play like a hipper, smarter, funnier ACDC. It's a good sound. The band picked Snuggle to open tonight's show. Express' Tim Follos spoke with Snuggle guitarist Adrian Munoz and singer James Colvin and discovered a band divided.

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EXPRESS: Can you give me the band's bio?
ADRIAN MUNOZ: It formed in 2003, basically it was me, the drummer and the bassist. We've known each other since high school; we've been playing since high school and we added the singer in 2004.

We had this weird art concept idea of having a different singer for every show and having multiple singers per show, because we incorporate so many styles into what we do -- we didn't think one singer could handle it. Then eventually we found James [Colvin] and that was just a lot easier than dealing with many singers.

EXPRESS: How do you know the Assrockers?
MUNOZ: The Assrockers I know from back in the day. I used to book at a club in D.C. called the Blue Nile. This was like in 2002, 2003 and I booked them. It was a real s***-hole of a club, but the Assrockers showed up, they showed up a week after playing the 9:30 Club, despite playing at this crap-ass bar I booked 'em at, they brought it. They were really troopers about playing there. They played a great set and I've been in love with 'em ever since ... They just care about rocking.

EXPRESS: How would you compare and contrast your band to the Assrockers?
MUNOZ: We're younger. They are more sexual than we are. We're more about the foreplay; actually, we're about the afterplay too. It's not just the foreplay, it's the afterplay. They're more about the act. We're more about what happens before and after, maybe because they're better at it than we are, I don't know.

EXPRESS: Snuggle reminds me of Marilyn Manson singing for a funk-rock band.
MUNOZ: That' s weird.

EXPRESS: Yeah?
MUNOZ: No, actually, I've heard that. People compare our singer to Marilyn Manson on occasion. We're like Marilyn Manson, if he wasn't a [schmuck].

EXPRESS: How would you describe your band?
MUNOZ: We're straight-up D.C. feminist murder-core. It's kind of a style we invented. Pretty much everything we try to do is be ironic.

EXPRESS: You have a name like Snuggle, yet you bring intense music. You tackle silly, what some people might consider trivial, subjects and then you talk about something very socially important and weighty, like AIDS.
MUNOZ: We wanna be a band that can go anywhere and do anything. We can play disco, we can play death-metal and people will think it's Snuggle, either way.

EXPRESS: So you don't think of yourselves under any genre?
MUNOZ: No, that's our thing, though. We wanna fit in with all genres. We play with metal bands, we play with hardcore bands and indie rock bands and sensitive emo bands and we're versatile enough that we can fit in with any of those crowds.

EXPRESS: What are your goals for Snuggle?
MUNOZ: World domination.

EXPRESS: Would you agree that you guys are pretty funky?
MUNOZ: Yeah, we definitely are. Our bassist comes from the funk school of bass playing.

Now on to singer James Colvin ...

EXPRESS: What do you want people to know about Snuggle?
COLVIN: Just that Snuggle rocks, that's all. Come out and see. We're a good time.

EXPRESS: What does the song "Full-Blown AIDS" mean?
COLVIN: We're trying to lift awareness, because back in the '80s, when we were in school, you'd hear about it every day. Now you rarely hear about it, but it's still around, obviously. It's kind of making light, but in a serious way. Ultimately positive.

EXPRESS: Do you think your lyrics have a sense of humor?
COLVIN: Absolutely, a very sarcastic sense of humor.

EXPRESS: Tongue in cheek?
COLVIN: Very, very tongue in cheek.

EXPRESS: How would you categorize your band?
COLVIN: As crack rock (giddy laughter). D.C. feminist murder-core.

EXPRESS: What does crack rock mean to you?
COLVIN: Almost like an antipunk, but we're still punk, so it's a little more absurdist. It's more real. We're not trying to have an image, we come out dressed like we would dress all day and just jam and play and take it or leave it.

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St NW; 9 p.m., $6; 202-667-7960. (U St.-Cardozo)