Shake Down: Mass Shivers

IT'S HARD TO get a handle on Mass Shivers.

The forward-thinking trio splices demented phrases of funk with dance pop, jumbles that mix with a traditional rock vocabulary and punctuates the whole thing with Afro-beats.

Over the course of Mass Shivers' latest album, "Ecstatic Eyes Glow Glossy" (Sick Room), the listener clings to each song before freefalling into the next, without a clue as to what will be around the corner.

It's a helluva ride.

Mass Shivers treats music the way Jasper Johns treated a canvas: take disparate elements; throw them together and see what sticks; preserve and mount; step back and enjoy. The motley musical concoctions that spring from the minds of guitarist Brett Sova, bassist Andy Johnson and drummer Sean Wilke are always complex but still catchy.

"The [music-making] method for us is really how long the inspiration lasts," Sova said. "We have several intense songs, but we don't arrange them really by design. When we have the material, we put it down and write it."

Sova, Johnson and Wilke comprise the second incarnation of Mass Shivers, which started in 2003 as a quartet and released its self-titled debut in 2005. In late 2006 Wilke confronted departed guitarist Ben Mjolsness and Sova at a party and demanded they 86 their drummer, Sean Wiyce.

"It's true, the members of our band have shifted around a bit," said Sova. "At the time, the music never reached what we were hoping it would. We were all at a party and Sean was getting surly. Ben and I were in a band together; I was singing and our drummer was singled out by Sean. We do write songs with awkward time signatures and you can be thrown off by that."

With the new threesome, Mass Shivers recorded "Ecstatic Eyes Glow Glossy" and showed its affinity for a kaleidoscope of sounds. (The Chicago band adds second drummer Dylan Ryan for local shows.)

"Collectively, we started immersing ourselves in West African music," said Sova. "And that sound has been showing up in our guitar riffs. It's been organic though. We've been tearing through it."

Mass Shivers gives a reverential nod to the Sun City Girls, Brian Eno and the fraternity of worldly indie and prog bands that started picking away at a traditional rock idiom. Just don't accuse Mass Shivers of being Bowie-like chameleons hooked on flavor-of-the-week world music CDs on sale at Starbucks.

"Yes, we're listening to Iraqi pop and Thai folk, too," Sova said. "It's fun to listen to. But we're not one of those bands that listen to whatever world music is hot this week and go, 'That Indian guitar riff is so awesome; let's incorporate it in a song!' There is that aping situation in music lately and it can be lame."

» The Red & The Black, 1212 H St. NE; with True Womanhood, Wed., 9 p.m., $15; 202 399-3831.

Written by Express contributor Christopher Correa

Photos by Kara Dubs