• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Moving Units is one of the hardest working bands in Los Angeles right now, touring and playing shows at a break-neck pace while putting the finishing touches on their first full-length album. The upside is their hard work seems to be paying off -- they played to a packed house at South by Southwest last month and have been scheduled to appear at this weekend’s Coachella music festival. The downside is their immune systems are having a hard time keeping up.

“Every band gets sick on every tour,” explained drummer and vocalist Chris Hathwell between sniffles via cell phone, as he and his bandmates made their way from Sacramento to San Jose in their tour van.

“You’re expending a lot of energy every night, you’re going through a lot of climate changes, and you’re usually trapped in a small space for a long time, thus you’re all sharing the same germs,” Hathwell added.

But despite the vicious flu currently gripping the members of Moving Units, Hathwell, guitarist and singer Blake Miller, and bassist Johan Boegli have every reason to feel good. Based on the strength of an extremely well-attended residency at Spaceland and a four-song EP released on a small San Diego label, the band was promptly signed to Rx Records and added to the “ones to watch” list of nearly every rock critic in the country. With its debut LP, “Dangerous Dreams,” set to be released in the coming months, Moving Units seems to be in the enviable position of being respected and successful at the same time.

Not that these guys are paying that much attention. Much of what makes their songwriting so tight and compelling (they sound sort like a post-punk version of English new wave, and are often compared to their friends from Hot Hot Heat) is the decidedly inward-looking direction of the band. On a philosophical level, Hathwell believes the band’s work exists mostly for the pleasure of its members.

“It’s more about what we’re doing and the level of energy we’re putting out to each other,” he said of their live shows. “You can’t always expect strangers to look at your band and just start freaking out, especially when you’re playing for ‘hipster’ audiences, where their hair might go out of place if they move too much.”

Whether Moving Units likes it or not, the ‘hipsters’ have in fact embraced the group as one of the bright lights in the new underground sound. Its slot at Coachella this weekend only solidifies the band’s status as an up-and-comer. Hopefully, the band members’ flu symptoms will subside soon enough for them to take more advantage of the rock ’n‘ roll lifestyle.

“We’d probably party more if we weren’t sick all the time,” Hathwell said.