MU330 is an American

ska punk Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music. Ska punk tends to feature brass instruments, especially Horn (instrument), horns such as trumpets, trombones and woodwind instruments like saxophones ...

band from

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. Formed by students of St. Louis University High School in 1988, MU330 played a self-described brand of music called "psycho

ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

", high energy ska punk marked by manic performances and humorous, often strange lyricism. Since 1997, the band's musical direction has changed towards a more melodic and lyric-driven ska/

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

sound, a combination that has been described as "

Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Brian Bell (guitar, keyboards, backing ...

meets

The Specials The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, J ...

". Dan Potthast (

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

), Ted Moll (

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

), Chris Diebold (

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

), and Robert Bell (

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

) have remained with MU330 since the band's inception, and the trombonist Gerry Lundquist has been a member for over two decades. There have been several different frontmen in the past, but Potthast has always been the band's principal songwriter and lyricist.

Biography

The original members met in St. Louis University High School music class 330, hence the band's name. Potthast has released solo work and has also started a second band, The Stitch Up, with the former Slow Gherkin frontman, James Rickman. He also started a ska/rocksteady group called Dan P and the Bricks with former the MU330 saxophonist, Matt Knobbe. In 2018, Potthast was part of

Jeff Rosenstock Jeffrey Ernest Rosenstock (born September 7, 1982) is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from Long Island, New York. He is known for his former bands Bomb the Music Industry! and The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, as wel ...

's touring band. Moll, the drummer, has a side project band called Bagheera. Most members of MU330 have performed with Mike Park's Bruce Lee Band throughout the band's history, although Potthast is the only member who has played live with The Bruce Lee Band in the past few years. MU330 continues to perform live sporadically across the United States.

Band members

''Press'' (up to 1994)

*John Kavanaugh - vocals,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

*Dan Potthast - vocals,

*Ted Moll -

, vocals *Chris Diebold -

*Robert Bell -

*Matt Knobbe -

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

''Chumps on Parade'' (1995-1997)

*Jason Nelson - vocals *Dan Potthast - vocals, guitar *Ted Moll - drums, vocals *Chris Diebold - bass guitar *Rob Bell - trombone *Traygen Bilsland - saxophone *Nick Baur - Trumpet

1997 - present

*Dan Potthast - vocals, guitar *Ted Moll - drums, vocals *Chris Diebold - bass guitar *Robert Bell - trombone *Gerry Lundquist - trombone

Discography

Albums

Live albums

Compilations

Singles, demos and non-album tracks

References

External links

*
Dan Potthast's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mu330 Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups from St. Louis American musical quintets American punk rock groups American ska punk musical groups Third-wave ska groups Asian Man Records artists Indie rock musical groups from Missouri