Moe! Staiano

Moe! Staiano (born Mario Anthony Staiano Jr.) (b. June 13, 1973, Staten Island, New York) is an American experimental drummer/percussionist and composer who works in a variety of found sounds and prepared trap set as well as massive orchestra conductions of his own scored compositions.

Mainly an improviser in a solo performance setting, Moe! Staiano has no formal training in music and would play in unconventional ways such as drumming a bat on a snare or placing vibrators on cymbals. His early destructive performances were known to have Moe! showering audiences with packaging popcorn and wrapping them up with yellow caution tape and destroy an arsenal of television sets, dishes and other breakable objects and setting off loud fireworks to end a typical show. Early influences of acts such as Foetus, Einstürzende Neubauten and Z'EV (whom he collaborated with once) were evident in his playing and shows as he used various found "junk" such as springs, sheet metals, oil barrels, pipes and other metal objects as percussion. He has toned down a little with his current shows, usually using prepared drum kits and guitar loops to create a more one-man band sound, though he still breaks an object or old 78 RPM records over his head from time to time.

In 1997, he started his large ensemble collective, MOE!KESTRA!, which employs a rotating cast of available musicians playing Staiano's text "instructional"/graphic scores for large orchestras as well as conducted improvised performances.

He's was a former member of the RIO/avant rock band, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum as the metal percussionist and played alongside with former drummers Dave Shamrock, Frank Grau and current SGM drummer, Matthias Bossi. He was one of the original members at its formation in 1999 until he left for personal reasons in September 2004. In January 2006, Moe! finally formed his post-punk band, Mute Socialite, playing drums and percussive guitar along with Ava Mendoza on Guitar, Alee Karim on bass and Shayna Dunkleman on second drum set and Liz Allbee on trumpet, all former and current students from Mills College. They have one album out.