All that prog-metal-jazz

Many Arms embraces their new name in time for first album

Sitting with two-thirds of the prog-metal-jazz trio Many Arms in a Center City coffeehouse, it’s not hard to trace their music’s combination of grunge and precision, spontaneity and focus, directly back to their own personalities. Without losing the thread of a story about their recent eight-day tour, they’ll suddenly enthuse over a change in the background music — whether an epically orchestrated Pink Floyd track or the Texas boogie of ZZ Top’s “Tres Hombres.”

For drummer Ricardo Lagomasino, the Many Arms sound is somewhere between Black Flag and King Crimson; guitarist Nick Millevoi adds John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra and jazz legend Ornette Coleman.

While their music has a singular identity, Many Arms’ name has given them something of an identity crisis over the course of their brief existence. Pads and Steel, the former band of Lagomasino and bassist John DeBlase, broke up in the fall of 2007 with a winter tour already booked. Millevoi got the call to step in and the three, he says, instantly “fell in band love.”

Lagomasino quickly chose the name The Future Has a Silver Lining, a reference to Robocop which, he says, “nobody liked.” By the time they hit the road they were Altamira, and the moniker Many Mountains appeared on the band’s MySpace page for about two days before the final switch to Many Arms.

Hopefully the name will stick long enough to celebrate the release of their new EP, “Ocean of Snakes,” tonight. A full-length, “Palabras Malas,” is on the way, and there are plans to follow with a concept album inspired by Temple history prof David Jacobs, an expert on UFO abductions.

Many Arms with So Many Dynamos, Cast Spells, Owl Stations
Tonight, 8
Danger Danger Gallery
5013 Baltimore Ave., $10
www.myspace.com/dangerdangergallery