Still Motorin': Trans Am

AFTER A TWO and a half year break, Trans Am is on the road again to support its new CD, "Sex Change."

But the District can no longer claim the group as its own.

After living in New Zealand, bassist Nathan Means moved to Portland, Ore. Guitarist Phil Manley now calls San Francisco home, and drummer Sebastian Thomson splits his time between London, Bethesda and New York City. Meanwhile, Manley also strums for The Champs and Thomson pounds for Weird War, but breaking up isn't something Trans Am considered.

"It's not something we'd have to formally end. There's not a lot to be divided," Means laughed. "There's not an estate to divide. We'd have to cancel payments on our Web site, and there's some gear that would have to be dispersed. That's it."

While its parts are spread out across the country, Trans Am still runs on the same musical engine: German drone rock and old-school electro bump up against ZZ Top-ish boogie guitar.

Trans Am's members started playing together in a high school classic-rock band. But the trio didn't refine its sound until the mid-'90s, when the musicians reconvened in D.C. after college. It was then that Trans Am unwittingly helped spark the "post-rock" movement: groups playing largely instrumental music that looked to other forms, such as jazz, electronica and world music, to color in their rock-based outlines.

"Sex Change" still fits the tenents of post-rock, even if the term is passe. But unlike some Trans Am albums, the sublime "Sex Change" largely bypasses hard rock in favor of playful electro-pop that recalls the legendary Krautrock band Neu! at its most hypnotically motorik.

"It's kind of boring, but in a way it was about us getting back together and having fun making an album again," said Means. "If there is something about it that's more approachable, or calmer, or more fun, I imagine that's the reason why."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Zombi and The Psychic Paramount, Tues., 8 p.m., $12;202-667-7960. (U St.-Cardozo)

Photo by Christopher Woodcock