Bodisartha are a mysterious trio, indeed. New to Kansas City, the Springfield, Mo. natives are gaining momentum and attention thanks to their melodic, heavy rock sound, nice guy personalities, and of course, their unusual name.

Bodisartha, pronounced “BO-dee-SAR-tha,” came onto the scene in 2003 after vocalist/guitarist Josh Thomas and drummer/vocalist Justin Piatt parted ways with their former band, GrassCannon, and convinced friend and fellow musician Bret Steil to jump in on bass. The trio began playing shows late last year.

The first and most obvious question to fans is usually about what Bodisartha actually means. Thomas gladly fields the question with a vague answer that encourages fans to look up the terms.

“Bodisartha is a mixture of two Hindi words - Bodhisattva and Siddhartha,” Thomas said. “That\'s all I will say about it.”

The band has a variety of influences, but they say the most noticeable are Nirvana, The Pixies, Deftones, The Beatles, Queens of the Stoneage, and Velvet Underground.

Due to embark on a six-show mini-tour in June, Bodisartha is in what they call “PR whore mode” to promote their latest album, Find Yourself, Getting Lost.

The album is available for full download on bodisartha.com. The trio admits that offering their album for free on the website has been a gamble because it makes the album harder to sell. However, they say that ideally it will expose more people to their sound and get them to come to the live shows. They welcome donations for the downloads and encourage people to order the album.

“To us, it has always been about having as many people as possible exposed to our music,” Thomas said. “Major labels and bigger Indie labels can do that, but we would be very picky about who we went with. If you get on a label that blows money like crazy, you can end up having to sell a million albums and tour for a year just to break even. We would rather keep the costs low, record ourselves with help from our friends, and drive our own vehicles.”

The band said that they are looking for a public relations representative, a booking agent with connections and perhaps a manager.

The members of Bodisartha have mixed emotions about the Kansas City metro area music scene, but say they fully support local artists. Attendance at shows is their main priority, and Bodisartha said that while there are many great bands around town, there is little exposure and few venues that have not “sold out.”

“The music scene here is really good,” Thomas said. “The problem is that most people do not know about it, so some really good shows are really poorly attended. It is a shame that people would rather sit down in front of a TV all night than come out to a show.”