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UNSANE

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General Info

  • Genre: Garage / Other / Rock

    Location New York City, Un

    Profile Views: 428813

    Last Login: 5/23/2012

    Member Since 2/22/2005

    Website facebook.com/unsanenyc

    Record Label Alternative Tentacles Records

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    New York City's Unsane assisted in pioneering a more aggressive, less studied version of noise rock, one that blended the scum/art industrial sturm und drang of Foetus, the Swans, Einsturzende Neubauten, and Sonic Youth with the decidedly more straightforward hardcore idiom favored by acts like Sick of It All. While developing the blueprint for noise-metal bands to follow, Unsane cut a remarkable swath through underground music, inspiring a devoted, cult-like following around the globe. As a power trio, Unsane relied upon a hammering, power-press rhythm section, a searing Telecaster howl, and distorted vocals that resembled nothing if not the sound of a man trapped in the New York Subway system. Having met at Sarah Lawrence College in the late '80s, the original incarnation of Unsane -- Chris Spencer (vocals, guitar), Pete Shore (bass), and Charles Ondras (drums) -- crawled larvally out of the practice space in 1989 and began playing New York's seediest haunts. It was these graveyard slots at clubs like CBGB's where the band developed and honed their trademark sound and delivered the goods with due intensity and volume. Unsane piqued the interest of numerous small indie labels and began issuing a series of singles and EPs before recording their self-titled debut with Matador Records. Using the photo of a decapitated man lying across train tracks, Unsane's album cover set the tone for the admixture of seething aggression, naked fear, and barely controlled noise chaos contained within. But the band's devastating maelstrom contained more than enough tunefulness and rock propulsion to quite easily surpass its more affected Lower East Side peers. During 1992, Unsane's daunting schedule was cut devastatingly short by the untimely drug overdose of drummer Charles Ondras. Former Swans and Foetus drummer Vinny Signorelli climbed aboard the swiftly moving train in the fall of 1992 and the band began composing its next album. In the interim, Matador compiled and issued a collection of Unsane's early singles and compilation tracks, appropriately titled Singles: 89-92. It is perhaps Unsane's defining moment. The following year found the band recording its first for Atlantic Records, Total Destruction, a menacing, dark collection of songs driven by Signorelli's hypnotic drumming and Spencer's man-pushed-to-the-edge vocals. More touring followed and Matador released the Peel Sessions disc almost concurrently with Total Destruction. After being discharged from Atlantic in 1994, Unsane found both a new bass player in Dave Curran -- who joined on tour while doing sound for the band -- and a home for their next album, Scattered, Smothered, and Covered, on the independent noise rock label, Amphetamine Reptile Records. While maintaining the band's signature sound and volume, 1995's Scattered... showed the band opening their rhythmic approach, with most songs inhabiting a more rock-oriented 4/4 pattern, granting the album a more spacious and controlled feel. Scattered... also contained the unlikely MTV hit video for "Scrape," featuring a series of skateboard accidents intercut with footage of the band performing live. Created for 200 dollars, it was ironically named one of MTV's Ten Funniest Videos. The band toured relentlessly and managed to secure an opening slot with metal behemoths Slayer on one of their North American headlining tours. Shortly after, the trio made another label switch to Relapse Records and began constructing the ironically titled Occupational Hazard. While on a press tour in Europe only a month prior to the disc's release, Spencer was brutally attacked by street thugs and left for dead on the streets of Vienna, Austria. After emergency surgery, he returned to the touring arena. They then released the compilation "Lambhouse", continued to tour and wrote the ballistic urban commentary "Blood Run". After more touring, and some introspection, they proceeded to issue they're best recordings yet in "Visqueen" on Mike Patton's Ipecac label. For over a decade they have represented a harsh, aggressive, honest, and intelligent voice of New York's Lower East Side. ~ Patrick Kennedy, All Music Guide..

  • Members

    Chris Spencer: Vocals, Guitar/ Dave Curran: Vocals, Bass/ Vinny Signorelli: Drums

  • Influences

    Stooges, Flipper, John Lee Hooker, AC/DC, Hank Willams Sr., The NYC MTA, Car alarms, ...

  • Sounds Like

    Noise Rock

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About UNSANE

Legendary NYC rock powerhouse UNSANE has completed work on its long awaited new album, titled "WRECK". The seventh full length recording of the band's storied career will see a March 20, 2012 release date in North America via Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label and on March 19, 2012 for the rest of the world. Recorded by the band and producer Andrew Schneider at Brooklyn's Translator Audio (Pelican, Keelhaul, etc.), "WRECK" is an unfettered burst of pent up emotions and frustrations channeled into song and an unflinching glance into a type of life others probably should not lead. From the shock and awe of the LP's lead track "Rat" and the stunningly damaged "Decay" to the doom and gloom of the heavy handed "No Chance" and through to the transcendental brainwork of "Stuck", UNSANE's "WRECK" is darkly abrasive and poetic music delivered with a fearsome intensity. A punishing, but ultimately tuneful album, realistic in subject matter and as engaging as it is abrasive, "WRECK" features UNSANE at its legendary best. Chris Spencer's vocals and lyrics positively ache with fear and loathing (resembling the sound of a man trapped in the New York Subway system) while his searing Telecaster howl and pulverizing chords wreak havoc over Vincent Signorelli's drums and Dave Curran's thick as lava bass lines. UNSANE celebrates its 20th anniversary by delivering the darkest and most personal record of its celebrated career; "WRECK" is the band's defining moment. Referred to as "Dirty and Noisy, on Purpose" and a "musical movement inspired by the clang and grind of the subway," by The New York Times, UNSANE's cold, urban synthesis of screaming, distorted vocal howls, gargantuan bass, strangled guitar wranglings and regimented drum assault is legendary. Formed in 1988 and emerging from the same NYC rock underground that launched the careers of Helmet, Sonic Youth, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, SWANS and Surgery, UNSANE's patented and oft-copied blend of "volume, velocity, and violence" has long spearheaded the international noise rock movement. The group's self-titled Matador Records debut, released in 1991, personified "noise rock," providing an irreplaceable paradigm for numerous bands to follow. The trio's 1995 music video for the song "Scrape" (from Scattered, Smothered & Covered), which alternated between lo-fi rehearsal footage of the band and a series of serious gnarly skateboarding injuries, became an overnight hit at MTV (see video here) and saw the band tour the U.S. with Slayer. Over the course of its shining career, UNSANE has released a string of critically acclaimed releases on respected labels such as Amphetamine Reptile, Ipecac, Man's Ruin, Relapse and Sub Pop including Total Destruction (1994), Scattered, Smothered and Covered (1995), Occupational Hazard (1998), Blood Run (2005) and Visqueen (2007). UNSANE is: Chris Spencer: Guitar, Vocals / Dave Curran: Bass, Vocals / Vincent Signorelli: Drums

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