Active from 1987-1994 desert punk rockers Unsound were one of a handful of bands who defined the late 80’s – mid 90’s Coachella Valley rock scene. With a DIY, play anywhere ethos the band frequented all of the historical non-venues such as The Colony, and the famous desert generator parties.
Released in 1993 on the Hemi Music label this was to be Unsound’s swan song, but what a way to go out. This release was a 7″ EP recorded at Westbeach Studios in Los Angeles. The band played for another year and in 1994 broke up except for a few one-off shows in 2010, 2012 and 2019. While earlier releases were more straight up raw, speed punk, this release has the band moving in a direction that mixed their familiar punk sound with a hardcore driven twin guitar attack along with time shifting progressions and Ian Taylor’s fast vocal blitz delivery. Donnell Cameron was the producer here, who went on to work with such artists as Sublime and Blink-182; as well as producing the Avenged Sevenfold album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet.
One of the aspects of seeing Unsound live was that you had to be ready to have your face melted off. There were no half efforts here, it was full tilt all the way through with Jeff Bowman hitting the drums hard enough to break his drumheads, Brian Maloney’s blazing leads through the loudest Randall amp in the universe, Ian Taylor’s high energy stage presence and (R.I.P) Britt Killen’s mid-range bass blasts.
While this release is likely out of print select one the song links below for a sample of the jams.
Lineup:
Brian Maloney – Guitar
Ian Taylor – Vocals, Guitar
Britt Killen – Bass
Jeff Bowman – Drums
Track list:
StoryTime
Product
Between
Outrage Is