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| UNSANE |
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| INFO |
YEAR FORMED: 1988
HOMETOWN: New York, NY
MEMBERS:
Spencer (vocals/guitar),
Peter Shore (bass),
Vinny Signorelli (drums)
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| BIOGRAPHY |
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Emerging from the same NYC rock underground that launched the careers of HELMET, JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION and SURGERY, UNSANE have long staked claim as the scene's most extreme band. After meeting at college in 1988, the original trio of Spencer, bassist Peter Shore and drummer Charles Ondras began playing the usual East Coast firetraps. The band attracted the attention of Minneapolis based indie Treehouse Records, who released the group's debut single This Town b/w Urge to Kill. Additional recordings with Wharton Tiers yielded tracks for a full-length Circuit records debut that was never released. The band bided their time by releasing subsequent singles for Glitterhouse, Sub Pop, and PCP, setting the stage for their self-titled Matador Records debut, released in 1991. This record personified "noise rock," providing an irreplaceable paradigm for numerous bands to follow.
During 1992, a furious recording and touring schedule came to an abrupt halt with the untimely death of Charles Ondras. His replacement, former SWANS/ FOETUS drummer Vinny Signorelli, joined the band in the fall of 1992, just in time to begin work on compositions for the second UNSANE album. During that time, Matador released a compilation of the early singles and compilation tracks aptly titled Singles. Whatever portion of 1993 that was not spent touring and promoting the bands increasing catalog went into the creation of Total Destruction. Co-produced by Martin Bisi ( SONIC YOUTH, SWANS, COP SHOOT COP), UNSANE's major label debut was anything but a crossover attempt. The band successfully upped the ante on their patented blend of volume, velocity, and violence, taking their art to a new level of extremity. A tour with ENTOMBED followed and Matador released a CD of the band's Peel Sessions.
The band returned to independent Amphetamine Reptile for 1995's Scattered, Smothered and Covered, recording the album in three sessions at the Amphetamine Reptile studio. Named for a sloppy dish of homefries served by Waffle House, Scattered... contained the unlikely video hit Scrape, recently named one of MTV's 10 funniest videos. After Made for only two hundred dollars, the video stayed in heavy rotation for more than nine weeks on both MTV and The Box. After a year of touring in support of Scattered..., including a Thrasher-sponsored headlining tour of Europe, UNSANE got the break of a lifetime securing the support slot for SLAYER's American tour.
Having performed live in almost every hole in the world at least once, UNSANE are about to embark on a another grueling touring campaign. Seeing the band live is discovering why UNSANE are universally recognized as the premier noise rock band in the world.
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