{"id":2002,"date":"2013-08-02T00:15:01","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T00:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/?p=2002"},"modified":"2024-02-14T20:33:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T20:33:34","slug":"the-unknown-fall-lp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/the-unknown-fall-lp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unknown- Fall LP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s another joint post with A Viable Commercial- this time bringing you the full discography of Baltimore post-punk\/indie band The Unknown.\u00a0 Their first album is an excellent hybrid of Unforgettable Fire<\/em><\/a>-era U2, early For Against<\/a>, and Grapes of Wrath<\/a>, with some slight Bolshoi<\/a> vibes here and there.\u00a0 They also remind me quite a bit of 86<\/a>, an\u00a0Atlanta band with similar\u00a0influences.\u00a0 Goutroy turned me on to the first record, especially the final song “Songinsee” and I was hooked instantly<\/em>.\u00a0 Seriously one of the best songs I’ve heard in a while, tested successfully at a night I just recently DJed at. Nothing like trying a new, obscure obsession out for the first time and receiving a positive response- the crowd kept dancing for all six minutes of the song.<\/p>\n

The band was tough to trace at first, as their name is not only difficult to Google in general, but\u00a0virtually impossible\u00a0to\u00a0narrow down on discogs due to the 30+ other projects with that name.\u00a0After some finesse, I was able to\u00a0find both albums for a fair price, and ripped them both.\u00a0 You can get their debut, self-titled record (even harder to Google) from 1987\u00a0HERE<\/a> via A Viable Commercial, and I’ll be posting the second record, released three years later.\u00a0 While 1990 was an otherwise dark and barren period for this sort of sound (and perhaps that’s exactly why these two LPs couldn’t find a bigger audience),\u00a0their sophomore record\u00a0holds up as a worthy successor to the first.\u00a0\u00a0 The general vibe is the same, though the band plays slightly heavier on this record, perhaps a reflection on the indie\/alternative scene that was just starting to break at the time.\u00a0 There’s nothing on this album that’s as perfect as “Songinsee” but it’s still a good\u00a0listen from front to back.<\/p>\n

This album was released on Merkin Records, a rather…curious name for a record label, especially with bands such as Meatjack, Monkeyspank,\u00a0and Buttsteak filling up the roster…\u00a0 Can’t comment on any of those bands, but if they aren’t in the Jesus Lizard\/Meat Puppets sort of vein, I’d be surprised.<\/p>\n

Anyway, The Unknown split after this second record, but reunited in 2012, playing some shows in hometown Baltimore, most infamously at The Ottobar, which I’ve actually played at as well.\u00a0 Not sure what the future holds for The Unknown, but hopefully these posts help the band find a new audience!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Unknown- Fall<\/em>
\n1. Empty House Of Night
\n2. Reasons
\n3. Route 99
\n4. Handwriting
\n5. Green Room
\n6. As They Sleep (Rachael)
\n7. Fall<\/p>\n

*download it here<\/a>*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s another joint post with A Viable Commercial- this time bringing you the full discography of Baltimore post-punk\/indie band The Unknown.\u00a0 Their first album is an excellent hybrid of Unforgettable Fire-era U2, early For Against, and Grapes of Wrath, with some slight Bolshoi vibes here and there.\u00a0 They also remind me quite a bit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,104,34,703,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1980s","category-104","category-1990s","category-baltimore","category-post-punk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2002"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5539,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002\/revisions\/5539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsofromance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}