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.
1994 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”
After a lot of touring, contracts with numerous labels and some introspection, they unleashed the band’s 7th full length ‘Wreck’ on Alternative Tentacles Records in 2012. For over two decades they have represented a harsh, aggressive, honest, and intelligent voice of New York’s Lower East Side.
Strange but true: 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.
What has Big Biz been up to lately? I heard they spend all day huffing gold spray paint. I’ve also heard they had a collective freak-out and ran off to join the touring company of Burning Man: The Musical. My friend heard they’re still embroiled in that Joe Rogan/Cameron Diaz lawsuit (DON’T ASK!). Rumors rumors rumors! There are some questions that not even a computer or fancy phone can answer. When asked to comment, Big Business will only respond that they’ve been busy “going viral”, whatever that means. What we do know is that Big Business has a new guitar player. That makes them a four-piece band now. No screwing around! Said shredder is named Scott Martin. He’s practically an LA legend, spending his young and handsome years playing with Crom and 400 Blows, among others. He’s reportedly a terrible influence on Big Biz, but a fantastic guitar player that really makes the band “pop”. He has hardly any kids or STDs. We also know they’re releasing a four-song 12-inch slab of vinyl for their tour with Torche on their very own label, Gold Metal Records. With all those facts, what else could you possibly want to know? That they’re a loud, gold-metal band that lives in LA? That they have three full length records out already? That they are all 23 years old and born on the exact same day? All you need to know is that the kids who are much younger/cooler than you are spending all their time texting and tweeting about Big Biz and you don’t want to seem like some out-of-the-loop old fart.
Hailing from Malmö, Sweden – Suma is a ultra-megaton Doom / Noise / Sludge outfit that has been ploughing through the European landscapes for the past eight years, spreading the “plague of the heavy” and converting many diverse music fans with it’s progressive, hallucinatory metal.
Formed in 2001, the band’s music is made by combining crushing instrumentation, phantasmal vocals and blistered samples into “a high volume WALL of noise”.
For the recording of SUMA’s third album, ASHES – the band once again – after a very successful recording of their sophmore album, LET THE CHURCHES BURN – teamed up with legendary engine-ear BILLY ANDERSON (MELVINS, NEUROSIS, SLEEP, EYEHATEGOD) to put the songs to tape. The result – “an addictive, sick, mean and beautiful monster of a record” that delivers a catastrophic cacaphony of rumbling reverberations and booming brouhaha that will have fans of exploratory sound and brawny heavy rock in a condition of excited distress, to say the very least.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SUMA/18592481578?v=feed
Arena Vienna / adv 15 € / doors 18 € / 20.00h / small hall
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