September 17 street date. Kid Is Gone is the unquiet portrait of primal Unwound. Before 1993’s Fake Train ripped through, they’d been Giant Henry, Supertanker, and Cygnus X-1, short-lived black holes gathering dark material into something built to explode. From Justin Trosper, Vern Rumsey, and Brandt Sandeno’s first restive years, 'Crab Nebula' might’ve best prepared the indiesphere for what Unwound became, had Sandeno’s split not stalled their planned debut. Part 1 in Numero’s 4-part reissue project, Kid Is Gone documents signal chaos in Olympia’s fertile scene before Unwound’s turbulent noise hit stride, in unrevealed period photos, 34 tracks, and three LPs - cassette-only demos, early 7"s, a KAOS radio broadcast, material tracked live in a local basement, and all of what became 1994’s Unwound, on which the band’s prehistory plays out in a feral maelstrom of screaming, distortion, feedback, and abrasive promise.
October 14 street date. As a robust rock underground got swallowed alive by the Major Label Industrial Complex, the very autonomous Unwound "Olympia, Washington’s Great Noise Hope" toed the troublesome line between pay check and Check Engine light. Captured in the gaps of a ruthless touring schedule, defining fourth and fifth albums The Future of What and Repetition were issued in the back-to-back springs of 1995 and ‘96. Both find the band severing their post-hardcore roots, for gripping detours into Echoplex, kraut, D&B, and Mingus, as guided by a sun-worn copy of Book Your Own Fuckin’ Life. No Energy collects both of these 1990s masterworks, beginning with Justin Trosper’s home-made haircut stabs on 'New Energy', continuing with Vern Rumsey’s reanimating bass on 'Corpse Pose', and closing in a wall of Sara Lund crash cymbals on 'For Your Entertainment.' This 33-song collection is buttressed by singles and period live tracks, a pile of double-exposed photographs, and a 10,000 word essay by latter-day Unwound diarist David Wilcox.
September 4 street date. The climactic entry in our four-set Unwound exploration, Empire compiles the final pair of albums by the Olympia, Washington, trio. On 1998's Challenge For A Civilized Society, the band toyed with conventional verse/chorus form, stacking layers of noise and distraction on top of tightly constructed melodies. They'd abdicate entirely just three years later with 2001's Leaves Turn Inside You, executing a 14-song masterclass in home recording that observed a crucial band in graceful transition from post-hardcore trio to experimental quintet. The mammoth double album was lost in the chaos of a post-9/11 media, baffling onlookers and exhilirating fans in successive breaths before it fell far out of print. At their reinvention and terminus, Unwound ultimately asked “Who Cares”? The Empire box-set teems with period singles, B-sides, unreleased studio tracks, and demos, alongside a 15,000-word essay exploring the terminal stages of the '90s, indie rock, Unwound, and civilization as we know it.
February 3 street date. After the Pacific Northwest grunge raids of the early ’90s that saw Nirvana, Mudhoney, and even the Melvins hoisted up the major label flagpole, Unwound’s 1993 debut came as a welcomed reprieve for underground noiseniks everywhere. A pulsing cluster of wiry feedback, lurching bass, and single stroke rolls, Fake Train entangles the energies of frustrated backpack emo, faded Riot Grrrl back issues, and their own dash of teen spirit and unleashes it all in an earsplitting 10-song assault. (Album previously released in Numero's (now deleted) Unwound “Rat Conspiracy” boxset) “Comes on like an homage to Wire’s “1 2 X U ”as filtered through Minor Threat and a broken bottle of Robitussin.” —Pitchfork // “It’s no contest: Unwound is the best band of the ’90s.” — A.V. Club
January 26 street date. An album Maximum Rock 'N' Roll deemed not punk enough to review, Unwound's 1994 sophomore effort was a lethal depth charge aimed at major label grunge and independent hardcore alike. From the off-kilter, vertiginous rhythm of "Entirely Different Matters" to the neck-snapping velocity of "What Was Wound" to the relentless pounding at the end of "All Souls Day," New Plastic Ideas is the Sonic Youth-loving older sister to Fake Train's post-punk-obsessed little brother.
November 2 street date. The Unwound album that ended all Unwound albums. Recorded in a moldering farmhouse basement at the crest of the new century, Leaves Turn Inside You is the no-wave response to Spector's wall of noise call. Infinite layers of choppy guitar stabs and bridge scrapes, guttural bass thronk, thrift store synths, and monotone chanting wash over suffocating rhythms to deliver the world's only choral grunge LP. Remastered from the original analog tapes and pressed on heavyweight double-vinyl for the discerning noise-nik.
November 15 street date. Back in print on vinyl! Unwound's third album in as many years, 1995's "The Future of What" is an unrelenting, constructivist masterstroke. The Olympia trio's signature sound - grinding bass, syncopated drums, and fragmented guitar over measured yelps - ratchets past the thread into a stripped-out metallic slurry. Equal parts noise and adrenaline, the album opens with a simple question: "where’s your energy?". It's been 25 years and we're still searching for the answer.
Please note date change: street date now TBA. Dead-eyed post-punk from Olympia's reigning noise-niks. "Repetition" rejects the major label signing spree of the mid-1990s entirely, training its hulking focus on haircut hardcore, white belt Jiujitsu, and frenzied feedback. The soundtrack to a fantasy Halloween candy heist, now on vinyl for the first time since 1996.
Please note date change: Street date is now TBA. Dead-eyed post-punk from Olympia's reigning noise-niks. "Repetition" rejects the major label signing spree of the mid-1990s entirely, training its hulking focus on haircut hardcore, white belt Jiujitsu, and frenzied feedback. The soundtrack to a fantasy Halloween candy heist, now on vinyl for the first time since 1996.
April 23 street date. Unwound's paranoid and pulsating sixth album, "Challenge For a Civilized Society" explores the pre-Y2K technological dread of modern punk living. Producer Steve Fisk threads Justin Trosper's stabbing, discordant guitar in and around Sara Lund's consolidated drum attack and Vern Rumsey's relentless, throbbing bass. A vicious and sinister penultimate LP from the most misunderstood band of the 90s.
April 23 street date. Unwound's paranoid and pulsating sixth album, "Challenge For a Civilized Society" explores the pre-Y2K technological dread of modern punk living. Producer Steve Fisk threads Justin Trosper's stabbing, discordant guitar in and around Sara Lund's consolidated drum attack and Vern Rumsey's relentless, throbbing bass. A vicious and sinister penultimate LP from the most misunderstood band of the 90s.
|
Full Catalogue Search 
