| UNDERMINDED
(l-r):
Matt Johnson - Guitar, Vocals
Brandon Cardwell - Bass, Vocals
Nick Martin - Vocals, Guitar
Joe Mullen - Drums, Vocals
It’s
not easy coming from a town where you’re in a league
of your own. Case in point, Underminded,
who hail from San Diego, Calif., a city that’s best
known in the underground rock community as a fertile breeding
ground of pop-punk acts for the past decade, or as the land
of the avant-garde spock rock that’s generally off most
radars.
Instead,
Underminded
had to form its own clique, since the foursome subscribes
to neither genre of the border city’s independent rock
soundscape. What the group does present is a well-coordinated,
punishing metal-based hardcore intensity, fueled solely by
the abnormalities and unfortunate idiosyncrasies of society.
Happy-go-lucky pop punk and freaked-out, angular experimentalism
this is not.
Enter
hail unamerican!, Underminded’s
debut album, released via Los Angeles-based Kung Fu Records.
Not only does hail unamerican! usher in a refreshingly new
spirit to the Kung Fu roster — one that’s decidedly
more formidable, darker and aggressive than anything the established
punk label has ever released — it also shatters any
pre-conceived notions of what Underminded’s
locale has to offer. There are no bubble gum hooks or trendy,
teased hair here, just the unequivocal truth, delivered like
a technical knockout through a series of succinct tracks.
Recorded
at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood with producer
Sergio Chavez (Velvet Revolver, Limp Bizkit, Evanescence),
hail unamerican! isn’t simply significant in
concept, but also in execution. The instrumentation itself
could stand alone — thunderous, drop-tuned rhythmic
riffs and biting, critical lead lines all driven by wildly
crushing drums — and casts a no-holds-barred attitude
over the collection of tracks. Drop in the fraught, dire vocal
delivery of Nick Martin, whose defiant prose attacks all senses
with the unpredictable, reckless abandon of a Southern California
wildfire and hail unamerican! suddenly appears as the surprise
contender for the musical heavyweight title.
Interestingly enough,
the title and track “hail unamerican” isn’t
necessarily a slight against the nation at large, rather it’s
an introspective cry against society’s impulsive —
and often repulsive — actions of becoming political
lemmings. “It’s about educating yourself about
political awareness,” Martin says. “People say
‘Fuck Bush’ or ‘We’re pro war,’
but people don’t know enough about what’s going
on. People just jump on to whatever their friends are saying
or whatever society makes them want to believe.”
Chalk
it up to mood music — particularly for those not willing
to be in the mood. “With all the vulgarity, I want this
to be pissed off,” he adds. Although Underminded
have found their calling, it didn’t happen overnight.
“In the past, we were just fucking pussies. But now,
we won’t bullshit about it. I think since we’re
taking a more aggressive stance on things like this, people
are going to respect that a lot more, even if they don’t
agree with it.”
Forming in 2000,
guitarist Matt Johnson and Martin met as mutual friends in
high school. After performing in the local scene with a variety
of iterations, the band began to strike a chord with a local
following. Shortly thereafter, with the advice of scene veterans,
the foursome utilized their school’s summer vacations
and began to hit the road in 2002. The band, most of whom
had completed high school, next went into the studio with
Chavez to begin work on their debut EP, which was self-released.
A new demo, tracked in 2003 with Chavez, landed in the hands
of Kung Fu, who had been seeking a heavier band for their
burgeoning roster. “We talked to different labels, but
it seemed like they were the only people who had the heart
to do this,” Nick says. “Trying something new
like this would be good for them. It’s a huge risk.”
And that’s
a bonus for Underminded.
Whereas other independent rock labels are stigmatized as being
“hardcore” labels, offering nothing but sound-alike
artists cluttering their ranks, Kung Fu’s relatively
lighter, more melodic roster finds Underminded’s
aggressive and powerful compositions as a breath of fresh
air, and allows for the group to take a little extra notice.
“This
album comes out swinging,” Martin says. “It’s
full-on in your fuckin’ throat. It’s gonna hit
people hard and they’ll realize that this is why Kung
Fu signed this band.” Take one spin of hail unamerican!
and perhaps you too will realize the sheer magnitude of Underminded’s
Kung Fu debut. And, as for the uninitiated, consider yourselves
steadfastly warned.
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