Mike O'Neill / May 7. 1965 - July 17, 2006 / You Are Missedhttp://www.myspace.com/theunrequitedloves"The Unrequited Loves don't move much when they play. They leave everyone in the audience moved instead. The huge sound that comes out of this South Florida three-piece is less a series of songs than a hypnotic force that washes over you like an ocean. Sure, they play songs, songs that stand well in comparison to Guided by Voices, Big Star, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. And yeah, a lot of their songs are dance tunes, and a lot of them rock. But there's this seriously poigniant melancholia when Mike (singer/guitar), Keith (bass), and Ed (drums) play even their most upbeat cover tune. Last Sunday night Ken and I drove to a tiny bar on an off street in a factory district to see The Unrequited Loves play. Inside the bar was that mix of kids with hoodies, rednecks, and hipsters that can only be found in the backwater bars of sad little fuck-up go-nowhere towns like mine. We walked in on a band of teens from Clearwater called href="tres/'http://www.touchtresbien.com"Tres Bien tearing it up. About 40% of their set was caught between The Hives and Franz Ferdinand, the rest was total shit ranging from Killers-style misses to kinda rap rock stuff. They all had Mersey-style matching jackets and the lead guitar player did leads behind his head while the tiny singer strutted around like Jagger, thrilling all the young girls into jiggling their baby fat. They'll be millionaires, no shit. Next up was http://weareheathens.com/"The Heathens , headed by a short kid named Matt who also fronts href="On'http://www.aknotenentertainment.com/oncassette/titl
e.html"On Cassette . Totally different band, though, On Cassette's songs are just barely too hip and too long to be too cool by me, though I've liked The Heathens since the first time I saw them fumble through a song together. It's country without irony. No dressing up, except by Matt, y'know, he's got a hard on for some Bob Dylan folkie heartthrob image. The rest of the band features mostly a group of guys involved with hippy emo art rock collective things (epitomized by Chris who runs href="post/'http://www.postrecords.com"Post Records ), y'know, whatever. Banjo, fiddle, drums, acoustic guitar, and indie rock songs about writing songs... yet somehow it's not pretentious at all, just good music coming through, finally and for real. Last on the dirty one-foot high stage was href="The'http://www.facefirst.com/"The Unrequited Loves . Nervous and disgusted at the bar (sign out front was rearranged to say "EAT PUSSY ON ASS DAY"), Mike and Keith seemed like they didn't want to be there at all. Ed was, as always, happy to be wherever he was. Fucking drummers. More than two thirds of the crowd cleared out after The Heathens' set, all the kiddies caravanning to a house party where they could all drink and gossip and do what young kids do when they get together like that. Left on the sticky floor in pockets were the other bands, a few straggling preteens, blown-out barflies with cobwebs in their eyes, and me and Ken. Mike talked nonsense for a few minutes, trying to attract the waning crowd. Ed made faces at Ken while waiting for Keith to pull his shit together. Behind me I heard some drunk young bitch ask "Who let the old people onstage?" Mike stopped talking abruptly, swung his guitar around, and started singing. The first verse of the song was just Mike's laconic voice and a few gentle, naked guitar chords. Then, as if planned that way (maybe it was), the bass and drums cut in as Mike stepped on the effects and the Music. Blew. Up. My life is full of shitty things. My shitty job, my shitty writing, my shitty ex-band, my shit for brains. But when The Unrequited Loves played for a shitty half hour in that shitty bar for a shitty crowd while I drank shitty beer, I didn't give a shit about any of that. It was warm and sweet and the sounds were good. The end. PS: Go listen to "Chewing Gum" right-------- href="NOWhttp://www.myspace.com/theunrequitedloves"NOW
The Unrequited Loves are from Tampa FLA and play the '60s psychedelic beat punk, mixed with elements from some of Alex Chilton or Doug Sahm's looser efforts and the '80s indie college sound (Replacements Huskers even dreaded jangle) and girl group records.
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Their first record is "THESE ARE THE UNREQUITED LOVES." They are working on the followup, as well as playing many exciting live shows. The Unrequited Loves include MIKE O'NEILL (singer/guitarist), ED LOWERY (drummer/occasional vox) and JORDAN KINLEY/KEITH BARTLETT (bass). They wish you the best.
