Unfortunaut profile picture

Unfortunaut

the observer never touches the horizon

About Me

In the throwaway world of modern music, genres come and go as do the bands that define them. Years later these bands grace compilations identifying a decade or sound, new groups site them as major influences, journalists and critics throw around their names in comparison to new unworthy bands and movements, and new group of hip young music fans discover these definitive albums and wish they were there.

What about the bands in between? Usually they are too horrific or copycat to remember, disappear too fast to be documented, or they take their time creating tweaking and executing such a broad and complex sound with influences from member's current, past, and combined future that the fanfare has moved onto the next passing fad and it's not until years later when a sweaty, overexcited record nerd unearths the unknown nugget, finally understands it, and waxes poetically about in the pages of an overpriced british magazine.
This particular band was conceived in a bar after too many shots of irish whiskey and an intense discussion over the state of music. Two guys who were working for an independent music distributor became sick of the crap bands and crappier records that are released and disappear before they make it onto a store shelf and decided to tap into what got them into music in the beginning. Memories of the original 120 Minutes, Rikki and Headbangers Ball, WNUR's Fast and Loud, the days when bands released cassettes, liking Jawbox way before Fugazi, and 10 band metal matinees at the Gateway Theater came to mind and the seed was planted. They reached out to old friends that they remembered from the days of all ages shows and swapping mix tapes and the band fell into place. Imagine saddling up in an improvised noise group with the guitar player of your first high school cover band, familiar, but not rocking the same old Minor Threat or Husker Du song. Their sound is based in the common musical past that brought them together and is unwound and bullied back with the energy of individual influences into eight minute epics. crushing. melodic. intense. graceful. manic. pummelling. introspective. The name of this band is Unfortunaut.
UNFORTUNAUT 'Titan': Live @ Snake Eyes Vinyl 5/27/07- -

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/19/2005
Band Website: Unfortunaut.info
Band Members: John Almonte- Rock guitar, Pedals
Kyle Benjamin- Guitar, Boss Pedals
Dan Reiss- Guitar, Pedals
Marshall Grady- Cymbals, Toms, Snare, Bass Drum
Sean McCarthy- Bass guitar, Pedals
Influences: Kyuss, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky, Sonic Youth, Isis, Neurosis, Brief Candles, Voivod, Shiner, Rhys Chatham, Windy & Carl, Jawbox, Beaumont, Neu!, Earth, SunnO))), Eno, Buried At Sea, Drunken Master III, Electric Wizard, Sleep, High On Fire, Helmet, Godflesh, Mono, Wickerman, Unsane, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Can, Sabbath, The Cure, Television, Unrest, Red Sparrowes, Glenn Branca...
Sounds Like: You should decide for yourself....Buy CDs through Paypal (secure):

Of Here & Now
EP - Released 6/6/06

$5 in the United States
$6.50 for non-U.S. orders

Record Label: Feast Of The Unicorn
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Unfortunaut Lends a Helping Thumb

New news! We have an exclusive track on a downloadable benefit compilation. It's our cover of Kyuss's 'Thumb' (featuring Wes Nile from Imperial Battlesnake on vocals) recorded with Sanford Parker duri...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:20:00 PST

"...Like a giant cobweb with no way out"

From Lords Of Metal.nlEnclosed with this three-song EP by the American band Unfortunaut was a friendly written note. The band had read my interview with their fellow Chicagoan Timothy Mead of Minsk in...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:37:00 PST

"Arrangements that bring spark to full-on flame"

From Sea Of Tranquility.org:Chicago's Unfortunaut exists in the brave twilight between progressive rock, metal and indie music. Drawing upon a broad aesthetic spectrum that must surely include Kyuss, ...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:29:00 PST

Giant Robot #47

From Gaint Robot Magazine #47:Of Here & NowThere are only three songs on the Chicago band's latest EP, but they add up to nearly 25 minutes of powerful instrumental rock. The tinnier parts in the ...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:26:00 PST

air inside the clouds

on the back of a postcard, in letters printed neatly, 'the end of a matter is better than its beginning' were the words he had waited for....
Posted by Unfortunaut on Fri, 16 Feb 2007 06:53:00 PST

Another New Year

Well friends, as another year (hopefully) comes to an unsightly, drunken demise, what a better way to end the best year in Unfortunaut history than to be included on some year end lists. Patrick and K...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:22:00 PST

the beginning of a black hole

A scintillating scotoma, also called a fortification (because of its resemblance to a medieval fortified town as viewed from above) spectrum or teichopsia (seeing fortifications), is present in about ...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:31:00 PST

"Epic sound that flows from ghostly melodies to driving soundscapes"

Interview from The Elephant Graveyard:                                  ...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:07:00 PST

The Silent Ballet

From Silent Ballet: It was only a few years back when I attended an amazing live show featuring a double bill of Mogwai and Isis, the reigning kings of two greatly under appreciated genres, post-rock ...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Sat, 11 Nov 2006 12:25:00 PST

"To put it simply, incredible"

UNFORTUNAUT : "Of Here And Now" (Feast of the Unicorn)  Unfortunaut certainly surprised me with this release. As with most debut EPs the packaging is not the most eye catching but as the old say...
Posted by Unfortunaut on Sat, 09 Sep 2006 10:59:00 PST