Unida
Coping with the Urban Coyote (Man’s Ruin)
by Craig Regala
The second and forth songs on this CD are the one-two punch that busts this fine band out of any possible rock genre-inflected ghetto into classic status. Coping With The Urban Coyote is the full-on ass-cracking rhythmic push of rock’n’roll with no retro or avante guarde filtering. Unida comes on mid-tempo and strong as classic kick-ass AC/DC, wound as tight and powerful as James Brown’s power funk. Not “funky,” but supremely groove-loaded, laying into the lockdown of a chord or two, relying on perfectly wrung cymbals to accent the gravitational power of the drummer’s snare/kick pulse. It works the same power as The Stooges’ “Little Doll” matt jam, or Bo Diddly’s signature pulse beat. These eight songs don’t have a hair out of place – no loose ends, no extraneous bullshit, nothing to signify as “modern” (which would date them as soon as fashion changed the pop landscape). Hell, there’s nothing even particularly self-conscious about ‘m… They just are. They make rock music with as sure a grasp and feel for what makes music work as any unit currently afloat.
The singer sang with Kyuss, a unit who’ve had the same effect on heavy, full-on rock as The Velvet Underground did on “punk.” I’ll paraphrase Eno’s remark about the Velvets: “Only ten thousand people bought their first album, but then they all started their own bands.” Kyuss, like the Ramones, were a reality crack of the first order – a new thing made of familiar elements. Unida take the hard rock elements people found in Kyuss, quickens them, stacks the drums/bass/guitar into a rhythm+groove+ rhythm=us profile. Guitar leads build emotional interest and provide a path for the groove, cymbals let off some steam, the bass sets up the guitar riffs to provide subliminal hooks, and the singing provides counterpoint or melodic interjection to keep the proceedings moving along. This is exactly what I’d hoped the Rollins band was going to be like when I read they were working on “pulverizing funk metal.” There are moments here that match the best of burly rock classique punch for punch. Rack ‘m up with “Beat On The Brat,” “Mississippi Queen,” “Shake Appeal,” “Motorhead,” “Orgone Accumulator,” “I Can See For Miles,” “Wasted,” “Submission,” “Thunder & Lightening,” and “Future Now.”
(610 22nd St. #302 San Francisco, CA 94107)
