Unseen

Lore & Background

The Unseen's early history involved several lineup changes. After forming in 1993, they recruited local varsity hockey star Marc Carlson as lead singer and played their first show at an event called Hagapolozza. Guitarist Paul Morey soon left, and after a brief stint with Phil Reily, Scott Hadyia joined on guitar. The band recorded their first 7-inch, 'Too Young to Know to Reckless to Care,' in 1995, after which Carlson departed. Paul Russo, a long-time friend of bassist Tripp Underwood, then joined. The band released two EPs, 'Protect and Serve' and 'Raise your finger, Raise your Fist,' within months of each other, followed by their first album, Lower Class Crucifixion, in 1997. After Russo left briefly to play drums in Blanks 77, he was replaced by roadie Brian 'Chainsaw' Reily, but Russo rejoined after six months, keeping Chainsaw as a singer/third guitarist. After a tour with Anti-Flag, the band parted ways with Chainsaw and moved to Boston. Along with other street punk bands, they set out to revive the English street punk sound of the 1980s.

Reader's Guide

There has been some controversy concerning the band, including allegations that in recent years they have 'sold out' and that the band should have stopped after losing Russo and therefore their strong political message. Russo wrote and sang most of Lower Class Crucifixion, So This Is Freedom?, and The Anger and The Truth. Most widely criticized is that The Unseen have produced music videos to show on commercial music video channels such as GMTV2, a practice looked-down upon in the underground street punk scene. Darkbuster, a band from The Unseen's area of origin, even released a joke song called 'I Hate The Unseen,' though members of Darkbuster and The Unseen are friends. The band has toured with other punk bands such as The Bouncing Souls and Rancid and decidedly more hardcore bands like Hatebreed and Sick of It All. Since Russo's departure, the band has used many replacements on tour such as members of The Virus, Strike Anywhere, and F-Minus. In 2006, the publication of Underwood's book, So This Is Readin'?, detailed the life and hardships of being in an underground band with dry comedy. It started as a lengthy band history on the band's website, but after a few amusing 'chapters' he was contacted by a publishing company to release it in book form. The Unseen remained inactive until May 25, 2013, when they played at Punk Rock Bowling at the Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas. They have continued performing live sporadically since.

Did You Know?

• Mark Civitarese (Mark Unseen) briefly joined the Boston punk group A Global Threat as a second singer.
• The band's song 'False Hope' from the album Explode was made into a music video.
• A poster of The Unseen is seen in the background in one scene of the movie Superbad.