In Richmond, hardcore, punk, metal, and crossover bands pop up all the time–incestuously sharing members, recruiting friends, feeding off of past bands and lineups for inspiration, then warping it to make something new and different and fresh. What makes Richmond’s own Unholy Thoughts stand out, despite the fact that they are doing all the aforementioned things, is that they have staying power and truly fresh ideas.
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In Richmond, hardcore, punk, metal, and crossover bands pop up all the time–incestuously sharing members, recruiting friends, feeding off of past bands and lineups for inspiration, then warping it to make something new and different and fresh. What makes Richmond’s own Unholy Thoughts stand out, despite the fact that they are doing all the aforementioned things, is that they have staying power and truly fresh ideas.
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They have kept this particular project on the back burner until recently, but the band that is now Unholy Thoughts has been technically in the making for the last five years. Although it is common when surfing the web to turn up reviews calling them crust, and they do undoubtedly play a hard-hitting, groovy brand of hardcore punk that could be labeled as such, they are far from the type of crust band that wears identical bullet belts and black-and-white t-shirts and plays nothing but recycled Discharge riffs. Their music can be compared to the loose, rock n’ roll-infused stylings of Annihilation Time and Poison Idea, but with a tinge of Eyehategod-esque sludgieness and a hint of classic 77-style punk that is missing from much modern hardcore. In short, despite their emergence in a scene that produces many clones, they are actually a unique and original band.
Recently I caught up with Kenny Ball, bassist and former singer of Government Warning and Southside Stranglers, and guitarist Kevin Guild, formerly of the Southside Stranglers, to talk about their progression as a band, the changes they have undergone since the bands reception, and the international good reception of the new record. The band has been together in some form or another as far back as the heyday of Government Warning’s local and international success. “When we first started trying to do the band, if my memory serves me, we planned to call it Malignant Youth,” says Kenny of the band’s formation. “It was decided a little later on that name was too reminiscent of Malignus Youth from Arizona. It was Mike Toombs and I. That was around the time Mikey and I were doing Government Warning and about to disband End it Quick. We just wanted to play something heavier that derived its strength from more of a crushing mid-tempo pace rather than the blazing fast speeds we were used to. We were listening to a lot of Violent Minds and developing a taste for the old, heavy UK sound. It dawned on me much later that I was heavily influenced by Dayglo Abortions as well. I just wanted something much darker and Mike was with that, too.”
He and Mike decided to join up with Kevin and another friend, Paul Ballard, to form proto-Unholy Thoughts. At the time, Mike was doing vocals and the rest of the lineup was fluctuating and sketchy. “That first show at Nara was a mess,” Kenny admits. “In my own opinion, we sucked. I think we were just smoking way too much pot at practice. After that show we took a pretty significant hiatus because Paul disappeared and things weren’t really moving forward in the way we wanted them to. Mike, Kev, and I started Southside Stranglers in the meantime. After that we lured Ricky [Olson, their current vocalist] away from DC (after living there for all of ten hours or so) and added Eric Hancock on the drums. We started to make some progress and ended up playing our next show in August of 2010.”
After this, they began to play some more local shows and produced their first semi-official recording, although it was done by a friend on lo-fidelity equipment and not regarded as a serious effort by anyone in the band. “The first demo was a six-song, four-track demo in our old storage unit space, recorded in 2008 I believe, which became two songs due to time and effort shortage,” says Kenny. “It was a big pile of shit that was barely heard by anyone. I don’t think anyone even has a copy of that anymore. The only song I remember having done was called ‘Methadonia,’ which later became the song “Tradition” that is on the LP. After we started on the second lineup with Eric Hancock on drums, we recorded the 2010 demo, which we called Sleep. I remember distinctly that the first three songs Mike and I worked out were what are now called ‘In Living Color,’ ‘Black and Red,’ and ‘Whiskey, Weed, Girls and Speed.’”
Shortly after the release of their second demo, Eric was replaced by Danny Hash on drums, and Alan Lawson joined as a second guitarist, giving Unholy Thoughts the lineup they have today. Government Warning and the Southside Stranglers both disbanded, and they suddenly found themselves with much more time to focus on Unholy Thoughts. They decided to hunker down and release a full-length album, entitled The Attic. They also continued to play shows and build up more of a following locally and internationally. Soon they were picked up by Even Worse Records in the Netherlands. “We already had a big European following,” says Kevin, “and Even Worse contacted us and wanted to put out a pressing of 500 vinyl records in Europe.” “We got that hookup from our friends at Vinyl Conflict, but they went under shortly after,” adds Kenny. “Then Tim from [local label] Forcefield Records approached us and we signed with them, too.” Now that Unholy Thoughts are a part of the Forcefield family, they have been playing even more shows, such as the Forcefield Records showcase at Strange Matter on October 12th.
So what’s next for Unholy Thoughts? While they adapt a nonchalant attitude and claim that everything is up in the air, it seems that they have more plans in the works than many bands. “We are gonna go do some weekends in November up and down the East Coast due to a short leash provided by the long arm of the law,” says Kenny. “We’re working out some new songs ever-so-slowly, and we’re gonna hopefully make another 12 inch when we have enough shit. Ideally next summer when we don’t have piss tests and all the fun shit, we’ll set out for some actual road time. I wouldn’t mind trying to check out some other countries too, maybe sneak on up to Canada for a little bit, who knows. At this point, anything and everything sounds too ambitious.”
