The Units
San Francisco, California's The Units formed in 1978 and released their first EP in 1979. Through the years the band went through many lineup changes and brushes with the major labels. They signed with 415 Records in 1980 and after recording an album produced by Bill Nelson they had a falling out with the label and the record was never released. In 1983 they signed with Epic and once again recorded a full album with Nelson but only a six song EP, "New Way to Move" was released. The band split up in 1984. One of their greatest successes was "The Right Man" single (uprOAr, 1982). It's fitting that the record was released on the small New York uprOAr label. The song peaked at #18 on Billboard's Disco chart.
The Units opened for other great synth bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, Gary Numan and OMD as well as Sparks, Bow Wow Wow and the Psychedelic Furs. Despite the exposure major success eluded them.
The following people were in The Units at some time:
Randy Dunagan - Vocals
Scott Ryser - Synthesizer, Vocals
Tim Ennis - Bass
Jay Darrah: Drums
Lori Lorenzo - Guitar
Ron Lantz - Guitar
Amy Weiss - Guitar
Richard Driskill - Drums, backing vocals
Rachel Webber - Projections, Synthesizer, backing vocals
Lx Rudis - Synthezer
Brad Saunders - Drums
Seth Miller - Drums
David Allen, JR - Synthesizer, vocals
Jabari Allen - Synthesizer, vocals
Find out all you need to know about The Units here.
Go to the download page to get The Units - "The Right Man"
12 Comments:
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I just posted something about Units on my blog. I prefer the early days of the band. They were great live. http://11vsx.blogspot.com/
Update: Rachel & Scott are married (to each other) and living in Brooklyn, NY with two children. They are good friends, and still way cooler than everybody else. Even their kids are cooler than most people.
Oh, I love The Units. Especially 'I-Night', it's one of my favorite songs.
thanks for the excellent post. I'm looking for their "Digital Stimulation" album, anyone out there who can upload it?
I've been into Units since DIGITAL STIMULATION came out in 1980. I happen to think that "I-night" (which was the B-side to "Warm Moving Bodies", and appeared on the earlier EP) is anthemic to the synthpunk movement. It is a materpiece. NEW WAY TO MOVE had a couple of worthy tunes on it, too. Namely, "More Alike" and "Your Face". I love 'em. Recently, I had correspondence with Scott, and at the time he said he was working with someone to re-issue Units material. Seems Community Library will do that (http://www.community-library.net/news.html).
I saw them in 1979 and bought the "High Pressure Days" single, and later got the Digital Stimulation LP. The song from the single is still their high point for me.
Nick
Wow, great resource. I was around back in that day and listened to most of these bands. My friends and I progressed from this sort of scene which included Bauhaus, to Tones on Tail, Sisters of Mercy, etc. Clan of Xymox and the rest of 4AD became very very important. There are a few that are missing here. Off the top of my head, A Drop in the Grey or Ian Messenger. I was glad to see The Thought on your list, they were a transition band as New Wave was progressing to the darker, more layered, and more complex music as discussed. Ian Messenger was one of the more corny acts if you didn't get the scene he was coming from, along the lines of Visage, but closer to the better known Howard Jones. A Drop In the Grey was truly a gem. They deserve recognition not only for their great music, but also for their intelligent and often profound lyrics. I have the tape for both The Thought and ADITG, neither have the witting on, It wore off sometime well before 1990. I would love to hear that music again, and often find myself humming one of their tunes.
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Thanks for the posts. I LOVE finding out about forgotten new wave bands. This site is also a great resource:
http://www.nwoutpost.com/default.asp
Check out the Minor Detail song "Canvas of Life."
The units are the only band that I had heard of before. I'm really excited to check out the rest of these band!!! I love new wave and great site. Wardour is a great new 2011 darkwave/new wave band http://wardour.org.uk you may like them...
It was sad to see this "group" not pay Jimmy Berrick, of Redding Ca. for the use of Contemporary Emotions.
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