The Unseen (band)

The Unseen is an American punk rock band that was

formed in 1993 in Hingham, Massachusetts. One of the
more prominent bands to revive street punk, The Unseen
were originally called The Extinct.

out". Also that the band should have called it quits after
losing Paul Russo and therefore their strong political message (Paul Russo wrote and sang most of 'Lower Class
Crucixion', 'So This Is Freedom?', and 'The Anger and
The Truth'). Most widely cited is the fact that The Unseen have produced music videos to air on commercial
music video channels such as GMTV2, an avenue looked1 History
down upon in the underground street punk scene which
also goes against the political message of the rst few alThe Unseen formed in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1993. bums. Darkbuster, a band from The Unseens area of oriThey then moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Along with gin, even released a joke song called I Hate The Unseen.
other street punk bands, they set out to revive the En- Members of Darkbuster and The Unseen are friends.
glish street punk sound of the 1980s. The quintet also They have toured Europe, North America, Australia,
released a best-of compilation for the European market Japan, and Mexico with many punk bands from The
in June 2000 titled Totally Unseen: The Best Of The Un- Bouncing Souls and Rancid to decidedly more hardcore
seen, which contained two previously unreleased tracks. outts like Hatebreed and Sick of It All. Since the deparThe groups solid early line-up consisted of Tripp on bass ture of Russo, the band has used many replacements on
and vocals, Scott on lead guitar, Civitarese on drums tour such as members from The Virus, Strike Anywhere,
and vocals and Paul Russo on second guitar and vocals and F-Minus, however, recently, on their MySpace page,
as well as drums and bass during live shows when the The Unseen have included a fth band member, Jonny,
band switched instruments for certain songs. Most shows an ex-guitarist of A Global Threat who was in the band
would begin with Russo and Tripp singing lead, and then at the same time as Civitarese.
the show would end with Paul playing drums and Civitarese singing lead. Russo went on to play in The Pinkerton Thugs as well as a solo project called The Strings. He
is currently playing in a punk band called Broken Stereo.

2006 also saw the release of Tripps book So This Is

Readin'?, which details the life and hardships of being
in an underground band with dry comedy. It started as
a lengthy band history on the bands website, but after a
Mark Unseen (real name: Mark Civitarese), who played few amusing chapters he was contacted by a publishing
drums on the bands rst few albums, became the lead company to release it in book form.
singer after Paul Russos departure. He also formed In May 2006, The Unseen announced on their ocial
and currently runs ADD Records. He briey joined the website that they would begin writing their sixth studio
Boston punk group A Global Threat as a second singer, full-length album during the summer of that year. The
and recorded the full-length What The Fuck Will Change? album, titled Internal Salvation, was released on July 10,
and Until We Die before deciding to concentrate on his 2007. The rst song released from that album is a track
duties with The Unseen. However shortly after his de- titled Right Before Your Eyes which was followed up by
parture he and Unseen guitarist Scott along with Mike the track Break Away, for which the band shot a muGraves and Peter Curtis (then both members of A Global sic video. In support of the new album, the band joined
Threat) formed Self Destruct. They released only one the thirteenth Warped Tour in 2007 and launched a US
7-inch EP entitled Violent Aair and played fewer than Canada tour in March 2008.
10 shows but the musical style and lyrical content disThe Unseen remained inactive, until May 25, 2015, when
played on their one record would have great inuence on
they played at Punk Rock Bowling at the Fremont Counall Unseen music to follow, helping to shape their future
try Club in Las Vegas.[1]
sound with Civitarese as lead singer. In 2010 Civitarese
started a punk rock band called Ashers in and released a
7 vinyl and full-length album Kill Your Master. More
recently Civitarese joined up with various member of 2 Members
Bostons hardcore scene to form the hardcore/metal band
Mark Civitarese (Mark Unseen) - Drums, Vocals
Tenebrae..
(19932003), Lead Vocals (2003present)
There has been some controversy concerning the band,
including allegations that in recent years they have "sold
Tripp Underwood - Bass Guitar, Vocals (1993
1

9
present)
Scott Unseen - Lead Guitar, Vocals (1993present)
Pat Melzard - Drums (2003present)
Jonny Thayer- Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
(2006present)

2.1

Past members

Paul Russo - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Bass, Drums

(1995-1997,19982003)
Marc Carlson - Vocals (19931995)
Brian Chainsaw Riley - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
(1997 - 1999)
Ian Galloway - Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
**Touring (2003-2004,2006,2008)

Studio albums
Lower Class Crucixion (1997) (originally released
by VML Records, re-issued in 1998 by A-F
Records)
So This Is Freedom (1999) (A-F Records)

'"False Hope from Explode

Scream Out from State of Discontent
You Can Never Go Home from State of Discontent
Break Away from Internal Salvation

7 In popular culture
The Unseen are featured as background music in two
skits for the TV series Jackass.
Mark Unseen makes a cameo appearance in the music video Used to Be by fellow Boston punk band
The Have Nots.
Atlanta based rapper Pill wears a T-shirt for The Unseen in his music video Glass.
A poster of the band is seen in the background during one of the scenes of the movie Superbad.

8 External links
Interview with Mark Unseen

Explode (2003) (BYO Records)

Interview with Mark of Unseen

State of Discontent (2005) (Hellcat Records)

The Unseen on MySpace

Internal Salvation (2007) (Hellcat Records)

Paul Russo on Facebook

Totally Unseen: The Best Of The Unseen (2000)

(Step-1 Records)
The Complete Singles Collection 1994-2000 (2002)
(Punkcore Records)

6 Music videos

The Anger & The Truth (2001) (BYO Records)

Collections

7 Vinyl
Too Young To Know... Too Reckless To Care (1995
Rodent Popsicle Records)
Protect And Serve (1996 VML records)
Raise Your Finger Raise Your Fist (1996 VML
records)
Tom and BootBoys Split (1998 Pogo 77 records)
Bostons Finest - Split with Toxic Narcotic (1998
ADD/Rodent popsicle records)

REFERENCES

9 References
[1] http://www.readjunk.com/news/music/
punk-rock-bowling-reveals-15-late-night-club-shows/

10
10.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

The Unseen (band) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unseen_(band)?oldid=696049995 Contributors: Deb, Zoe, Mbecker,

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