“A glorious beacon of real, sexed-up, druggy, life-affirming R-O-C-K.”
- Mark Spitz (Poseur: A Memoir of Downtown New York City in the 90s)

“The Unband embraces everything unhealthy, idiotic and irresponsible about rock music…”
- Rolling Stone


THE UNBAND was formed in suburban Boston in 1988, by Eugene Ferrari (drums), Matt Pierce (guitar/vocal), and Mike Ruffino (bass/vocal), out of a penchant for full-throttle rock music and contempt for pretension. Joined by semi-permanent lead guitarist Mink Rockmore, the band released—or made available, anyway—two self-produced cassettes, Good Music, and the presciently-titled Sink, but progress in the Boston scene was complicated by a musical approach out-of-step with the suddenly requisite Indie-rock aesthetic, and unfailingly raucous, unpredictable live performances including improvised pyrotechnics, full-frontal nudity, conspicuous substance abuse, and other excesses unwelcome at most area clubs, and were soon effectively banned in Boston.

In the early 1990s the band members relocated to Western Massachusetts and after variously dropping out of its universities, became a staple on the thriving local music scene. At the peak of regional popularity, the band was consistently running afoul of most area venues as reliably as packing them to capacity, increasingly at cross-purposes with the local constabulary, and by the late 1990s performances in New England were only possible under assumed names, wearing physical disguises. Frequent shows in nearby Manhattan’s Lower East Side earned the band a loyal New York audience, as well as distinction in the New York music press as “the stupidest, most depraved act on the scene”, leading to a multi-record deal with “mini-major” TVT Records, in 1998. Extensive national and international tours followed, with bands such as Motörhead, Fu Manchu, Nashville Pussy, Def Leppard, and Dio, along with the release of the band’s major debut, Retarder (2000).

Though at the time of its release Retarder (the album title taken from a label on a recording studio sound baffling) found little traction on the rap rock and boy band dominated mainstream rock charts——in part also thanks to the band’s notoriously besotted and chaotic publicity engagements——and received spare attention from independent radio, several of the album’s tracks, “Geez Louise”, “Pink Slip”, and a cover of Billy Squire’s 1982 hit “Everybody Wants You”, were featured in films, including the now cult-classic Super Troopers, and television (most recently, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown; Cuba). The Unband’s career is the subject of a documentary film, We Like to Drink and We Like to Play Rock and Roll (2006, Gringa Productions), and a book, Adios, Motherfucker (2017, Ecco/Bourdain).

The Unband continues to perform and record, and plans to release new music in 2023. It should be noted that planning has never been the band’s strongest suit.