This weekend brings another band that emerged from the CA punk rock scene. Unwritten Law formed in 1990 and continues to play to this day. I had the privilege of seeing them play once at the Van’s Warped Tour in 1998. This Warped Tour was a special event as it was the first time ever that it merged with Ozzfest. It truly was awesome as on one side you had Ozzefest on two stages and then you walked over the hill and on the other side you had Warped Tour on 10+ stages, can’t remember the exact stage count. I was able to catch some kick ass punk rock shows of many bands during the day and then at night enjoy the sound of Tool, Megadeth, System of a Down and others. Truly a great event for $40 or so. Needless to say, a lot of calories were burnt during those two days.
On to Unwritten Law. I have grown apart through the years from this band as they started to go more toward the rock side, dropping some the punk sound with fast guitar and drum beats that I grew accustomed to. I still love their early albums and still respect them as a band. I am not in the business so I can not judge others for their decisions. But I do not listen to any of their new stuff. Hell they might have changed back to their roots and I will have to check on that. But I do enjoy their earlier music of their first 3 releases and the album Elva (2002) is when I stopped listening to their new stuff as I was disappointed.
The album featured tonight is their first release titled Blue Room and was released in 1994. This album has a consistent fast tempo of drum beats with clean vocals and guitar to match. One of their more popular songs to this day is C.P.K. (Crazy Poway Kids), which is in reference to the band’s hometown of Poway, California. When I saw them at Warped Tour lucky for me they didn’t conform to their more hard rock ways just yet and I was able to catch their punk rock side. Overall this is a great album that still has that “garage” sound. But as I write this I will have to listen to some of their newer stuff. I was so disgruntled about their style change 10 years ago I haven’t listened to them since (besides their older stuff), but it’s time I give them another shot…they deserve it. Some of my favorite songs include:
- C.P.K.
- Shallow
- Lessons
- Kill To Breathe
- Blurred, Pt. 2
I could not find the whole album so I uploaded my favorite track on the album. What I like about this track is that it has a nice slow intro that you can tell is going to break out at any moment. Then at the 1:10 mark they kick up the guitar and it goes from their. Stuff I love to listen to and suggest to anyone else. Below is the track titled Kill To Breathe:
