Wednesday, February 6, 2008

UNIDA Announces Reunion Show

According to StonerRock.com, California-based stoner rockers UNIDA — featuring former KYUSS lead singer John Garcia, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Seay, drummer Mike Cancino, and bass player Eddie Plasciencia — have scheduled a reunion show on February 21 at Safari Sam's in Hollywood, California. Also scheduled to appear is MONDO GENERATOR, the band led by former KYUSS/QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE bassist Nick Oliveri.

UNIDA issued the stoner classic "Coping with the Urban Coyote" LP in 1999 on the Man's Ruin label. The strength of that release attracted the interest of mega rock producer Rick Rubin and they were signed to his American Recordings/Island Def Jam. The full-length album they completed for American in May 2001 was never made available due to record company politics.

In a 2002 interview, UNIDA bassist Scott Reeder (ex-KYUSS) spoke out about the delay in getting the full-length album released. "Everything was set to come out on [American via] Columbia [Records], and you know, we've been meeting a lot of people who've been working on it," he explained. "The artwork was done, everything was looking really good, and then, I guess, [American owner] Rick Rubin had a falling out with Sony, moved the whole label over to Island Def Jam, and apparently, after months of being just strung along — 'Oh, yeah, the release date got bumped back a little bit' — finally we found out that somebody at the label didn't like the record, so they didn't want to deal with it. The lawyers had to go back and forth for months and months and months — a chess game where every move takes two months... 'You have sixty days to reply to this letter'...and...so we just got out of the deal, a month ago."

In addition to fronting UNIDA, John Garcia is a member of HERMANO, which released its third full-length album, "…Into the Exam Room", late last year on Suburban Records.

The other members of UNIDA also play together in HOUSE OF BROKEN PROMISES, who played at last year's Stoner Hands of Doom festival in Mesa, Arizona.

Watch footage of UNIDA performing at the Dynamo Open Air festival in Holland in 1999:

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