Unsane - Concrete Bed (Glitterhouse)

In the early '90s, just before Manhattan's Lower East Side completely caved in to the baying crowds of post-college kids, who lined up to throw their trust funds straight into the sweaty palms of morally repugnant landlords, a few bands emitted one last glorious howl from the scene. The days of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA, and Mars were long over, Sonic Youth were sidling up to the majors, and Giuliani’s widespread clean up of the city was to begin in a few short years. The bands who were left, such as Cop Shoot Cop, the Action Swingers, STP, and Unsane, all made records that sounded like they were on the run from the gathering forces who were rapidly ushering them out of the neighborhood. “Concrete Bed,” Unsane’s 1990 single for German label Glitterhouse, perfectly embodies the fading scuzz of the Lower East Side. The de rigeur (for the time) buried vocals of the band's singer/guitarist Chris Spencer are barely decipherable (apart from the telling refrain: “it wasn’t always this way”), the late Charlie Ondras pounds away behind him, and the wonderfully muddy recording was cut on tape at Wharton Tiers’s legendary Fun City studio. The whole track sounds like it was written and recorded in about five minutes, and it probably was.