After meeting at college in 1988, the original *Unsane* trio of Chris Spencer, bassist Peter Shore and drummer Charles Ondras began playing the usual East Coast firetraps. The band attracted the attention of Minneapolis-based indie Treehouse Records, who released the group's debut single, the double A-side 'This Town ' Urge To Kill' . Additional recordings with Wharton Tiers yielded tracks for a full-length Circuit Records debut that was never released. The band bided their time by releasing subsequent singles and setting the stage for their self-titled Matador Records debut, in 1991. This record personified "noise rock," providing an irreplaceable paradigm for numerous bands to follow. During 1992, a furious recording and touring schedule came to an abrupt halt with the untimely death of Charles Ondras. His replacement, former Swans/Foetus drummer Vinnie Signorelli, joined the band in the fall of 1992, just in time to begin work on compositions for the second Unsane album. Whatever portion of 1993 that was not spent touring and promoting the band's increasing catalogue went into the creation of 'Total Destruction' .
Co-produced by Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Swans, Cop Shoot Cop), Unsane's major label debut was anything but a crossover attempt. The band successfully upped the ante on their patented blend of volume, velocity and violence, taking their art to a new level of extremity. A tour with Entombed followed and Matador released a CD of the band's Peel Sessions.
The band returned to independent Amphetamine Reptile for 1995's 'Scattered, Smothered and Covered', recording the album in three sessions at the Amphetamine Reptile studio. Named for a sloppy dish of homefries served by Waffle House, 'Scattered...' contained the unlikely video hit "Scrape," named one of MTV's 10 all-time funniest videos. Made for only two hundred dollars, the video stayed in heavy rotation for more than nine weeks on both MTV and The Box. After a year of touring in support of 'Scattered...', including a Thrasher-sponsored headlining tour of Europe, Unsane got the break of a lifetime securing the support slot for Slayer's American tour.
In 1998, after touring for 'Scattered...' was completed, Unsane signed with Relapse Records for the release of their next album, the ferocious 'Occupational Hazard' . This album cemented the band's status as legends in the indie rock scene, and as the pillar of the international noise rock movement. Unsane have continuously taken their art to new levels of extremity and In 2003, 'Lambhouse (Unsane 1991-1998)' was released, a collection that compiled the best tracks from all of the Unsane's official releases plus a bonus DVD containing all of the bands music videos, providing new listeners and long time fans alike an avid testimony as to why Unsane are universally recognized as the premier noise rock band in the world. They returned in 2004 with 'Blood Run', their first full length album of new material since 1998. Now after a somewhat lengthy period of silence the NYC noise rock kingpins have signed to Ipecac for the release of 'Visqueen', a heavy-as-hell physical assault which is a stunning return to form.