***Baltimore, Maryland’s The Unheard Ones were a mid-1990s emo trio whose brief but memorable run left a lasting impression on the city’s DIY scene. Between 1995 and 1997, the band played just 13 shows alongside groups including the Great Unraveling, Plunger, Harriet the Spy, Monorchid, and the Crownhate Ruin. Though their time together was short, their self-titled EP earned praise from Baltimore City Paper, which described the record as a “ménage à trois of feeling, force, and fragility.” Yet despite their impact, The Unheard Ones’ studio and demo recordings have largely remained... well, unheard for nearly three decades.
That changes now with Stories and Songs, a collection assembled through the efforts of Colin Seven from hardcore band Universal Order of Armageddon, who championed the reissue project and connected DIY label Handstand Records with surviving members Tim Kabara and Lisa Starace. Together, they brought these recordings back into the light while honoring the legacy of late drummer Eli Jones, with a portion of proceeds benefiting MusiCares, a nonprofit organization providing health care, mental health care, addiction recovery services, and financial assistance to musicians.
Blending indie-punk urgency with the depth and experimentation of 1990s emo, Stories and Songs captures The Unheard Ones’ ability to balance tension and melody, shifting between the dissonant and the bittersweet. If the demo was the band’s energetic childhood, the studio session was young adulthood. A little awkward, a bit self-conscious, and a little more mature, revealing the trio’s sharp songwriting instincts. Tim Kabara’s expressive vocals and textural guitar work meet Lisa Starace’s melodic bass lines and Eli Jones’s dynamic drumming, creating songs that capture the loneliness of a closed bowling alley with a broken fluorescent light blinking in the early morning hours.
Limited to 500 copies on opaque red vinyl and housed in a four-color printed chipboard jacket that echoes the era. A 32-page zine-style booklet accompanies the record, packed with archival ephemera, flyers, photos, and writing contributions.
