United Nations
United Nations is a New York, NY based hardcore punk supergroup formed as early as 2005 by ex-Thursday singer/songwriter Geoff Rickly and guitarists Lukas Previn and Jonah Bayer. Musically, they take influence from mid-90s screamo, powerviolence, and post-hardcore. The lineup was initially rumored to also include Daryl Palumbo (vocalist of Glassjaw and Head Automatica among other projects), Ben Koller (drummer of Converge, Mutoid Man, and All Pigs Must Die), Christopher "Chree" Conger (drummer of The Number Twelve Looks Like You), and Eric Cooper (guitarist of Kiss It Goodbye). The official lineup was difficult to be determined due to all of the members except Rickly being under contracts with other record labels, thus making them prohibited to legally work in projects released by another label. Rickly's name was the only one that could legally appear in press materials; press photos of the band released in 2008 depict four people wearing Ronald Reagan masks.
On September 9, 2008, United Nations released their self-titled debut album through Eyeball Records. The original album cover was based on the iconic cover of Abbey Road, only with The Beatles engulfed in flames and walking to the left rather than the right. When stores began refusing to sell the album, pressing was halted with 1,000 copies already made. These limited edition copies were sold exclusively through the Eyeball Records webstore, and the album was reissued with a different cover. The album received minor success and while it didn't chart on the Billboard 200, it did chart at number 44 on the Billboard Independent Albums and number 14 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers. The vinyl pressing of the album (also limited to 1,000 copies) was intended to include a Kidz Bop version of their self-titled album, titled United Nations Plays Pretty for a Bunch of Fucking Babies. However recordings of this album were "lost."
United Nations have detailed several possible future releases that were already recorded. One of these was a 7" EP released through Deathwish Inc. titled Never Mind the Bombings, Here's Your Six Figures, which was expected to face similar copyright issues as the self-titled album due to the title and cover's parodies of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Other ones announced but not released as of 2014 include a 10" EP titled Music for Interchanging Parts, which features one song in many parts, and an album titled Dark Side of the UN.
United Nations played their first show on January 20, 2009, the day of Barack Obama's inauguration, with Anti-Flag, Darkest Hour, Ruiner, and The A.K.A.s in Washington, D.C. Exactly four years after this show, they performed live on January 20, 2013 in D.C. with Old Lines and Black Clouds. Prior to this, they played a headlining show in Brooklyn, NY and supported Circa Survive in Atlantic City, NJ. That winter they also supported Circle Takes the Square for some dates of their comeback tour. The lineup for this tour featured Rickly, Bayer, Previn, and two new members: bassist Zac Sewell and drummer David Haik, both of Pianos Become the Teeth.
This lineup has stayed consistent through their second full-length album, The Next Four Years, released July 14, 2014 through Temporary Residence.
On January 20, 2017, the band released a single on Bandcamp, Stairway to Mar-a-Lago, featuring a different vocalist instead of Geoff, rumored to be either Daryl Palumbo or Johnny Whitney of The Blood Brothers and Jaguar Love. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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