Unwritten Law Band

I haven't seen a thread dedicated to them yet, thought I'd start one here, because gosh darn it, I still like them! A lot.

Favorite albums? Mine are Elva and Here's to the Mourning. Hated Swan.

Saw them play a few days ago in Santa Barbara to an enthusiastic but very stationary crowd. Seen them three times so far and each time to a smaller crowd than I think they deserve, though their audience can certainly bring it if they're passionate enough. Really hoping this Elva anniversary tour allows me to see them in bigger rooms.

 

Alright goddammit, we’re giving this one more shot.

Bump for the official thread for underrated, undisputed Unwritten Law.

@Michael G , I know you like them! Why does no one talk about this band?

Here’s to the Mourning is underrated, and Swan is a super disappoint, poopy kind of record...

 

Hi friend!

My favorite UL album is the untitled "black" album. I played that thing to DEATH when it came out. I heard "Cailin" on the radio and immediately loved it and bought the CD (I still have the original copy I bought) and then I ended up falling in love with the entire album. "Teenage Suicide" and "Lonesome" are probably my two favorites off of that one.

After I wore that CD out, I bought Oz Factor and didn't like it, aside from a track or two. It wasn't as polished as the black album so I kinda dismissed it pretty quickly/unfairly, probably.

I got into Elva a bit, but not really anything that came out after that.

I saw them for the first time (finally!) a year or two ago with Fenix TX. Very small crowd, but it was a great show!

 

I think I know one song.

 

Music in High Places is one of my favorite albums. Wish they'd press it on vinyl.

Other than that, I got into them when Elva came out. I really liked that album. I thought Here's to the Mourning was OK and never cared much for anything before Elva. Never even listened to Swan.

 

That would be awesome! They've only released Elva and their newest acoustic album on vinyl. What the hell?!

 

They used to be one of my favorite bands, but after Mourning, they dropped off hard and haven’t seemed to recover.

S/T, Elva and HTTM were on constant rotation in my teens/early 20’s. Like @bradsonemanband I fell in love with “Cailin” and got hooked, but I was also a huge Elva fan. The first two albums never did it for me, minus a song or two.

 

Loved Unwritten Law back in the day, and still do. I have all of their albums still. The Untitled album, Elva and Music In High Places are definitely my favorites.

I feel like they should have been much bigger after Seeing Red got really popular on the radio. Kind of crazy they haven't released a true album since 2011, which was probably their worst. I wonder when they'll put out another album.

And yes Cailin is a fantastic song.

 

Elva rocked the shit out of my high school years. To this day a lot of those songs are still super fun to listen to, one of my favorite albums of that period.

 

Yes!! Unwritten Law have to be one of my favorite bands. Saw them front and center last year with Pennywise and the Offspring here in Albuquerque! Not a lot of people showed up for them and those that were there didn’t seem to know them past Seein’ Red. I’d love to see them do another tour with Pennywise or Authority Zero again (I know they did that tour back in 2011 I think but they should do it again)

 

What did happen to this band? They've released one album in the past 13 years.

 

I saw them twice in 2016. They still tour A LOT.

 

They're like The Ataris. Always touring, but rarely putting out anything new.

 

I wonder what the reasoning is for. Has the band/Scott ever commented on why?

 

So happy to see this thread finally active! Thanks everyone! I’ll need to comment on specific music later.

As for the lack of new material, from what I recall, Scott stays pretty busy producing and songwriting for other artists, which is where he makes most of his money. Also, I think (I could be wrong) that even with Wade back in the band on things generally on good terms, strong personalities still come up when it comes to songwriting, so writing material takes a long time and i think they’d rather maintain the band as a touring unit first.

There’s a pretty entertaining podcast where Scott offers some insight and color commentary into the band, if anyone’s interested...

Episode 23: Scott Russo (Unwritten Law)

 

I’m pretty sure it’s kinda like all those bands from that era (The Ataris, Reel Big Fish, Fenix TX, Guttermouth, etc.), people don’t really seem to care much about new music. I mean people will get excited but they probably know that it’s almost not worth the time and money to record

 

Elva was one of my favorite albums in high school, and most of it still holds up. One of the first albums I bought on vinyl when I started collecting.

Really loved HTTM as well. 13 years later I'll still randomly get the "bop bop bop badop bop badop bop" from "Celebration Song" stuck in my head even though I can't remember the last time I actually heard the song haha

 

Up All Night and Seeing Red were my jams in middle school.

 

This.

Also, considering the songs on their last album, I’m not sure how much I actually want new music from them at this point.

(although this cover art is way better than what they actually went with, the hell?)

 

Fixed that for you.

 

Guttermouth still putting out new music and they're also still pretty fun band to see....I know they getting a lot of hate because Mark being Mark...but I love all these asshole joker bands....For Unwritten Law,I've seen them with Fenix Tx 3 years ago?and they were pretty good.Elva is awesome and I love Tom Delonge's phone call in the end of the record

 

I love how after blink came back in 2009 and mentioned they were working on a song titled “Up All Night” there were hundreds of YouTube videos of Tom’s call to Scott saying it was a blink demo haha.

 

The Fenix TX tour was early 16 because I was there and then 7-8 months later they returned opening for Pennywise/Strung Out

 

I have to say I loved how they re-recorded their older songs for their greatest hits album. I wish more bands would do that instead of normal way bands do greatest hits albums. Especially with earlier tracks where the band might not have had any money for extra production in the studio etc.

 

I was just watching video for Lonesome and there is ,,Blink182" cameo around 2:00 hahaha.