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The Units was an American early electronic music/punk rock/new wave/electropunk band, founded in San Francisco in 1978 and were active until 1984. They were one of America's early electronic New Wave bands, they are sometimes cited (along with The Screamers) as pioneers of the genre now known as electropunk. The Units were notable for their use of synthesizers in place of guitars, and multimedia performances featuring multiple projections of satirical, instructional films critical of conformity and consumerism. ==History== The Units were one of the most popular bands of the San Francisco punk and performance art scene during the late 1970s and early 1980s, headlining at the Mabuhay Gardens (aka The Fab Mab), The Savoy Tivoli, The Berkeley Square, The Deaf Club, Valencia Tool & Die, Geary Theater and other punk clubs. The Units also opened for such bands as Soft Cell, Gary Numan, Ultravox, XTC, Bow Wow Wow, the Psychedelic Furs, the Police, Iggy Pop, Dead Kennedys, Sparks and toured the United States with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Under Wikipedia's definition of "electropunk", The Units "are candidates for the earliest electropunk recording."(needed ) "While a number of art bands moved more towards ambient, or art gallery collage sounds (Ant Farm, Ralph Records) The Units nailed it with ferocious singles like "i-night" which foreshadows The Prodigy and the more intense early work of the Chemical Brothers's "Block Rockin' Beats" for its intensity." Notable performance art appearances included "Punk Under Glass",〔("Punk Under Glass" ) by Jeff Jarvis, S.F. EXAMINER, Fri., Jan. 26,1979.〕 where the Units performed in the windows of the JC Penney building in downtown San Francisco, as part of a two-day art installation, and the Labat / Chapman Fight at Kezar Pavilion,〔("Ring Cycle" ) by Bill Mandel, S.F. Examiner, June 5, 1981.〕 a performance art boxing match between two artists where the Units played the national anthem. The Units' DIY, self stamped, 7” EP entitled “Units” was released in 1979. It was followed by another record in early 1980, "Warm Moving Bodies"/"iNight". The Units' first album, ''Digital Stimulation'', was released in 1980, and was the first album released by 415 Records. In 1982, the Units released a single on UpRoar Records entitled "The Right Man". The song was recorded at the Different Fur recording studio, founded by the electronic music composer Patrick Gleeson.〔Damian Ramsey, (''Discs - The Units Discography'' ), Synthpunk.org.〕 The recording was produced by Michael Cotten, the synthesizer player of The Tubes. The song went to No. 18 on ''Billboards Dance Chart and stayed on the chart for 13 weeks. Joel Webber, radio promotions man and the Units manager at the time, was also one of the founders of the New Music Seminar. Subsequent productions by UpRoar included spoken word recordings by performance artists including Karen Finley, Eric Bogosian, and Ann Magnuson. After the success of "The Right Man", the Units signed with Epic/CBS Records and produced a music video for "A Girl Like You" that went into medium rotation on early MTV. They released an EP titled ''New Way to Move'' on Epic Records, but typical of a hard-luck recording career, the Units' second and third albums — both produced by Bill Nelson for Epic/CBS, were never released. In 1984, after recording the sound and music for the artist Tony Oursler’s film ''EVOL'', Ryser and Webber moved to New York, putting an effective end to the Units. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Units」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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