UNEXPECT’S CHAOTH SLAPPA DA 9-STRING BASS

Unexpect’s Fables of the Sleepless Empire is a good album that got lost in the shuffle that was 2011. It’s also an example of the risks of self-releasing a record, showing that record labels do still serve a purpose in an age where distribution is available to everyone.* It’s not that bands aren’t capable of doing on their own all the things record labels normally do, it’s just that many of them don’t have the time, inclination or expertise to do so. When there’s no marketing staff to set up cool exclusives and contests, no publicist to pester magazine writers and bloggers like us, no one to coordinate the filming of a music video, etc., those things tend not to happen at all. For every Cormorant — a band that’s totally on the ball and has done quite well independently — there’s an Unexpect, a good band that doesn’t get the attention they deserve. It doesn’t help that they didn’t tour on this record, either.

Thankfully blogs like The Number of the Blog don’t need no stinkin’ publicists to pester them about Unexpect. Check out this video of Unexpect bassist ChaotH being awesome on the bass to a backing track of their own song “Words” from Fables of the Sleepless Empire. This guy is incredible; IMNs and ponytail betas should be slobbering all over this band.

-VN

*(inb4 someone calls me a hypocrite for saying record labels are important when I’ve allegedly said the opposite in the past. I’ve always maintained that the industry as a whole serves a critical function; what I dispute is that record labels [as opposed to managers or other important players] need to be at the financial center of that equation anymore).