Biography
The seeds of Abunai! germinated late in 1996 with a series of jam sessions between bassist Dan Parmenter, guitarist Brendan Quinn, and drummer Joe Turner. Dan and Joe had been with psych-popsters Cinnamon (not the Euro band), while Brendan had been in several punk bands (most notably Tripwire), and was ready to explore new sonic horizons. A few weeks later the group was completed by the addition of Brendan’s recently-unearthed college friend Kris Thompson (who’d been with Nisi Period, Jasmine Love Bomb, and The Prefab Messiahs) on organ, synth, and theremin.
The group found some deep common ground in a flowing and dynamic modal improv style, and began grafting that onto both pop structures and skeletons of traditional folk songs. 1997’s Universal Mind Decoder and 1999’s The Mystic River Sound (both on Camera Obscura) caused enthusiasm throughout the music underground worldwide. Besides airplay on the BBC’s John Peel Show, reviews and articles have appeared in Ptolemaic Terrascope, MAGNET, Rolling Stone, The Wire, Alternative Press, and Popwatch, to name a few. Abunai!’s last full-length album Round-Wound was released at Terrastock 4 in Seattle in November 2000. Condensed from several years’ worth of improvs recorded in their rehearsal studio, it offered a sprawling vista of what they were capable of when they stretched out ─ and only hinted at on the two albums thus far.
The group disbanded in August 2002, but worked posthumously to assemble the Two Brothers vinyl EP, released in Feb. 2003 by Camera Lucida. In April 2006, Abunai! reformed to play the Terrastock 6 pre-party show in Providence RI with Acid Mothers Temple, Bright, and Area C. An Abunai! rarities anthology has been hinted at, but has not as yet appeared.
The group found some deep common ground in a flowing and dynamic modal improv style, and began grafting that onto both pop structures and skeletons of traditional folk songs. 1997’s Universal Mind Decoder and 1999’s The Mystic River Sound (both on Camera Obscura) caused enthusiasm throughout the music underground worldwide. Besides airplay on the BBC’s John Peel Show, reviews and articles have appeared in Ptolemaic Terrascope, MAGNET, Rolling Stone, The Wire, Alternative Press, and Popwatch, to name a few. Abunai!’s last full-length album Round-Wound was released at Terrastock 4 in Seattle in November 2000. Condensed from several years’ worth of improvs recorded in their rehearsal studio, it offered a sprawling vista of what they were capable of when they stretched out ─ and only hinted at on the two albums thus far.
The group disbanded in August 2002, but worked posthumously to assemble the Two Brothers vinyl EP, released in Feb. 2003 by Camera Lucida. In April 2006, Abunai! reformed to play the Terrastock 6 pre-party show in Providence RI with Acid Mothers Temple, Bright, and Area C. An Abunai! rarities anthology has been hinted at, but has not as yet appeared.
