Baltimore emo trio The Unheard Ones bring lost 1990s recordings to light with Stories and Songs, out September 18 on Handstand Records, and share the single and video for the track “Bermuda Triangle.”
The album honors late drummer Eli Jones, with a portion of proceeds benefiting MusiCares, a nonprofit organization providing health care, mental health care, addiction recovery services, and financial assistance to musicians.
The Unheard Ones were a mid-1990s emo trio whose brief but memorable run left a lasting impression on Baltimore’s DIY scene. Between 1995 and 1997, the band played just 13 shows alongside groups including the Great Unraveling, Plunger, Harriet the Spy, Monorchid, and the Crownhate Ruin. Though their time together was short, their self-titled EP earned praise from Baltimore City Paper, which described the record as a “ménage à trois of feeling, force, and fragility.”
Yet despite their impact, The Unheard Ones’ studio and demo recordings have remained unreleased for nearly three decades. That changes with Stories and Songs, a collection assembled through the efforts of Colin Seven of hardcore band Universal Order of Armageddon, who championed the reissue project and connected DIY label Handstand Records with surviving members Tim Kabara and Lisa Starace. Together, they brought these recordings back into the light while honoring the legacy of late drummer Eli Jones.
“I have seen a few acts play in my time and have listened to more than my share of recorded tunes from our fair and ‘charming city that reads’ (the obituaries),” says Seven. “What you may not know is that among it all, rising to the top, making its way swiftly and righteously past the Lungfish and Candy Machine tracks that are ever swimming in my brain, comes a little track called ‘Bermuda Triangle’… It all came down to that band of three kids that changed so much for me.”
“The connection we had playing drums and bass together was unique and genuine, and it showed in the songs,” bassist Lisa Starace remembers. “We recorded these tracks at that peak moment before the destruction — the time between the lightning and the thunder. Now 30 years later, I’m listening to these songs, remastered and sounding better than ever. The heartbreak is not gone, but has been moved through… replaced with some mid-life appreciation of it all that I never had before. As I put this booklet together, reading the words of people I respect deeply, all I can think is that I am so fucking lucky to have been part of this, even if only for one short moment, for a few short songs heard by a small group of people. I have a feeling Eli would be pretty into it, too.”
Stories and Songs marks the first time all seven studio recordings have been collected and released together. The sessions, recorded three decades ago, have been restored and remastered by Grammy-nominated audio engineer Jessica Thompson. The collection also includes five demo recordings previously shared only through manually duplicated cassettes circulated among venues, bands, and friends.
Blending indie-punk urgency with the depth and experimentation of 1990s emo, the album captures The Unheard Ones’ ability to balance tension and melody, shifting between the dissonant and the bittersweet. If the demo was the band’s energetic childhood, the studio session was young adulthood — a little awkward, a bit self-conscious, and a little more mature, revealing the trio’s sharp songwriting instincts. Tim Kabara’s expressive vocals and textural guitar work meet Lisa Starace’s melodic bass lines and Eli Jones’s dynamic drumming, creating songs that capture the loneliness of a closed bowling alley with a broken fluorescent light blinking in the early morning hours.
“At that time, Lisa, Eli, and I were listening to Joy Division / New Order, the Minutemen, Gang of Four, Jah Wobble-era Public Image Ltd., the Big Boys, Guided by Voices, Pavement, and a whole lotta other stuff,” says Kabara. “I think we wanted to be… two sides of a coin.”
Legendary record producer and mixing engineer Chris Coady (Future Islands, Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) remembers The Unheard Ones as a band whose songwriting set them apart from their peers in Baltimore’s 1990s DIY scene.
“I think of The Unheard Ones as making, not necessarily danceable music, but music with memorable melodies — songs that went somewhere… It was dynamic. What made The Unheard Ones different from other bands of the time, and the reason it’s being reissued 30 years later, is because they made songs that were melodic and arranged and had beginnings, middles, and ends. I think of The Unheard Ones as ahead of their time in that way.”
Tonie Joy (Moss Icon, Born Against) reflects on The Unheard Ones as part of a generation of underground artists creating music that was deeply personal and enduring. “The Unheard Ones spearheaded personal yet universal sounds, seemingly familiar at first, but if you peel back the aural onion, you’ll find a unique take and quality in their approach to underground rock music of the very late 20th century,” says Joy.
Stories and Songs will be released on September 18 and is available for pre-order now at Handstand Records. It will be pressed on opaque red vinyl, limited to 500 copies, and housed in a four-color printed chipboard jacket that echoes the era. A 32-page zine-style booklet accompanies the record, packed with archival ephemera, photos, and writing contributions from notable musicians. Digital versions include three bonus live tracks, a practice recording, a Joy Division cover, and a PDF of the booklet.
