ArtistInfo

Union

Band,
Rock and Alternative

The band was originally formed in the later part of 1994 at the University at Buffalo. Mike Jeffers, Keith Brown, Vic Lazar and Jeremy Mazgaj all from the NYC area had met whilst going to college, 400 miles away from home, and decided to start a band originally called Facedown. The lineup of the band at this time included myself, Mike Jeffers, on drums, Keith Brown on vocals, Vic Lazar on guitar, and very briefly, Jeremy Mazgaj from Envy(New Direction Records), on bass. By the end of ’94, the band had cut a 3 song demo, recorded by our buddy Ed from the band Gathering Ground, the Network Sound band. By the time the winter/spring of ’95 rolled around we had written some new songs and decided to go record them at a new studio in town called Outer Limit Studios. We recorded 4 tunes and decided to release them as the Indignation EP. At the same time we added Ben Kumpf on bass. We also decided that a name change was in order since there was always confusion between us and the Canadian Facedown. Fall'96 and as the bandmates returned to Buffalo they decided to get to serious about the music, play more shows, and most importantly get a 7” out. The band headed to Watchmen Studios, where producer/engineer Doug White helped them record 7 new songs. These songs were so focused and so tight compared to what we had done the past year. 4 of the songs from the session where released on cassette as the “Demo ’95.” The remaining three songs, plus one from the Demo 95 session were put aside for the 7”. While the band were waiting to get the 7” out, they continued to play gigs locally, whilst travelling the Northeast handing out their demo to as many people/places as possible. By late December the final version of the 7" "Shall Fall" arrived just in time for the next show at Coney Island High, NYC with Snapcase, Deadguy, and Mouthpiece. The band then enlisted, close friend Scott Sprigg, as a second guitarist, feeling a need to make things a bit heavier. New songs were duely written, whilst continuing to play live. In April 1996 the band headed over to Salad Days Studio, Boston where they recorded five new songs over the course of a weekend. With a new demo, to hand, the band decided to hit every label that was worth a damn, at the time. Josh Grabelle from Trustkill was one of the first to come back to them, suggesting that Carl Severson from Ferret Records would be into what Union were doing. but he wanted to do a MCD for us so he needed 2 more songs. Sure enough Carl was, so the band headed back to Watchmen Studios during the summer of ’96 and recorded two more songs for the record. The CD’s arrived a few weeks later, and the band began playing to promote Union’s new CD, “In the Shadows” . A Winter Tour followed, in January 1997, with Despair, Brother’s Keeper, and Turmoil. In addition to there tourmates Union played with many great bands on the tour, such as Battery, Floorpunch, Autumn, Earthmover, Cast Iron Hike, Enkindel, etc. After the tour, Vic Lazar decided to leave the band, the band wasted no time in replacing him with Rob Antonucci, a huge fan of the band and great guitar player. The new line up were soon back at Watchmen Studios, again, to record the next release for Ferret, a 7”, called “You Fell For It” . They recorded four songs, and by mid-summer 1997 the record was out. The band continued to tour over the summer, but by fall had no concrete plans. It was during this time that, out of the blue, Keith and Ben decided they wanted to leave the band,since they were graduating from college in the spring. The band was over, very abruptly leaving Mike, Scott, and Rob stunned and a little bummed out.

Members

	Rob Antonucci g
	Scott Sprigg g
	Mike Jeffers dr
	Vic Lazar g, voc
	Keith Brown voc
	Benjamin Kumpf b