In Remembrance: The Unicorns
While we may appreciate you more nowadays, The Unicorns will always stay with us.
Call me shallow if you will, but in my books, picking a good band name is one of the most important decisions in the life of a band. Pick a bad name and you’ve veritably insured the doom of the entire project. The name must be original and catchy enough for people to remember. It can’t be too stupid or strange; otherwise people will just dismiss it without as much as a listen. Give the relative importance that hinges on this single decision, many bands try to pick a name with either a joke or interesting story behind it in order to increase the “interest factor.”
Given all these recent thought about band names – what the hell is up with the Unicorns? Well, truthfully, not very much as far as band naming is concerned.1 But the Canadian indie synth pop band seems to have done just about everything else right, so why fuss about the name. During their brief lifetime, the Unicorns created many fun and often irresistibly catchy pop tunes – which is why this week we’ll be focusing on the music they made while in existence, and where the members have embarked to since.
Nick Thorburn (Nick Diamond) and Alden Penner (Alden Ginger) first met as students way back in 1998 in their high school in Campbell River, British Columbia. The pair soon became close friends and played in several bands together during their high school days. In 1999, however, Nick left to go to film school.2
In 2000, while on a break from school, Nick decided to call up some of his old band mates, Alden included, to start making music again. As time passed, the other members of Nick’s new project subsequently quit, leaving only Alden and himself to perform – so that’s just what they did.
The Unicorns’ first album, Unicorns Are People Too, was released in March 2003 on their own label, Caterpillars of the Community. The release was limited to a run of 500 copies, making copies of the album extremely rare and valuable in some circles. The album was only sold at live shows and in several local record stores. Unicorns Are People Too was recorded solely by Nick and Alden, as Jaime had not yet joined the lineup.
Several months later, after being signed to Canadian noise label, Alien8 Recordings, the group released their Pièce de résistance, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? By this time, drummer Jaime Thompson (J’aime Tambeur) had officially joined the group, finally giving the group a proper live show lineup. The album received terrific reviews by independent and mainstream critics alike; substantially increasing the band’s popularity and fan base.
The Unicorns toured in support of the album for 13 months following its release; covering all of North America, the UK, and Australia. It was these 13 months of constant touring that the band often cited as one of the major reasons for their breakup. The group soon grew tired of the relentless touring, and this eventually led to negative feelings about the project as a whole. On December 24, 2004, the band announced via their website that they had decided to call it quits. In the months following this initial announcement, the band’s PR company and members confirmed these reports.
In the months following the Unicorn’s breakup, Nick and Jaime united again to work on two separate projects, Th’ Corn Gangg (indie pop/ hip hop) and Islands (indie pop). While Th’ Corn Gangg was involved with several brief projects, they never officially released an album and haven’t been active for some time now; although recent interviews have stated that the group has not disbanded. Islands, on the other hand, has been quite active since the breakup as well as achieving a moderate level of success.3 Alden went on to debut his new project, Clues, in October of 2007.
1. The band’s name actually came from a unicorn pictured on a safe sex pamphlet Nick read once.
2. He befriended Michael Cera and the two are still good friends.
3. Nick is currently working with Man Man’s Honus Honus to create an album together. Sources estimate that the resulting project will be the most fucking epic event in recorded humankind.
Posted by Andrew Scott on Dec 14, 2009 @ 9:00 am