76% Uncertain

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76% Uncertain
General information
origin Bridgeport (USA)
Genre (s) Hardcore
founding 1983, 2002
resolution 1990
Founding members
singing
 Mike "Bones" Hammond
guitar
 Todd Knapp
guitar
 Kenny Peterson
bass
 Dave Ware
Drums
 Bill Knapp (1983–1986, since 1988)
Current occupation
singing
 Mike Hammond
guitar
 Todd Knapp
guitar
 Kenny Peterson
guitar
 Ed Winnick (since 2002)
bass
 Dave Ware
Drums
 Bill Knapp
former members
guitar
 Mike "Mikespad" Spadaccini (1987-1989)
guitar
 Jeff Roberts (1990, † 1997)
Drums
 Charles "Chip" Moody (1986-1988)

76% Uncertain is a hardcore band from Bridgeport in the US state of Connecticut .

history

76% Uncertain was founded in 1983 by former members of the hardcore bands Reflex from Pain and the CIA. The band name has no deeper meaning; Guitarist Todd Knapp explained in an interview that the band couldn't agree on a name that everyone liked and therefore would have chosen one that everyone didn't like. The name would have occurred to the second guitarist Kenny Peterson.

The first two albums were released on the band's own label Shmegma Records. Due to the relative proximity of the cultural metropolis of New York , which is about 100 km west of Bridgeport, 76% Uncertain performed there frequently and made close contacts with the local hardcore scene . Close friendships also developed with DC Hardcore bands like Scream or Government Issue . A concert in New York's CBGB's in 1985 was recorded but not released. Bill Knapp was replaced in 1986 by the drummer of the Vatican Commandos, Charles "Chip" Moody, but joined the band again in 1988. From 1989 the band appeared with three guitarists, unusual for the hardcore genre. The third guitarist, Mike Spadaccini, was replaced after a year by Jeff Roberts, who had previously played guitar with the local hardcore band Contraband and on an EP from Adrenalin OD . After the release of the fourth album Where's the Lid? the band broke up in 1990. Where's the Lid? was founded in 1994 by the German label Flex! Records re-released along with a compilation album that summarized the first two albums and some unreleased recordings.

Jeff Roberts died in a car accident in 1997, leaving behind a wife and three children. As a result, the band got together for a benefit concert in favor of Roberts' family. As part of another benefit concert in 2002, the band recruited Ed Winnick as their third guitarist. Since then, the band has performed with this line-up at irregular intervals in the Connecticut area and in New York.

Bassist Dave Ware was a founding member of Shelter after 76% Uncertain broke up . Todd Knapp now works full-time as a freelance architect.

Style and reception

76% Uncertain started as a kind of supergroup of the Connecticut hardcore scene. The previous band, the CIA (of which Hammond, Peterson and Bill Knapp belonged) received high praise on the radio show Noise the Show by New York Trouser Press and Village Voice journalist Tim Sommer and on the biannual New York music magazine The Big Takeover . The predecessor band Reflex from Pain (to which Todd Knapp and Dave Ware belonged) had a singer with Ray Cappo who, after the band's end with Youth of Today, became a central figure in New York Hardcore and the burgeoning straight edge movement. Despite favorable reviews from the US and European trade press, 76% of Uncertain did not achieve any significant awareness beyond the US East Coast, which Todd Knapp said in an interview about a lack of support from labels, professional commitments of the band members and, as a result, a lack of tours at the US West coast and in Europe. The regional popularity was reflected in the presence on some samplers, such as Mutiny on the Bowery from the Californian label Mystic Records, Big City's One Big Crowd from the New York label Big City Records or The Best Of Flipside Vinyl Fanzines from Flipside Fanzines. The private weblog There's Something Hard In There lists "anger, melody, (...) humor and a bit of metal" as core elements of the band's music in a retrospective of the Connecticut hardcore scene. Lyrically, 76% of Uncertain took a position against nationalism, racism and homophobia and thus set themselves apart from various New York Hardcore bands, who also spoke out in favor of tolerance and against totalitarianism, but took a rather neutral stance towards some right-wing ideas.

Discography

  • 1984: Estimated Monkey Time (Shmegma Records)
  • 1985: Nothing But Love Songs (Shmegma Records)
  • 1989: Hunka Hunka Burnin 'Log ( Giant Records )
  • 1990: Where's the Lid? (TPOS)
  • 1994: Are You Uncertain? (Compilation album, Flex! Records)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Steven Blush: American Hardcore. A tribal history . 2nd Edition. Feral House, Port Townsend 2010, ISBN 978-0-922915-71-2 , pp. 281 .
  2. ↑ a b Brob Tilt: 76% Uncertain . In: Tilt! Fanzine . No. 5 , 1989, pp. 3 ( wordpress.com ).
  3. ^ "Killed by Death Records" (private weblog): 76% Uncertain - Live At CBGS 1985 Cassete. Retrieved October 22, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Hardcore-Punk.net: 76% Uncertain. Retrieved October 22, 2017 (French).
  5. ↑ Todd Knapp Architect LLC on Facebook
  6. ^ "There's Something Hard In There" (private weblog): Punk-rock musical chairs: From CIA to 76% Uncertain and back again. Retrieved October 22, 2017 .