The Unclaimed "The Unclaimed" Moxie EP 1980 + "The Unclaimed" Resonance EP 1980

"well seasoned veterans of Los Angeles' garage scene"
Before The Coal Porters, there was The Long Ryders, and before The Long Ryders there was... The Unclaimed. Sid Griffin's first 'proper' band now hold a cult status as far as the sixties/garage/psychedelic revival that grew up around Los Angeles in the early 1980s is concerned and are for some the epitome of the garage resurgence. Their look, sound and whole attitude to garage music at once both encouraged the likes of Steve Wynn to establish their own bands, whilst The Unclaimed themselves rem ained firmly rooted in the sound and look of 1966.

Whilst they were now making their own 'sixties' music the band had little chance of putting out a record, as only Sid had a regular job and the band lacked the support of a label. However they did find help in the shape of Dave Gibson who was prepared to put up some money to enable them to issue a record.
The result, in September 1980, was the Moxie EP, a four track single which featured two tracks each from Griffin and Ganz. The Griffin titles were Time To Time and the highly acclaimed Deposition Central (the Acid Song), whilst Ganz contributed The Sorrow and Run From Home. The last of these was also later used by Greg Shaw on the first Battle Of The Garages compilation on Voxx records in 1981. The EP had a very poor production which the band were not happy with but money was tight and they had to settle for what they could get. (The above article first appeared in Issue 8 of Rebels Without Applause).
The Unclaimed:
Shelley Ganz - vocals, guitar / Sid Griffin - guitar, vocals / Barry Shank - bass / Thom Hand - keyboards / Matthew Roberts - drums / Recorded in Studio 9, Hollywood / Produced by Lou Louie / Executive producer: D. Gibson / Engineered by John Gillis

traxfromwax:
01 Time To Time 02 Run From Home 03 The Sorrow 04 Deposition Central (The Acid Song) 05 The Trouble With Cinderella 06 My Kind (alt. version) 07 Cryptic Message

"The Unclaimed" Resonance EP 1980
Sheldon Shelley Ganz embodies the missing link between the sixties sound and the garage revival: his uncompromising music is able to compete in originality with the Chocolate Watch Band, Count Five, Music Machine, Seeds, Shadows of Knight, Standells and Syndicate of Sound without any reverential fear. Shelley came from a well-off family; he left UCLA in 1978 and formed the Popes that became Unclaimed the next year: he was already thinking about this name… when he found out that Peter Case (of Plimsouls) knew a guy named Gurf Morlix, who had a band called the Unclaimed during the sixties in the state of New York, took this as an omen.In early 1979 there was the turning point: Sid Griffin, formerly member of the Death Wish (a punk band), met with Shelley and… bang! The group was formed at Sid's apartment in the Palms district of L.A. by Shelley & Sid in April, then the others joined in: they made their live debut at the Nugget and entered the studio the following year, recording four tracks issued by Moxie later on.At the end of 1981 two leaders' strong personalities came into conflict thus, Sid forsook the group and created a new band with Barry Shank, another ex Unclaimed who had left shortly before; Steve Wynn supported this combo for a short time and, after his departure, they evolved to the Long Ryders.Shelley went on his way in the meanwhile, finding two worthy second leading musicians (Rich Coffee, ex Gizmos and Ray Flores IV) and releasing another masterpiece. Unfortunately Shelley's extremism caused the inevitable dissolution: the others kept on playing as the Fourgiven while Ganz left the scene.A first attempt to reform the band failed in 1984: Lee Joseph, ex Jonny Sevin and leader of Yard Trauma, broke up his group after a tape and a great mini-LP, moving from Tucson to L.A., where came into contact with Shelley. Here Lee formed Yard Trauma again with Coffee's collaboration, keepin' always in touch with Ganz while running his own label Dionysus.At this point rumours of an imminent album became more persistent, but it saw the light five years after its recording, credited to Attila & the Huns.During the European tour, in 1987, the bad-tempered Shelley left the band slamming the door. - http://mp3stune.org/
traxfromwax:
01 Lost Trails 02 No Apology 03 Walk On The Water 04 Things In The Past 05 Ugh 06 Phunt Walk