Right Before The Long Ryders

The Unclaimed was my pre-Long Ryders band. We formed April 1979 in my L.A. apartment, lasting until Barry Shank and I left Thanksgiving Weekend 1981 to form what became the Long Ryders. You can read all about it in Pete Frame’s great book, More Rock Family Trees (Omnibus Press). We played 1960s garage band music and other than the Chesterfield Kings I reckon the Unclaimed were the first to see true merit in the performance of such material.

Our look was based on that of the Music Machine. As this band was my first band in California to have an identifiable West Coast following my days with these guys are understandably precious to me…even though our friends called us The Unacclaimed!

Three songs from this era are now on the Sid Griffin Bandcamp and are the only three originals I wrote for The Unclaimed which were recorded in a proper studio so here they are again some forty years later.