Back in July Unconditional Arms played an intimate show to a group of friends and fans in a beautiful studio hidden away on one of the more unassuming blocks of San Pablo in Oakland. Set at Santo Recordings, the post rock quartet crafted a set of songs taken from every release up to this point complete with an intermission necessary to bring the band gracious refills of oxygen. The show was professionally recorded and will soon be released as both a live album and film which you can pre-order now via The Native Sound.

Unconditional Arms take the stage at Bottom of the Hill next Tuesday for the official release of Live at Santo. The night acts as a release double header with fellow Oakland instrumental rockers ISLES, releasing their new album Bending Light. Rounding out the night is Covet, a San Francisco math rock crew, who recently wrapped some extensive touring including a UK run with Chon. All in all, be prepared for a few hours of whirlwind guitar work and don’t come expecting much lyrical audience participation.

If you’ve witnessed Unconditional Arms since their Santo performance, you’ve noticed the addition of a fifth member adding one more guitarist to the arsenal. This should lead to more similarities in their live sound and recordings which they have been working to link closer. Even though this would allow mastermind Jeff Wright not to rely as heavily on looping pedals, it will be a shame to watch one less precision maneuver from guitar to pedal board to lighting trigger to . . .

With the concert release imminent, work on a new LP is already in the works. “Fever Basin” is the first new track that has already sold out its first 7’ pressing. The six minute epic wastes no time drawing you in, only to hit you like a miscalculated wave. The following minutes take you back to the surface only to square you off against a greater opponent with even greater momentum. I’m not saying this would go great with some tense big wave footage, but it couldn’t hurt. You can look forward to the full album some time next year.