By Anthony J. Machcinski
Bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival became building blocks for the modern rock bands of today. While new bands have drifted away from the style of those juggernauts of rock and roll, The UnderGrounds have dipped back into the well.
The UnderGrounds, with Chris Imparo on guitar and vocals and Anthony Arena on drums and backing vocals, simply cannot be classified by genre.
“Over the past two years, we’ve played with everybody,” Arena said. “We played with a bunch of different bands and found that we don’t fit in.”
This inability to find a classification is one of the things that make The UnderGrounds truly unique. While many bands simply find themselves lumped into soft rock, alternative, heavy metal and other highly focused genres, the best that anyone has been able to muster about this band is “psychedelic rock.” However, not having a category is accepted by the band and seen as a point to inspire others.
“Maybe we can inspire other people to start making music like us,” Arena said.
Although the band formed six years ago, Arena and Imparo have been friends since the two were in third grade in Nutley. Arena started to get into music while hanging out with Imparo and eventually started to learn the drums in order to make a band with Imparo, who had started playing guitar years earlier.
To read the full story, see this week’s issue of The Observer.
