the Union Trade

The Union Trade's first live performance was an unpublicized show on August 19, 2006, played before a small group of friends and family in the upstairs back room of Edinburgh Castle, a San Francisco pub and music venue. Prior to The Union Trade, Don Joslin and Nate Munger were in an instrumental band together called The Andrea Doria. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Joslin described the first six months of the Union Trade as "exciting for all of us ... The vision came first, then the band set out to develop the sound ... In the end, we have all reached a place musically that none of us would have reached alone."{{cite news|title=Bandwidth|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/10/NS8M14K3QI.DTL#ixzz1Rdr4mIOz|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle | first=Delfin|last=Vigil|date=June 27, 2011}} The first official live performance of the band was at another SF venue, Hotel Utah, on September 26, 2006. The band has since shared the stage with notable national and international acts like The Appleseed Cast, The Morning Benders, Neon Trees, Film School, Vetiver, Pela, Figurines, The Pack A.D., Starlight Mints, Dappled Cities, Polysics, Loquat, and LoveLikeFire.{{cite web|title=The Union Trade show list|url=http://www.theuniontrade.com/shows/|publisher=The Union Trade}}

The Union Trade made their recording debut in February 2007 with the release of their first EP, Now the Swell, on Tricycle Records. This EP was also the first release on the label which guitarist Don Joslin co-founded with San Francisco music photographer, Julie Schucard.{{cite web|title=About Tricyce Records|date=April 2009 |url=http://www.tricycle-records.com/about/}} The follow-up full-length album, Everyday Including, also released on Tricycle, came out in August 2008. Smother Magazine called it "a transcendental album awash in guitar fuzzy logic and hugely catchy triumphs. Simply amazing and simply essential"{{cite web|title=Smother Magazine|url=http://www.smother.net/2008/07/the-union-trade-everyday-including/|year=2008}} and the UK music blog The Beat Surrender ranked it No. 32 of its Top 50 albums for 2008.{{cite web|title=The Beat Surrender top 50 of 2008|url=http://www.thebeatsurrender.co.uk/features/articles/the-beat-surrender-top-50-albums-of-2008|publisher=The Beat Surrender}} The Union Trade's EP Why We Need Night, was released on February 8, 2011, and received recognition as a notable release from music publications such as the KEXP blog,{{cite web|title=KEXP Music Blog|url=http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2011/02/08/out-this-week-28-2/|year=2011}} Indie Rock Cafe,{{cite web|title=Indie Rock Cafe|url=http://www.indierockcafe.com/2011/02/releases-cut-copy-akronfamily-j-mascis-young-galaxy/|year=2011}} Largehearted Boy,{{cite web|title=Largehearted Boy|url=http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2011/01/daily_downloads_2541.html}} and Faronheit.{{cite web|title=Faronheit|url=http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2011/01/daily_downloads_2541.html|year=2011}} The San Francisco music blog Kata Rokkar calls Why We Need Night "A moody but gorgeous EP infused with youthful sincerity, it is cinematic in scope with soothing soundscapes of atmospheric, ambient, and shimmering chimes interspersed with crashing interludes...This isn't average post rock that drags and bores the listener, this is tight and well thought out songs that burst with color and expand with repeated listens."{{cite web|title=Kata Rokkar Kuestionnaire|url=http://katarokkar.net/2011/04/kuestionnaire-the-union-trade/|year=2011}} Their most recent release is a remix EP called Translations.

As members of the local San Francisco indie rock scene, The Union Trade have played multiple live shows at local venues including six at Bottom of the Hill,{{cite web|title=Bottom of the Hill Highlights|url=http://www.bottomofthehill.com/highlightsU.html}} Cafe Du Nord, and Rickshaw Stop.{{cite web|title=The Union Trade show list|url=http://www.theuniontrade.com/shows/}} They also performed as part of the San Francisco indie music festival Noise Pop in 2007 and 2008.{{cite web|title=Noise Pop 2008|url=http://www.noisepop.com/2008/performers.php}} In 2008 and 2009 The Union Trade traveled to Austin, Texas, to perform in the Bay Area Takeover, a Bay Area music scene showcase sponsored by Tricycle Records and the music blog The Bay Bridged during the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival.{{cite web|title=The Bay Area Takeover|url=http://www.tricycle-records.com/tag/the-bay-area-takeover/}} In 2009, they were also selected as an official showcasing band at SXSW.{{cite web|url=http://www.myspace.com/theuniontrade/photos/56633100#{%22ImageId%22%3A56633100}|title=The Union Trade at SXSW 2009}} In a review from the release show of Everyday Including, West Coast Performer magazine described The Union Trade's live set as a "heavy-hitting somber sound" with "a hauntingly sustaining wail over jagged vocals and pulsating rhythms set by the band's aggressive drummer and bassist.{{cite web|title=West Coast Performer|url=http://performermag.com/Archives/wcp.livereviews.0810.php}}"

The Union Trade have been placed in regular rotation on several internet radio outlets, including, Pandora Radio, Spotify, Rdio, somaFM's indie pop rocks, and Last.fm.

A Place of Long Years was recorded after a three-year hiatus that followed the release of their last studio release, the 2011 EP Why We Need Night. According to their label, Tricycle Records The band took a new approach, writing without a drummer for the first time. The result of this approach was a, quieter process that involved the founding members Don Joslin, Nate Munger and Eric Salk. The songs that would become A Place of Long Years began as an entirely instrumental set of songs. Once drummer Eitan Anzenberg was added the song took on their final form. The record was recorded at San Francisco's historic Different Fur Studio. In-studio contributions on the album were made by Tricycle labelmates Nate Blaz on Cello (Geographer) and Ann Yu (Silver Swans) on vocals. It was released on February 3, 2015 on Tricycle Records.{{cite web|url=http://www.tricyclerecords.com/product/the-union-trade-a-place-of-long-years/|title=The Union Trade "A Place of Long Years"|date=3 November 2014 |publisher=Tricycle Records|accessdate=2016-03-16}}

The Union Trade is most widely associated with the post-rock and shoegaze genres. Designating themselves "cinematic post-rock", the band describes their sound as bridging the typically instrumental rock sounds of influences such as Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, This Will Destroy You, with the highly effected guitar and vocal sounds of bands like The Appleseed Cast, Ride, Slowdive, and Swervedriver.{{cite web|title=The Union Trade Myspace bio|date=17 May 2015 |url=http://www.myspace.com/theuniontrade}}{{cite news|title=Bandwidth|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/10/NS8M14K3QI.DTL#ixzz1RdqUjtcc|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle | first=Delfin|last=Vigil|date=June 27, 2011}}

• A Place of Long Years LP (2015)
• Translations Remix EP (2013)
• Why We Need Night EP (2011)
• Everyday Including LP (2008)
• Now The Swell EP (2007)

• Don Joslin - guitar (2006–present) founding member
• Nate Munger - bass guitar (2006–present) founding member
• Eric Salk - guitar / keyboard (2006–present) founding member
• Dan Rodkewich - drums (2006 - 2010) founding member
• David Elrod - drums (2010–2011)
• Eitan Anzenberg – drums (2013–present)

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.theuniontrade.com/ The Union Trade official website]
• [http://www.pandora.com/the_union_trade The Union Trade on Pandora]
• [https://play.spotify.com/artist/5XNpznProDTSgi8PDvK1Rc The Union Trade on Spotify]
• [http://www.rdio.com/artist/The_Union_Trade/ The Union Trade on Rdio]
• [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-union-trade-p924220 The Union Trade at Allmusic]
• [http://www.last.fm/music/The+Union+Trade The Union Trade at Last.fm]
• [http://www.tricyclerecords.com/artist/theuniontrade/ The Union Trade label, Tricycle Records]
• {{Twitter|name=Nate Munger}}

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Category:American post-rock groups

Category:Indie rock musical groups from California

Category:Musical groups from San Francisco