An eleven-piece band of time-traveling troubadours, The Unsettlers specialize in dark polkas, menacing waltzes, horse-drawn lullabies and funeral dirges for the living - all filtered through the creaking floorboards of a whiskey-soaked saloon. Based in Montreal, the lineup features a contortionist, multiple vocalists, clarinet, accordion, violin, horns, guitar, piano, bass, and trashcan drums. Sounding peculiarly familiar, darkly celebratory, and maniacally assured, The Unsettlers have gathered a devoted following with their haunting, windswept vocal harmonies and pulsing, danceable blend of Klezmer, Beat poetry, and big-top dixie.

Since forming in 2007, The Unsettlers have played over 200 shows, including: multiple appearances at Windsor's Festival Epicure, Pop Montreal, and Montreal Fringe; a month as featured entertainment at Carnivale Lune Bleue, a 1930s-style carnival based on the HBO series Carnivale; the evening finale on the Tree Stage at Montreal's Osheaga festival; and most recently, on November 13, 2010, released their double album "Oil and Blood" to a sold out crowd of over 600 at montreal's historic Rialto Theatre.

Pulled from a pile of moldering 40-ouncers in 2008, Bad Uncle has gone through many changes and distortions, arriving at its current incarnation with a mutated sound that combines elements of surf, opera, rockabilly, polka, blues, thrash metal, disco and bluegrass. The band has played countless shows in many of Montreal's liveliest venues, leaving an oozing trail of sweat, beer and smiles in its wake.

Press Quotes:
“The Unsettlers bring genuine pathos and atmosphere to their lurchy, Vaudeville-broke-down sound. The gruff vocals of B.W. Brandes bark and howl while pretty female voices warble in the background. Clattering ragtime pianos, clarinets, trumpets, glockenspeils…all festive, yet melancholy, like a square-dance at a funeral.”
Bandmark.com

“The Unsettlers is grifter folk music. It’s the fourth album off Orphans. It’s the second soundtrack to The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s the forest dancing drunkly at night in the cold rain.”
Rateyourmusic.com

"Santosh’s voice is partially responsible for my enthusiasm for this group– he sounds a little like how I imagine the Cookie Monster might sound after eating Tom Waits. He growls and shouts as he sings, but still manages to display a great vocal range and flexibility."
Danstesoreilles.tv