Unstable Shapes are taking a live recording from their fourth show and putting it back to work. Today, the Minneapolis five-piece releases their version of Rites of Spring’s “For Want Of” to streaming services, with all revenue again going to the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, or MIRAC.
The track was recorded live at Icehouse MPLS on April 26, 2023, and first showed up on the Bandcamp-only compilation “Escape To Weird Mountain Volume 11,” a benefit co-release from Learning Curve Records and Forbidden Place Records. In the band’s credits, that same compilation is also listed as “Escape to Weird Mountain Vol. 11,” released in February 2026.
Either way, the point of the release stays the same: directing attention, money, and some practical solidarity toward immigrant communities in Minnesota.
Andrew Cahak says the choice of song came together the way band decisions often do in a five-piece with split tastes. Mitch Gustafson brought in “For Want Of,” and drummer James Taylor was instantly into it because of his love for the Dischord catalog.
“Generally if the two of them are both on board, we know we’re onto something,” Cahak says. He also admits there is some risk in covering a song that is both obscure and nearly 40 years old. A crowd might not know those early DC emo records. “But when it connects with the audience, it’s a really memorable experience for us.”
That push and pull makes sense in the recording itself. Their take keeps the hard-edged punk charge of the original, but there’s also a melodic line running straight through it, giving the song shape instead of just impact.
The band describe the performance as a tribute to their early emo roots, with sharp guitars, a driving rhythm section, fiery vocals, and a small nod toward fellow Minneapolis lifers Soul Asylum.
That nod becomes literal at the very end, where the last three sung lines lift from Soul Asylum’s “Somebody To Shove,” a detail Cahak added on the fly and one that also explains the additional music and words credit for Dave Pirner.
The wider re-release is tied to something close to home. Cahak says the band had already seen the effects of ICE raids in their community over the past several months, and when Learning Curve Records asked them to contribute to a MIRAC fundraiser, they went looking through their archive for the right recording.
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He landed on this one from Icehouse MPLS, “just a block and a half down the street from where Alex Pretti was killed by ICE agents.” Cahak lives on that same stretch, the part of Minneapolis commonly known as Eat Street, and says that proximity made the choice feel exact: “it felt fitting to give the song a wider release as a single in hopes of driving further attention and support to our immigrant community.”
The single also extends a pattern that has followed “Delicate Machinery,” the band’s first full-length, released by Learning Curve Records on April 11, 2025.
Since then, Unstable Shapes have kept putting out side releases tied to nonprofit causes, including the remix EP “Machined Delicately,” their Deftones cover “Dai the Flu,” and a live version of “Glass Ladder” with Tommy Rehbein of Toilet Rats. Those releases sent money to She Rock She Rock, Oasis For Youth, MIRAC, and the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund.
Unstable Shapes are Andrew Cahak on vocals, Mitch Gustafson on guitar, Kevin Hurley on bass, Ryan Jaroscak on guitar, and James Taylor on drums. “For Want Of” was recorded and live-mixed by Ryan Mach, then mixed and mastered in post-production by Knol Tate.
The artwork is by Hank Edwards and Andrew Cahak, with design by Cahak. The original song is credited to Rites of Spring, with additional music and words by Dave Pirner.
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