Unrest Classic or Dud?

& "yes she is my skinhead girl" is a great indie pop song.

But dud, especially for "Isabel".

And Ms. Bridget Cross STILL needs to get that Panax / what-have-you project off zee ground, please?

Also, Bridget Cross = minimalist bass genius.

I may even like Flin Flon better than Unrest, just on the strength of "Swift Current" and _Boo Boo_ (the first album isn't as good).

He does it by listening to a lot of "What Goes On" and '89-90 Wedding Present? j/k

Unrest must haves:

• Imperial f.f.r.r - UK version on Guernica (confusing US version contains lyrics for the UK bonus tracks not included?) dreamy pop, wine glass drone, kraut-fixations, rhythmic interludes.
• Isabel Bishop EP - there are several versions of this... i think the tracklisiting is all the same... "Heathers" joke, compiles some earlier single tracks
• A Factory Record - 1991 Sub Pop single of the month... covers of ESG, Miaow, Crawling Chaos and Fin.
• Yes She Is My Skinhead Girl - K Records... features the kraut- jam "Hydroplane" in truncated form... also available in half hour full format on various Cath Carroll promo CDs along with the track from the Stereolab split.

further covered "isabel" on their sometimes chimes 2xLP. really strange evocative version. speeded guitar/sample sounds like a harpsichord.

David is OTM, except I wouldn't really know. Well, I have the experience of sudden shock and joy, dragging myself up those imaginary stairs. The recognition component is high. Tom, in the chapter of your book on the tension between rhythm and recognition, anonymity vs. eye contact, in (not) dance music, you've got to mention Unrest! (The rhythm component isn't bad either, but I suppose glorious=not cool.)

I prefer Perfect Teeth to Imperial f.f.r.r., 'Make Out Club' and 'Six Layer Cake' to 'Suki' and 'Cherry Cherry'. It's better when Bridget sings the songs that are not supposed to be glorious, e.g., 'Light Command'. Her version of 'Winona Ryder' is also better than Mark's.

I have to agree with Douglas on the "imperial f.f.r.r." being the "Another Green World" of indiepop bit. Thankfully, it was this record that got me into indie rock, and not something more uniform and less minimal. My favorite pieces on this album are, as David mentioned, the more warped difficult ones, like "Firecracker" and "Imperial". Tom, "Isabel" and "Cherry Cherry" don't exactly describe this album as a whole. If anything, this record kinda approximates the feel of a Tall Dwarfs record. "Imperial f.f.r.r." is a stunning record.

And over time, so is "Perfect Teeth", though it's more of an indie- pop record. "Angel I Will Walk You Home", "Cath Carroll", "Soon It's Going To Rain", "Food and Drink Synthesizer" (maybe getting the titles wrong here), "Stylized Ampersand" are all amazing songs.

"Malcolm X Park" and "Kustom Karnal Blackxploitation" are amazing in completely different ways. Then, they seem like a band that's sorta poking fun at Dischord while really drunk... though I think they serious... maybe. Is this where the whole punk-embracing-soul thing started? Seriously... the Make*Up must have listened to "Disko Magick" and ran with it, sans humor.

FYI, "Disco Magik" rips off the Red Hot Chili Peppers ("True Men Don't Kill Cayotes"). They staggered around a lot and could be smartass/obscurantist in the worst way--I hate Fuck Pussy Galore, most of Kustom Karnal Blaxploitation, most of Perfect Teeth, and all Air Miami. (I noticed Christgau hates Imperial but he seems to have no facility for trancing.) Unrest influencde much crap, too.

Still, they made a new kind of jam minimalism that built on Sonic Youth without copying. They heard what was beautiful about Beat Happening and applied it to what they took from Joy Division. They had a mystery about them that made mail-order pop seem fun for a couple years.

Classic: "Teenage Suicide" off Kustom Karnal Blaxploitation (cover of the tune from Heathers), Malcolm X Park LP, Yes She Is My Skinhead Girl EP, Cherry Cream On EP, that Sub Pop single of covers, Imperial f.f.r.r. (American version), BPM compilation CD, "Nation Writer" off Isabel Bishop CD, "Where Are All Those Puerto Rican Boys?" off promotional Cath Carroll CD, "Angel I Will Walk You Home" off Perfect Teeth. Also: The Olympic Death Squad CD (Robinson solo) and Flin Flon live.

On a side note, what do you all think of the 24 Hour Party People flick?

unrest never did a damn thing for me, except one song off fuck pussy galore that i can barely remember. (i want to say track three, but that'll be some horrible shambling indie pop thing and i will look the fool.)

102 Beats that publication date = 26th September by the way, i.e. six months after part 1.

I get the feeling it needs to be thought of somewhat in context to be appreciated. American indie rock coming through into the nineties was pretty much deplorably rock: the 80s models were bands like the Replacements or Fugazi, big shouty crunchy-chord American rock bands, and just before 93 -- when Perfect Teeth was released -- a great grungy shot of even rawkier influence had been injected and toppled the whole thing over toward the mainstream. Meanwhile the UK was seeing stirrings of a less traditionalist indie approach -- Too Pure, roots of post-rock or what-have-you -- but while plenty of American bands were following this, they weren't really impacting the overall course of American indie, and even the American bands flogging that stuff in the UK, like Th Faith Healers, still had heavy doses of very American grit.

Perfect Teeth was not only an antidote to that but an advancement on it. It was entirely clean-lined: Robinson's big guitar blasts pretty much lacked distortion -- in America! in 1993! -- and instead gave us that frantic sped-up jangle that's distinctively his contribution to the lexicon. The record was also spacious, and spacey. At the point Stereolab was still working its wall-of-sound drone, but a lot of the tiny blip-tone melodies Unrest were constructing pointed ahead to the stuff Stereolab would be doing during a much later phase of their career -- the backing vocals at the end of "Angel I Will Walk You Home," for instance, this sort of concrete tone-placement approach that's all over the record. They managed to turn the foreground of their music into something like a Mondrian painting, the clean-lined blocks of particular tones, in a way that seemed to turn away from most of the other things going on at the time, and the sort of techy spaciness of those tones combined with Robinson's vague leaning toward some image of a 50s-style pop combo to create and probably surpass what would, four or five years later, become a major theme in indie internationally, even though no one connected that with anything Unrest had been doing.

It seemed cleaner and spacier and more friendly and cerebral than the highly-emotive rock idiom of the moment, and more bedroomy, and more personal: "Back when I was twenty / I didn't think anyone liked me." And it managed to set all of its most fascinating impulses in context: it functioned terrifically as a rock album, as a pop album, and as an "experimental" album. Which is, I think, a lot of why it gets praised so often, but also a lot of why it gets slated as a run-of-mill record: it certainly seems continuous with most of what else was going on at the time, but really it's quite difficult to come up with anyone else who sounded quite like them, or even anyone else who's particularly followed the techniques that were actually uniquely theirs.

Well, I probably shouldn't have used the term "indie-pop" so loosely, as I meant it colloquially, and not as any sort of "pop" at all. Ooops.

Don't get me wrong. "Make Out Club" and maybe "Cath Carroll" had at least some potential for radio play, IMHO. But as a whole, "Perfect Teeth" is certainly not a 'pop' record.

Nabisco did a GRATE job of his summation of said record. Though, I'll add that since listening to a heavy dose of early Factory record bands since, I can now definitely hear those elements in almost all of Unrest, unique they may be, in the 90s. Mark Robinson would be the first to admit it. (Well, "A Factory record" is pretty much an admission right there)

Also I think their post-Unrest projects do a good job of pointing up what was uniquely theirs: the minimalist concrete rock of Flin Flon is really quite intriguingly assembled, and deserves credit for feeling more like the propulsion of let's say Gang of Four than most of the bands actually imitating Gang of Four; and I still think the Air Miami record is lovely, a perfect showcase for the side of Robinson that's obsessed with arranging these clean hypnotic tones into breezy beachy pop songs. It also gets at his weird habit of taking Factory-style sounds but swinging them toward punchy major-key pop (the Stockholm Monsters are maybe the only precedent I can find for this, and it's still sort of different) -- as generally "new-wave" as they sound, it's tough to find very good analogies for the approaches of "Sweet Little Heartbreaker" or "Neely."

I saw them live at Maxwells after Perfect Teeth and they did this long a capella bit that was beyond goofy. Bridgid Cross started to crack up in the middle of it, which was cool.

The bonus tracks aren't hugely revelatory (and fans probably have 'em already, except for the demos), but do buy it for the nice remastering job.

this is the truest statement on this thread. as a guitar player, "cath carroll" makes me jealous. as a songwriter, "isabel" makes me jealous. as a grammarian, this paragraph is loaded with problematic sentences, but i'm too lazy to edit it.

There are a million things about the album I love, but I particularly love the double-tracked vocals on "Blushing" and how they diverge into non-obvious, amazing harmonies. Or on "June" where Bridget sings a pedal note for the "How did it feel to be 26 degrees?" part along with the main vocal melody.

...or how they put two instrumentals back to back, as if to say, "These are not throwaways" - and they are indeed essential! (On the other hand, I wouldn't have cared if they had left off "Food & Drink Synthesizer" from Perfect Teeth.) You have the drum machine precision of "Champion Nines" followed by the kinda-sloppy-but-in-a-good-way drumming of "Sugarshack".

Mark's guitar sound is just perfect. I mean, when I listen to the opening notes of "Goodbye," I'm practically in tears.

How does ILX rate the Phil Krauth solo albums? I only have Silver Eyes - it's okay, didn't really inspire me to buy more, though. That Panax song that was on one of the TeenBeat samplers was great. Do they have anything else?

http://64.224.76.125/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=KRAD&Product_Code=KCD016&Category_Code=IJ

The Panax 7" is so so so so great. Their entire output is that 7" and the comp track which is also great.

i'm gonna have to top and say completely fucking classic! i love this band so much.

I totally love their cover of "God Gave Rock and Roll To You". After being blown away by that in the early 90s I picked up Perfect Teeth and never really got into it. But that one cover was amazing.

And right you are for it! xpost

After not listening to them for a year or so I random-shuffled onto "Imperial" the other day and was elated all over again. What a great band.

Yeah, to me they are just undeniably fantastic. Its so easy to call them one of my all time favorite bands.

The comparison to "what goes on" way up thread is very otm

Was just thinking about them a bit yesterday. Very glad to have caught them twice, both times great.

I saw them the night Bill Clinton was elected! They were great.

Was just reading Matos' "great out-of-print albums" column on Perfect Teeth in Idolator the other day.

'I do believe that you are blushing'was always a favourite of mine
Beautiful. That album (Imperial...) on the wonderful and badly missed Ajax records for a while?

I have an album by Unrest in my loft that sounds more like I thought Unrest would sound - punk. And it's not the one with the girl on the cover.I've just done a fruitless, probably lazy, google and not found it. Any ideas?

Sorry - talking to myself here - think it was their first album

Malcolm X Park?

One of my favorite bands of all time.

Fortunately, I was visiting friends in DC and was there for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQbUIgn7PIs. You find crazy shit on the internets.

Hmmm, I just noticed that the two Air Miami demo cassettes are available from Teenbeat on CDR. I have mp3s of one of them...not bad. May have to place an order.

Listening to Imperial F.F.R.R. for the first time in forever (nice remastered LP reissue). Might like it better now than I did then, and that's saying a lot. A lot a lot a lot a lot. Especially digging the more abstract tracks that seemed so much less immediately appealing when I first heard it. Best semi-unheralded U.S. indie rock LP of the early 90s? I dunno. How much competition is there? More than anything, I like how of its time and genre it sounds without sounding like anything else out there. It presents itself superficially as this casually scruffy, almost tossed-off object, very much in the style of the moment, but the arrangement and sequencing are incredibly well integrated. is It doesn't "break barriers" or invent a whole new pop aesthetic, but it hums along with this oddly propulsive slackness and hits it out of the park song after song after song. I can see why some might be annoyed by the sentimental directness of "Isabel", but it's short and sweet enough for me to accept without qualms. In fact, Isabel's only deficiency is its tendency to be held up as the album's avatar (when Imperial & Loyola obviously deserve that honor). Only thing I really miss is "Yes She Is My Skinhead Girl", and maybe the 7" version of "Cherry Cherry". "Wednesday and Proud"?

Now I wanna dig out Kustom Karnal Blaxploitation and Perfect Teeth.

It's just not Imperail ffrr without Yes She is My Skinhead Girl and Wednesday and Proud.

Must be a UK v. US thing - I don't associate those songs with Imperial f.f.r.r. at all. Good songs, but in my mind would tip the album toward a poppier vibe than it should be.

I'm North American but have a UK version. Those are two of the best songs on the album, and I couldn't live without them (I guess US distributers were a bit sketched out about songs about fucking skinhead girls on sandy beaches?)

Also I was shocked to find out how bored I was by Perfect Teeth about a month ago. I spent a long time looking for a copy, and now aside from utter classics like Angel I'll walk you home, Breather xoxo and six layer cake, I can barely be bothered. Not a criticism, per se, as much as a personal feeling of disappointment.

Don't think US distribs were sketched about anything. It's just that the UK version tacked on a few contemporaneous singles that might have been hard to track down outside the States. I.e., those songs really don't properly belong on Imperial F.F.R.R. Sort of standard practice for US vs. UK releases. Most of the US Fall LPs include singles not on the original UK versions.

And, yeah, I always saw Perfect Teeth as a disappointment in the wake of Imperial. Decent record on its own merits, just a bit of a let-down in comparison.

perfect teeth is great!

so, is it weird that i LOVE almost everything i've heard from mark robinson since 1991 (cherry cherry single), but that i've heard very little before 1991? i mean, i just never sought it out. i love unrest, i love mark solo, i love flin flon, i love air miami, i like (maybe not love) grenadine. i think maybe i'm afraid i won't like the earlier stuff as much. or maybe i'm just a weirdo. and i still need a copy of origami and urbanism.

Early stuff is very different, so your trepidation makes a kind of sense. Prior to Imperial, I don't think they really knew what they wanted to do or be, so they sort of bounced around through their influences. Kustom Karnal Blaxploitation seems like the epitome of this. Slots in with the loud guitars, funk-metal tendencies and dangerous/transgressive fascinations of early 90s indie/avant culture, but the band doesn't seem to feel terribly comfortable in that clothing. Skinhead Girl single seemed like the breakthrough at the time, the point at which they became themselves (kicking off a rush of great material on the run-up to Imperial: Factory EP, Bavarian Mods, Cherry Cherry).

Don't think US distribs were sketched about anything. Since they were on the label they ran I would say no, too. Also noteworthy that they didn't tack those on to the remaster.

Scott -
The further back you go the less pop and more post-punk Mark's work is; if that's your thing, it's worth exploring. I have copies of some of the early cassette stuff but never dif out anything pre-Imperial.

x-post

Picked up a copy of the Isabel Bishop EP at the shoppe this morning - after trying and failing to find the "Skinhead Girl" 45 (where do things go when you aren't looking at them?). So great, and it's especially interesting to hear Teenage Suicide and Nation Writer in the context of this discussion. They seem like the bridge between Kustom Karnal and Imperial, along with She Makes Me Shake Like a Soul Machine, which sounds totally out of place on KK.

Now I gotta track down BPM and the Cath Carrol EP...

As far as I know, the two older tracks that fans of late Unrest need to hear are, "She Makes Me Shake Like a Soul Machine" and "Can't Sit Still." Not to say that the other stuff isn't worth hearing. My favorite song of theirs is still "Vibe Out!" Completists shouldn't forget the Mod Fuck Explosion soundtrack, only one song of which is on CD to my knowledge.

2nd Can't Sit Still - that was the song that first caught my attention, twenty goddam years ago. Would add Christina to the S list, also from Malcolm X Park.

"Vibe Out" is one of my favorites also, so good.

also search "Headringer" from the Magic Flowers 7" box and the acoustic "Cath Carroll".

Forgot about Headringer! Box was called Magic Ribbons, irc. A lot of it was crap, but that's a great Unrest song it also had a whole bunch of early Sebadoh tracks, including Cyster, which I liked a lot. Plus I loved the shit out of Mystery Tramps' The Trip, though I don't think I ever heard anything else by the band. Kind of CVB-esque.

The label, Leopard Gecko put out some early Seaweed stuff, a Treehouse single that I remember half liking, cool stuff by an Melvins-y Oly band called Dangermouse and a Barbed Wire Dolls 45 that's still a guilty pleasure (vaguely reminiscent of The Cult).

[/waybackmachine]

Apologize for the terrible prose/grammar there. And elsewhere.

the 'fuck pussy galore' cd has at least five tracks that would appeal to fans of the imperial-era stuff. i think it's pretty easy to find cheap secondhand

i just remembered that courtney love did a cover of 'skinhead girl' that i don't think i've ever heard, i should seek it out for laffs

those Sebadoh tracks are now on the Domino reissue of Freed Weed (xpost)

Picked up a copy of the Isabel Bishop EP at the shoppe this morning- - love love love this version of the song & also the Marine Girls cover. I wish I had access to it right now, actually, but it is buried in a box somewhere..

Aaaaand this afternoon I picked up BPM, just to get full coverage of the circa-Imperial singles & cetera (OCD kicking in hard). Nice that this stuff is so easily available used in indie shops. Again, the entire whoosh of songs they released between late 1990 and early '93 is just incredible. Sudden outpourings of all-genius material in otherwise uneven careers are strange. Welcome, but strange...

Why why why hasn't some aspiring rapper sampled "Champion Nines" (off Imperial)?????

[nabisco]=Nabisco? Why do you hide under a different name? What's the point if everyone recognizes you anyway? Is this a quiz show?

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Tuesday, August 27, 2002 6:42 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
N****h has googling fears, Alex -- it's to do with a thread he posted on that his mother found, but the thread itself wasn't the type of thing you'd necessarily talk to your mother about. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, August 27, 2002 6:50 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ha ha old ILM.

Ha ha also on the new ILX automatically substituting nabisco's real name on the quote.

Every time an Unrest thread pops up, I go to the teenbeat site and find out that there's new product. No exception now: two live shows now available. May have to investigate...

Hey, just noticed that the copy of B.P.M. I picked up the other day tacks on three bonus tracks at the end: a three-minute version of "Make-Out Club", a short acoustic tune with Bridget singing, and a very brief instrumental version of Styx's "Sailing Away" (more a quote than a proper cover, but whatever). These songs aren't mentioned on the packaging or on Allmusic/Amazon/Discogs, so I'm wondering what the Bridget song is. Anyone know?

keep repeating keep repeating

Turns out it's an acoustic version of Light Command, another Perfect Teeth track. Dunno where it comes from, or if it appears anwhere else but on BPM.

perfect teeth is great!

― scott seward, Sunday, October 11, 2009 12:31 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

everything post KK Blaxploitation through to the end is near flawless, inc Perfect Teeth

one of my favorite bands ever, so creative

Light Command is a great song. Haven't heard that acoustic version tho.

Wanna pick up a copy of Perfect Teeth now, as I haven't heard it in ages and the PT-era stuff on BPM is just as good as Imperial etc. I have a tendency to fall hard for a certain record and to look askance at whatever comes next simply because it isn't that thing. Years later I'll hear the follow-up record I once denounced and be completely shocked by how RONG I was. Perhaps this is one of those...

I just noticed that a kind of ok Unrest track that's not so easily found has turned up on one of them there blog things. Song is "House Proud" on the soundtrack to Hippy Porn from 1991, which was supposed to come out on Matador, but never did. It sounds a bit like one of their Air Miami demos. I like it, even if it is pretty short. I've had it on cassette for a while but could never manage to transfer to digital.

The soundtrack has a number of other big names on it (Unsane, Frogs, Cop Shoot Cop, Thurston Moore) and a very unessential Dustdevils instrumental. Googling the pertinent bits of this post will turn it up.

can someone tell me the name of that Mark Robinson solo album that's all cutup voice and sine waves?

I believe you're thinking about the *Taste* EP: http://www.amazon.com/Taste-Mark-Robinson/dp/B00004TJZ1/

Those early Unrest cassettes are available on CD from Teenbeat's site now. I'm guessing they're made to order CD-R's but I may be wrong. But to finally hear Twister and Lisa Carol Freemont after all these years of wondering.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2010/05/04/three-unrest-lineups-to-headline-teenbeat-26th-anniversary-shows-in-july/

I've got to find a way to get to one of those shows.

bummed, no west coast dates!

I think the Black Cat show in DC is on sale now.

DC area local me should get a ticket before it sells it.

Some of you might find this article that discusses the old Teenbeat house in Arlington, VA., to be of interest

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/38231/the-orange-line-revolution-the-year-that-punk-rock-left

Wow Ropers opening in Hoboken SO FUCKING EXCITED!!!

great article, thanks! xp

I love this band so much.

I saw them 3-4 times back in the day & once as Air Miami. They are an absolutely terrific live band! Such simple arrangements & yet such lockstep rhythm b/w the guitars & drums - Mark R has such a huge voice too. Hopefully it has aged well?

I might have to make my way east this July.

I saw them the night Clinton was elected. All I remember is them playing "Hydroplane" for 8-10 minutes and Bridget resting her head on Mark's shoulder while they effortlessly jammed out.

One of the best double-bills I've ever attended: Unrest & Stereolab in '93 @ St. Andrews Hall in Detroit - touring for Perfect Teeth & TRNBWA respectively.

^^^ was at that same show...awesome

One of the best triple bills I ever saw: Unrest, Volcano Suns, Wesding Present at the 9:30, 20 years ago. Anyone else going to the Cambridge show?

Suki is pretty catchy. I've seen a couple lists that rank Imperial ffras the number one indie album of all time - DO NOT AGREE. But I can't deny it's a pretty attractive album, all the songs are very well done. But holy shit, talk about iconoclasm. I'm sure people have seen the list I'm talking about.

xxp - have we been through this before, henry s? I think we were probably at a lot of the same shows.

One of the best double-bills I've ever attended: Unrest & Stereolab in '93 @ St. Andrews Hall in Detroit - touring for Perfect Teeth & TRNBWA respectively.

Caught that bill out here at UC Irvine, with Idaho opening. Hell of a triple bill.

idaho, unrest and stereolab in one concert? why wasn't i there?

xxp - have we been through this before, henry s? I think we were probably at a lot of the same shows.

I think we both piled on some thread about Detroit venues, or St. Andrews Hall, or something like that...(I live in Boston now, but am from the D, and went to a ton of shows there in the 80's and 90's)...

Got my tickets to the NYC show!

^^^jealous

one of the few bands I would be excited to see a reunion performance by (the other one was Camper Van Beethoven)

Gotta buy my plane tickets next!

Would killllllllllllllll to see that.

Brooklyn show sold out!

Come to Hoboken, people.

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/07/02/mark_robinson_and_his_little_teenbeat_label_celebrate_a_big_legacy_and_a_26th_anniversary/

huh, a designer for Houghton Mifflin

I love that he writes hand-written notes for mail orders (I got one for that Maybe It's Reno CD)

will anyone be at the Friday 7/9 show in Brooklyn?

man i was so disappointed at that maybe it's reno album :\

really? I thought a lot of it was very much of a piece with Perfect Teeth

Yeah, maybe it's reno is great. Takes a few listens to kick in.

I love that he writes hand-written notes for mail orders

Hah, yeah! I only ever ordered from Teenbeat once, got Vomit Launch & No Trend CDs because they were impossible to find here, and got a note from "Mark" I did wonder if it was really him ; )

3 versions of Unrest were great in DC tonight ( Versus were as well; and Rondelles weren't bad....Missed the first band...Jonny Cohen in between band was well Jonny). Unrest did "Cath Carroll", "Teenage Suicide," "Suki," "Makeout Club" and many more. Mark's got that wonderful boyish grin as he strums away and sings.

Unrest were great in Hoboken.

a crucial influence on the transition of american indie aesthetics from B&W photocopies of skulls to colour photocopies of 70's airport lounges.

― fritz, Monday, February 18, 2002 5:00 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark

all time 2nd response HOF

Pals of mine who dj'd at the University of Maryland's WMUC and who hung out with Robinson in the mid to late 80s and early 90s shared Mark's interest in Factory Records. While such interest may not have been prominent as a musical theme in America at the time, it was not necessarily unusual.

Mark's lost a ton of weight.

I had not seen him in so long, I missed the heavy phase.

I was trying to determine the best Unrest record.

the first one a little too juvenalia for my tastes, and perfect teeth never did it for me. a noble failure.

that leaves malcolm x park, kustom karnal, imperial. kustom karnal is great, but a little too genre-bound. imperial has their best songs, but

malcolm x park is their best record.

the pre-Imperial stuff I've heard seems half-formed to me. don't think I've ever listened to Malcolm X Park tho

you should check it out.

"pop" song highlights-- redo of can't sit still from their first lp. ]Christina, which is a tribute to lawrence hayward vox.

other highlights-- lucifer rising not sure if this references beausoleil/jimmy page origins, but it is fab. raucous cover of kiss' Strutter. Elvis Presley cover. Cramps-informed rockabilly workout. eloquent piano instrumental, recalling vin guaraldi high on lucy shwag, mondrian.

a brilliant mix of self-indulgence and hitting just the right notes for the crowd at each prompting to change over the record. i think large part involved regurgitating influences in a compelling way and not being confined by genre.

one of the best shows i ever saw involved a capella rendition of lord shiva from kustom karnal with his bandmates looking on like "ugh, i'm so embarrassed"

a brilliant mix of self-indulgence and hitting just the right notes for the crowd at each prompting to change over the record.

funny, i can't parse that sentence either.

what i mean, is after each song when you might be tempted to be "ugh", the next track totally switches gears.

i think their eclecticism played a large part in their genius. other big names falling under indie rock from that period, pavement, superchunk, whatever seem so stifled in comparison

can't get past how ugly the sleeve is tbh. from Imperial on all their stuff looks SO great.

yeah, maybe not the best artwork choice ever. i try not to pay too much attention to that stuff. i mean, "unrest" is sort of a ridiculous name for a band.

i agree, though. imperial + the singles around that time, bavarian mods, skinhead girl, etc., are perfect-looking

also, you should check out "headringer" from twister cassette. great early unrest song, man

if you like stuttering epiphones

Drummer Phil Krauth is now my son's English teacher. They had some tough essays on Crime & Punishment.

!!

that's so cool

yes!

Just realized after 15 years of looking at them that the sleeve photos of B.P.M (1991-1994) are Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls (I've hung out on that overhang!), where Simon Le Bon stopped by and passively watched the band recording long enough to get a joke "producer" credit on Perfect Teeth. That album's first two songs sure stand up as something else (and very Duran Duran), I gotta say.

have always wondered about that LeBon credit

yeah, me too!!

man "angel i will walk you home" is one hell of a song. the fast-strummy stuff is pretty obv the (deserving) focus of their late-oeuvre, but i looooove the slow pretty stuff a lot, too.

^^

never got all that much into malcolm x, but when i first heard it i was a huge imperial head so maybe i'd feel differently about it now

can't get past how ugly the sleeve is tbh. from Imperial on all their stuff looks SO great.

from imperial on their stuff looks great. and uptight, anal, entirely defined by conventional (mid-to-late 20th century) thinking about "good design" and "good taste".

malcolm X park cover art seems to come from a mirror universe wr2 those buttoned-down aesthetics. raw, sloppy, deliberately ugly, crude, badly designed. somewhat appealing on that level, and representative of the messy, homemade, splattery music within.

as a record, i can't go with malcolm x park as their best. think they were still defining themselves at that point, working to find an individual voice within a whirl of then-current punk, post-punk, art & indie influences. the follow-up, kustom karnal blaxploitation, seemed like an attempt to align themselves with the likes of sonic youth (creepy tunings, "rock" posturing, dark subject matter), and a triumph within the band of their prog over their pop tendencies, but it's a failure, and a brilliant one in that they were so quickly able to learn from it. boring as it may be to say, imperial still stands as their masterpiece. it's their sound, not an approximation of anyone else's, and it never falters, doubts itself, breaks stride.

great post. let me think about this.

yeah, i think kustom karnal is brilliant, defiantly so, maybe

as i said above, i think imperial is the best song-wise. during that time i was blown away by their singles run of cherry, skinhead girl, factory tribute, bavarian mods. maybe i'm just a sucker for contrarianism, but i loved that they went directly from kustom karnal to jangly pop songs. kinda like writing a sparkly almost radio-ready song like skinhead girl but dousing it in four-letter words, provocative subject matter

think i like mxp so much b/c it is brash in a clueless first album sort of way...enthusiasm trumping everything. lots of confidence, too many ideas. i realize it's not their first lp, but it has that vibe almost. and i feel like it's aged really well. 'fuck pussy galore' or whatever it's called is something of a mess, kustom feels strangulated somehow and maybe too much of a pose, imperial for all of its greatness sounds thin to me sometimes, and i never really got into p. teeth.

entirely defined by conventional (mid-to-late 20th century) thinking about "good design" and "good taste".

yeah, especially the cover of the animal park 7"!

well, almost entirely ;D

imperial ffrr is nice for a hot summer day

Yes.

Drummer Phil Krauth is now my son's English teacher. They had some tough essays on Crime & Punishment.

― curmudgeon, Monday, September 20, 2010 7:19 PM

He was a hard but fair 11th grade English teacher. A "B" for the year in an IB English class is not bad. I do not know if Mr. Krauth finds any time to drum these days.

I hope so! love his drumming

love everything about this band, really

did you lot hear the version of hydroplane that was on the recent codeine box?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXiV6vOjqB4

actually i'm making the assumption here that hydroplane was an unrest original or am i wrong?

indeed it is

phew! far too good a song to waste on a b-side imo

I jammed the 33-minute "Hydro" the other day, it RULED. Love this band so much, I kinda want to be a completist but it is expen$$$ive.

I totally love their cover of "God Gave Rock and Roll To You". After being blown away by that in the early 90s I picked up Perfect Teeth and never really got into it. But that one cover was amazing.

― Euler, Saturday, March 15, 2008 6:07 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Never even heard of that. What is it on?

http://www.discogs.com/Unrest-Bavarian-Mods-And-Other-Hits/master/270879

it is so good, and I wish I could find a lyric sheet because I just hear fragments of pleas and regrets and memories ("I found my mailbox full of you", what a lovely line) and I want to get a better understanding of what's falling apart and how. I think I understand what rock and roll has to do with it though.

so good

Retrospective piece in the Post today about Unrest, mostly the Imperial-to-breakup phase: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/dcs-indie-music-scene-thrived-in-the-90s-a-look-back-with-one-of-its-most-beloved-acts/2018/01/02/7f4611be-dc45-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2018/01/02/Magazine/Images/Unrest-Knoxville_199201_byMarkRobinson.JPG

Not sure how I never managed to post in this thread. Total classic & much missed.

It was an unexpected thrill to hear them on the radio the other day. The Current played "Make Out Club."

I was listening to the Isabel Bishop EP last night and realized how great the funkier version of "Isabel" is.

Haven't heard the EP is a couple decades but how far from the original with the "Ashley's Roachclip" drum break added is it?

iirc the EP version is the same as the "Isabel Bishop" 7" - only the version on Imperial is drumless

I want a Mark Robinson/Unrest anthology...

god i love this band

Same!!

perfect teeth was so great, what a way to go off into the sunset

love

Any Air Miami fans?

Tomas MacLoughlin
8 years ago
the drummer, phil krauth is my English teacher!!!
how cool is that??

xp Mike Fellow is no Phil Krauth, but Air Miami are OK. Never clicked with them the same way.

Not to brag but I saw Unrest at Maxwells and The Ropers were the openers...

...in 2010

I kinda want to be a completist but it is expen$$$ive.

― sleeve, Wednesday, February 27, 2013

five years later, the only formal Unrest releases I'm still missing are the "Make Out Club" 7" and the split tape with Dust Devils, but then there are a bunch of impossible-to-find Teenbeat cassette compilations as well.

Were you really finding it expensive at the time? None of my Unrest records are worth that much money. I don't see a lot of interest in Unrest these days in general. I'm wondering if they will be "rediscovered" by p4k or someone and have their classic status affirmed a little more among the general public someday.

the really expensive one that I still don't have is the UK LP release of Perfect Teeth, it's like $80 or more

Make Out Club single is > $20 and I just can't justify it since I have all the tracks already afaik

most of this stuff is pretty affordable, I think I had to spend $40-50 on the 1st LP original

This one? https://www.discogs.com/Unrest-Perfect-Teeth/release/1622164

yes, trying to find a copy for sale in the US is very difficult

Based on that marketplace, Germany is hoarding all of them!

Any Air Miami fans?

*raises hand

tbh I bought the Air Miami CD because I saw it 2nd hand for about £2.50 some time in the 90s because of the Unrest connection, listened to it a couple of times but didn't think that much of it. A few years later when I first started talking to my now-wife about music she was a fan (of both bands) and sent me a copy of their demo and got me to listen to the album again, and that time it clicked for me.

Any Cotton Candy fans?

me otm 16 years ago about flin flon and ESPECIALLY about panax's "the garden" (from the 2000 teanbeat sampler):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiP1U1DIcMM

when i was a kid in dc the teenbeat stuff felt a lot less cliquish than the dischord post hardcore cool guys and a lot more stylish than the theater dork pukka shell stylings of the dismemberment plan.

yes, trying to find a copy for sale in the US is very difficult

sleeve, i will keep an eye open for that one for you

<3 thank you!

Oh my god, I Do Believe You Are Blushing, where have you been? Apart from, of course, on my shelf for the last decade, unlistened.

Where do I go after Imperial ffrr?

Perfect Teeth, immediately :)

and then BPM

I do believe your blushing is their best song imo

uh wow

Unrest 06-09-1991 Middle East

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtVDyKwVZws&feature=youtu.be

aw man, gone already

nah it's there, just Google "Unrest 06-09-1991 Middle East" and it'll be the first result

thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ryyk4ee5Tw

nice thx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndlZ3NJfZSE&feature=youtu.be

what was that supposed to be?

oh wow is it gone already? Unrest live at the Khyber in Philly 1992

https://youtu.be/ndlZ3NJfZSE

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ea-MgTUWkAAFAqL?format=jpg&name=medium

A new radio programme debuts tomorrow morning at 11AM on
@wmbr
. Mark & Evelyn's American Top 41 starring
@evelyn0909
and Mark Robinson. http://wmbr.org

Cool! They do a lot of kitschy station identification jingles for WMBR, and every now and then pop up here in town (Cambridge/Somerville, MA) in their Cotton Candy guise, so this show should be a lot of fun.

that's very good

also, this is not really related, but I'd like to post it here anyway, just for fun

https://cdslimspine.com/assets/photo-img.png

Terry Tolkin (R.I.P.) did a lot more besides release Imperial, but that’s where I know his name from. Mark tribute from earlier today:

Terry, me, Richard. Teenbeat 173 with Teenbeat 178 on the table. Teenbeat Banquet 1995. pic.twitter.com/JoRm4u16sO

— Teen-Beat / Mark Robinson (@Teenbeat463) January 22, 2022

I need to look back at that Teenbeat item re to Tolkin No. 6 label .

In an email I just got

Party Milk
Your Problem as a Mountain
35-song single LP
The new album from the duo D. Trevor Kampmann (hollAnd) and Mark R. Robinson (UNREST). Originally dubbed FANG WIZARD, this dynmaic group of two changes their moniker with every release.

Pop experimentalism like you've never heard before. An electric, eclectic, and electrifying duo from Washington, D.C. Their unique, (mostly) lyric-less instrumentals are created by combining old school melodies with futuristic beats and bizarre, fractured howls.

AIR MIAMI
Me. Me. Me.
Double LP gatefold
2 x 45

All 16 tracks from the session remastered — three not on the original album. On Miami orange and sea blue vinyl. New jacket design.

A Teenbeat / 4AD co-release. Comes out July 28.

PRE-ORDER NOW:https://t.co/b32MQ5lSJt pic.twitter.com/y2esqpCygP

— Teenbeat / Mark Robinson (@Teenbeat463) June 7, 2023

the really expensive one that I still don't have is the UK LP release of Perfect Teeth, it's like $80 or more

― sleeve, Monday, 8 January 2018 21:25 (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

sleeve, i will keep an eye open for that one for you

― faust apes (NickB), Wednesday, 10 January 2018 17:24 (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

<3 thank you!

― sleeve, Wednesday, 10 January 2018 17:29 (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

is a sleeve still in need?

no, but thank you! I found an autographed copy a while back. much appreciated!

oh good stuff! finally found a copy for cheap today, guess I'll just sell it for £££ instead :)

yah ebay that sucker!

actually... if ilxor Johnny Fever is around, I think he was also looking fwiw

Here's a pretty good new interview/article about Air Miami, from the 4AD website: https://www.4ad.com/news/1340

Regarding the break-up of Unrest, it says: Unrest broke up in the winter of 1994, giving only “exhaustion” as the reason. Nearly three decades later, Cross is still vague: “The best I can say is that we were just kids and didn't know what the hell we were doing.”
Then later on in the article: “But I’m still not sure what happened with Air Miami, why Phil wasn’t on it, why it wasn’t an Unrest record. And I don’t know if that’s something we even want to talk about because it’s painful, you know?”

Thanks for sharing that. Nice Royal Trux detail

yeah that's great, thank you!

The new LP reissue of imperial f.f.r.r. is really elegant.

When all the dust settles (well it's been 30+ years), this may be one of my top 10 LPs of all time. Curious to hear what Cross is referring to regarding to the breakup. Mark seems to be coy about talking about late-era Unrest as well.

aside: Mike Fellows (the ersthile Trux member referenced in the interview) was pretty much the Drag City house drummer at that point. A couple years later he drummed on American Water.

Well I went to an Unrest show circa 2010 so whatever interpersonal issue there may have been at the time wasn't bad enough to prevent that joyous reunion show.

The Fellows aspect is interesting, b/c it draws a connection btw. these very different bands with DC-area roots (Rites of Spring, Unrest, Trux)

This discussion of the Unrest breakup reminded me of a small detail. I worked at Teenbeat (Mark’s house) over two days during the summer of 1994 folding singles and doing mail order. I remember at some point Mark taking a phone call and talking with the other person for a bit about their respective bands breaking up. I don’t remember any real details from the call other than after he hung up, he just said to me “That was Calvin Johnson.”

I've just started listening to this from Discograffiti:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jrXyJVQpw
From the description: "Welcome to Part 1 of the longest (16 HOURS), most definitive (every single release covered), and objectively the best interview ever conducted with Unrest/Grenadine/Air Miami/Flin Flon man and Teenbeat label head Mark Robinson."

!!

The full, sordid backstory of the several weeks leading up to our summit meeting, as I admittedly totally overdid it with my 204 pages of notes and endless, ultimately alienating texts and calls to him;The growth steps that had to happen for Mark to develop into one of the greatest pop songwriters of all time;And over a half-hour just on Imperial f.f.r.r. alone

Wow, so 4 hours of the 16 are available to all, but it appears you have to donate to the podcast guy’s Patreon to hear all 16!

wtf I demand at least 2 hours on Imperial, unless he means the specific song and not the album as a whole

j/k I will never listen to this

that guy (podcast host, I've never heard Mark Robinson on a podcast) is unsufferable

Yeah honestly seems weird to only spend 30 mins. on that particular album, out of a 16-hour(!) convo

Maybe they run thru every numbered Teenbeat release (including the T-shirts, events, etc.)

Would only be interested if he talks about Arlington in the 80s-early 90s

Hmmm so I finished listening to the 90-min edition linked above. For some reason, I'm picturing "pushy hot dog cart street vendor" when listening to the podcast host's voice.

204 pages of notes, and the fellow didn't know that "Winona Ryder" was a cover of Family Fodder's "Debbie Harry"? And it sounded like he wasn't familiar with the original songs that were covered on "A Factory Record." He was complimenting Mark on all the melodic details in "When It All Comes Down" and Mark was like (paraphrased) "Well, we covered it exactly like the original."

Still, it's nice to hear Mark talk about these songs, and there were some factoids that stuck out in my head, like:
* Mark's first electric guitar (Epiphone Genesis), obtained in 1981, was apparently the ONLY electric guitar he used for all Unrest recordings. (I took a look at the "Make Out Club" video, and yup, it checks out.)
* The title "I Do Believe You Are Blushing" comes from a quote from the movie "Mermaids"! (Which starred...Winona Ryder.) The "Miss K" in the lyrics refer to a real person, with whom Mark had a sort of "Before Sunrise"-esque experience, hanging out and sleeping in Central Park.
* "Isabel" and "Champion Nines" were solo Mark (bass, bells and a sample - apparently the section where the sample slows down was unintended). On "Suki" and "Cherry Cream On" it's just Mark and Phil (Mark played the bass on those two). I thought I had read somewhere that Mark played the drums on "Sugar Shack" (which would make sense, since the drumming isn't very precise), but Mark said it's Phil.
* Mark said "Cherry Cream On" is just a remix of "Cherry Cherry" (I thought "CCO" was a newer recording of "CC", not a remix.) Apart from that, Mark said it took just a total of about 4 days to record "imperial f.f.r.r."!

Oh yeah - the podcast host thought "Cherry Cream On" was about a blow job (?!?!). After he said that, there was a long pause, and then Mark said it was most definitely not about that. (He didn't say what it was about, but it's pretty obvious what the song is about, right? I mean, come on, dude.)

Thanks, those are some nice details (lol at the host not having checked out the Miaow song…?).

I’d be interested to hear Mark talk about making Twister with Kramer, and KKB (with Wharton Tiers)… and, yeah, just the early Arlington days.

I encountered Mark some years ago at a street fair, manning a table where he was hawking Teenbeat product, in addition to his own musical ephemera. I gushed over Imperial and bought a couple of things, and as I was walking away he came running after me with an armful of CDs from his own collection. What a guy!

He always comes back to DC from Massachusetts for the holidays. Saw Mark back in DC hawking Teenbeat stuff at a reunited Tuscadero gig opening for reunited Velocity Girl. He dj’d an event another night recently, showed his Butch Willis doc Amateur on Plastic, and then on another night his own Cotton Candy group played.

Yeah, Cotton Candy are regulars at these street fairs in Somerville, Mass. Always fun to see.

I only know Mark a tiny bit, but a band I was in was on Teenbeat, and we were really excited to use the Air Miami (or maybe Flin Flon?) snare in the studio.

guessing at the band, but holy shit u played in a band with Kevin Barker?!? I play D&D with him every week!

small freaking world

Tell Kevin I say hi! He's such a good (guitar) player.

Dang Josh, you buried the lead... gonna listen to your guys' stuff now

Another ILXor was in a band with Kevin out here in SF, but he doesn't post here anymore (I don't think).

Agreed that this podcaster is a challenging listen, his voice is if you were to describe what cocaine abuse sounds like.

I love Mark and someone I know pitched an oral history of imperial to him and he was not very enthusiastic so this is a start! 4 days wtf!

So Discograffiti also did an interview with Mark and Jenny Toomey, discussing the Grenadine catalog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPdAiHiTRPE
This is a pretty fun listen. I'm actually comforted to know that someone out there loves "Goya" as much as I do.
I even made a cocktail in tribute to them (which, of course, contains grenadine) named "Pinky Tuscadero."

Perfect Teeth got reissued and Mark Robinson has a new project -

UNREST's Mark Robinson and hollAnd's Trevor Kampmann have recorded three albums under three different monikers. 2011's Fang Wizard and 2023's Party Milk albums were both instrumental. For 2025's Uncomfortable Police, they've both stepped in front of the mic and created thirty new songs, 15 of which will be pressed onto opaque black vinyl and housed in a very special full-colour jacket. We're calling it Michelin Star Hardcore.

"Bandcamp Food Stamp" b/w "Final Flur" is a companion single to the album, but will not appear on the album. These two songs are exclusive to the single

Haven't heard anything in the collaboration that has been all that interesting.

Separately, Teen Beat sent out their newsletter this morning saying that Mark Robinson "has a 45-song set prepared spanning the years 1982 to 2025" for when he plays with Ida and Tsunami at Black Cat on March 27.

He's also being inducted into the Wakefield High School Hall of Fame in Arlington.

Surprised he wasn’t in the first class to be inducted. (The guy released a song called “Sweet Home Wakefield”!)

https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/481016879_10239089285557071_6614856447721220599_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=VzscrrmGdpkQ7kNvgGiK8GU&_nc_oc=AdhAPRyR4DTUfmVnyN_E95sD_Og0ZVWBfkdiZXn-QwcOVuBEsYNFEyTa6R94KqZ6lxU&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&_nc_gid=AjC-va8G5gkWMg09C1uCTig&oh=00_AYGyt6ERNrpMBPkxp4yIaJpFumQOmQu7-cqe2LFSolUvlA&oe=67D13791

The Wakefield High School Education Foundation will induct five new Hall of Fame members at an awards ceremony at Wakefield High School on Monday, May 19, 2025. The induction will take place in conjunction with the Student Honors Awards ceremony beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium. There will be a reception for inductees and guests prior to the ceremony, beginning at 6:00 p.m. at Wakefield in room A134. After the ceremony guests are invited back to the reception to visit with the inductees.
The eleventh class inducted into the Wakefield High School Hall of Fame consists of: a musician, photographer, mentor/teacher, martial arts champion and filmmaker.
John Chung ’76, Martial Arts Champion, Teacher
William Cogswell, Jr. Staff, Teacher, Mentor
Loki Mulhoulland ’90, Filmmaker, Civil Rights Activist
Mark Robinson ’85, Musician, Founder Teen Beat Records
Susan Stone Page ’56, Photographer

I think Unrest drummer Phil Krauth went to Wakefield High with Mark too, but he didn't get nominated. Krauth was later my son's math teacher at another Arlington, VA school

Loki Mulhoulland, also being inducted, is the son of a real American legend:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Trumpauer_Mulholland

I met her once, because she was one of my wife's neighbors, and she was incredible. Just a truly inspiring figure that makes you want to be a better person. Pure empathy and courage.

wow

I purchased the Imperial f.f.r.r. vinyl reissue on Bandcamp recently. It arrived with a signed note from Mark and even a little ink drawing of the cover art.

Oh nice . He’s a good guy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2025/03/19/mark-robinson-unrest-concert-dc/

In December, mere hours after Mark Robinson performed a decidedly atypical solo set at Arlington’s Galaxy Hut, conflicting rumors began to ripple across the scene. Someone in attendance told me that Robinson — hero of the indie underground; founder of Teen-Beat Records; singer-guitarist of Unrest — had performed only the first line of each song. Someone else said he only sang the choruses. A third somebody described the set as “maybe more like a medley?”

Now here’s Robinson himself on a recent video call from Taiwan, where he’s visiting his son, happy to clear everything up. “I had a list of like 50 songs, and I just went from song to song,” he says (noting that he played only the portions he could remember). “I tried to do it Fugazi-style, where I was just trying to feel what the next one was. You know how they never [used] a set list?”

He's gonna do this the same way opening for Ida & Tsunami in DC next week at Black Cat

The homage soon put Unrest in contact with Carroll, who went on to release music on Teen-Beat and tour with Cross and Robinson’s post-Unrest band, Air Miami. “I kind of got the feeling that she never really liked us or wanted to be a part of this weird, young (thing),” Robinson says. “She was an actual adult.”

Looks like Disc 2 of the Perfect Teeth reissue is all stuff that’s been heard before, but I guess not surprising given how much this band loved to release scraps and bits of work product.

Oh, this is funny from 4AD… I guess a continuation of the joke:

Simon LeBon produced; he was recently awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).

wonder why skinhead girl is still not reissued, one of their very best tracks.

unlike almost all of the rest of their stuff, it was on K Records, that might be part of it

Fwiw, it's on the Isabel Bishop EP and the UK (Guernica) version of Imperial f.f.r.r.

yep!

I think "God Gave Rock N Roll To You" has been similarly orphaned

linx here to my obsessive collection

https://shardsofbeauty.blogspot.com/2018/08/how-about-big-helping-of-odds-and-ends.html

Cool, thanxx!

sleeve, would it be possible to see tracklists for the comps? 🙏🙏

I think I revised them later but lemme check

original CD

01 Headringer.mp3
02 The Hill Part Two.mp3
03 Hydroplane.mp3
04 Feeling Good Fixation.mp3
05 Deaf.mp3
06 UFO.mp3
07 Sex Machine.mp3
08 Caitlin Bums.mp3
09 Capitalist Joyride.mp3
10 Teenbeat Theme 91.mp3
11 Bavarian Mods.mp3
12 She Is Today (edit, I cut out the full minute of total silence).mp3
13 God Gave Rock & Roll To You III.mp3
14 Electrico.mp3
15 Isabel Bishop.mp3
16 Love To Know.mp3
17 Wharton Hockey Club.mp3
18 Teenage Suicide (Peel Session).mp3
19 Firecracker (Peel Session).mp3
20 Six Layer Cake (Peel Session).mp3
21 Miles Davis (Peel Session).mp3
22 Cath Carroll (7_).mp3
23 Capezio.mp3
24 Afternoon Train.mp3
25 Hey Hey Halifax.mp3
26 Light Command #3.mp3
27 International Nautical Miles.mp3

bonus tracks CD

Catchpellet:
01 Communist Tart.mp3
02 Real Enemy.mp3
03 Scorpio Rising.mp3
04 Equator 77.mp3
Cath Carroll EP:
01 Cath Carroll (10cc Mix).mp3
02 Vibe Out!.mp3
03 Goodbye.mp3
04 Hydro.mp3
Cath Carroll promo CD5:
02 Cath Carrol (Acoustic Version).mp3
03 So Sick (Acoustic Version).mp3
04 Where Are All Those Puerto Rican Boys.mp3
Isabel Bishop EP:
04 Nation Writer.mp3
Perfect Teeh 6x7" bonus tracks:
Plastic Film.mp3
Breather XXX.mp3
comps:
20 I Love Calvin.mp3
13 House Pourd.mp3
21 Castro 59 (Live).mp3

at some point I turned this all into a triple CD with the Mod Fuck Explosion tracks, the Teenbeat 001 tracks, the Sammy Supreme 7", etc

(and the original BPM tracks)

The Peel Session version of "Six Layer Cake" is so nice...

Guess I had never heard "Where Are All Those Puerto Rican Boys?" – great track as well!

originally a split tour single with Stereolab! (b/w "Mountain")

also love the Peel version of "Firecracker" with vocals

The remastered CD (Perfect Teeth) sounds terrific! Maybe a touch brighter on the high end than I would prefer, but so much is gained overall…

(the packaging is disappointingly minimal – you can barely read the liner notes as reprinted on the back of the two slip cases – but I’m sure there are significant cost restraints these days.)

$19.99 for the digital version?!? no thanks, altho ofc I'm curious

What exactly is “Food & Drink Synthesizer”… are they spinning something around really fast? (I’ve never known)

I think so, yeah

pretty sure it's a "whirly tube" - a flexible plastic tube that makes sounds when you spin it.
my friend Bill had one around the house that he said was a give-away (looks like they sold them too).
we used it c.1982 on some of our recordings. may have even beat Echo & The Bunnymen to it - they used it on "The Back Of Love" (Porcupine, 1983). I didn't know the actual name of the tube til now. an Echo blurb says they swung multiple tubes, vaguely "tuned to a natural e-e"

later I ended up playing keys in Phil's backup band from the TeenBeat North East tour summer 1996 until I moved up to NYC in 1998.

!!

and yes the whirlytube is what I was thinking of, I remember them

OMFG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi72bY_mdRU

just incredible, there are seven parts of the video

featuring Phil on drums in the last part

What a cool set!

“She Makes Me Shake…” <3 <3

I own this album in a few different formats as it is, plus many of the bonus tracks on various singles/EPs, so I probably won't buy the reissue unless it's attractively packaged. (Please don't let it be attractively packaged.)

It's not, but like I said, it sounds great!

Why why why hasn't some aspiring rapper sampled "Champion Nines" (off Imperial)?????

― Mr. Snrub, Monday, October 12, 2009 1:22 AM (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

And also why why why did it take me so long to get into this band? I had only ever Imperial but until last week that was it. Holy shit, their albums are all awesome!!

Folks throw around the term "underrated" a lot these days, but (imo) Malcom X Park and Kustom Karnal are secretly two of the best & most underappreciated albums of their era/"scene".

Not to overdo it, but I’m so pleased with how this reish has “opened up” Perfect Teeth for me… I always considered it “good, better overall than Imperial, maybe not as strong as Air Miami”; but now it feels like a true classic.

Shit, now I'm probably gonna buy it again.

It kills me that 4AD didn't release the deluxe remaster of the Air Miami album on CD! I like how they mixed the three extra songs into the track list, instead of just stick them at the end. (This remaster sounds nice, too, as far as I can tell from the digital version.)

(I didn't know that Mike Fellows was AM's original drummer, and played on the (excellent) Airplane Rider / Stop Sign single!)

He was also the drummer on American Water.

It's being weirdly underplayed in the official announcement from the Wedding Present, but their Seamonsters anniversary tour in North America next year has Mr. Robinson doing Unrest songs as the opening act. Minor detail there!

https://media.brooklynvegan.com/xxrzsfjkyw/uploads/2025/10/27/wedding-present-seamonsters-tour-2026.jpg

@Ned: Mark's opening for Coffin Prick and Fred Frith in a couple weeks in the Richmond. First SF show since Perfect Teeth.

https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/live-music-fred-frith-coffin-prick-mark-robinson

Quite a combo there!

Mark has been doing solo medley sets where he tries to jam in as many Unrest songs as he can do in a row

man i gotta say that does not sound good

not to yuck other people's yum but i don't think i could sit through that and i love unrest

I dunno, I think I'd totally be up for a huge medley of Unrest tunes played at "Cath Carroll" pace.

Mark Robinson is a master of the 30-second song snippet, as evidenced by his Cotton Candy turn.

I mean if I'm going to see the Wedding Present anyway (and I am)...

Saw him a few weeks ago. Was introduced by a comedian talking about Gen X music stuff and laying out the rules of what the performance would be - 50 songs in 30 minutes (or was it 30 songs in 50 minutes?). MR was pretty delightful/charming, but a little goes a long way / the songs really do blur together, when played truly solo. YMMV of course!

somebody posted a video of him doing the medley set and it rules

I would take either the medley or 50 mins of "Hydroplane", nothing in between.

ha oh look I posted that video upthread six months ago

Steve Shasta r u going to this: https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/live-music-fred-frith-coffin-prick-mark-robinson

I've really been on the fence because I'm stuck downtown until 7:30pm.

But if YOU are going perhaps that tips the scales. Plus that lineup is so weird and funny.

Robinson is gonna do an annual dc area holiday show with other Teenbeat acts December 28 at little Galaxy Hut in Arlington, VA