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?

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