What does Tom have against Unrest?

(i.e. also the dwindling band of people who take me seriously shouldn't take what I have to say about Unrest in general seriously even though I am being serious when I say it)

oh lord. i'll be taking all your musical recommendations hereon in with several spoonfuls of salt based on that statement.

1. "Angel I'll Walk You Home"
2. "Hey London"
3. "Breather x.o.x.o"
4. "Six Layer Cake"
5. "Winona Ryder," which is a cover of the Family Fodder's "Debby Harrry," which you'll note totally beats Nelly to the punch, naming-wise.

I just dropped back to note that for some reason I think Tom would have more love for the Air Miami record than anything Unrest did.

Versus forms in 1992... and release The Stars Are Insane (BING!!!SOMEWHERE!!!) two years later.

May I put the kibosh on Versus, and say they've only had five good songs in their career and leave it at that? If Versus were trying to be influenced by Unrest, they missed the point and fulfilled the rest with the same BS that made me tire of the class of early 90s indie rock very quickly... that faux vocal sloppiness that probably fueled the term "slacker"...

I guess the reason why I put Unrest on a pedestal are the exact complement of why Tom hates them.. Ok, strummy strummy Wedding Present, New Order, blah blah... a lot of bands have done that, obviously. In the grand scheme of things, Unrest has just been some crazed lucid dream of Mark Robinson.... from the proto 90s hardcore of "Malcolm X Park" to the stark and touching "Angel I Will Walk You Home"... it's all the most personal music I've ever heard, and I mean that figuratively and literally. Personalities are complex, and Unrest is actually one of the closest things in lesser-known rock that came close to showing that off.

Comparing Unrest to Versus is pointless, so.. Unrest has basically just been the whims of one guy, and who wanted to come along for the ride at the time. Versus seemed like a rehearsed, concerted effort to be an INDIE ROCK band.

And Versus's first release was actually "Let's Electrify!" ... "Stars" didn't come along until 1994.

And often I agree... I was implying Unrest did a sort of personal music that I wish other folks took cues from...

I didn't say The Stars Are Insanse was the first Versus record. I was intimating, perhaps unclearly (as usual), that it took them two years to really get somewhere, whereas Unrest took much longer. This isn't something I necessarily hold against Unrest (Versus probably had growing pains of their own in other bands, etc.) -- I was just responding to what Ned had said.

As for faux vocal sloppiness or slacker tendencies, I don't recall hearing much of that in Versus' records -- they never struck me as merely fucking around. At their best, they were just as powerful to me as the Wedding Present.

POPSHOTS YOU WILL PAY!!

I am probably trying to read too much into that.

I mean that sorta Thurston-ey indie "I sound cool" way...

Definitely understood.

Taking sides: "I sound cool" vs. "I sound cute"

For "Unrest" read "Teenbeat Records."

Would it be the height of tackiness to put World Cup Fever and Mouse On Mars' "Saturday Night World Cup Fieber" next to each other on, well, every mixtape I ever do? (Which is actually not very many, because I spend too long worrying about whether I'm being too tacky and how I don't actually own any tracks the recipient will like and not already have to get round to hitting record.)

For what it's worth, I'm partial to Unrest taking its sweet ass time going anywhere than where they actually ended up (SLIGHTLY partial, tho) (as DB delineated in his/her "why I like Unrest" post up there). Also, please let the record show that I don't think Versus got "anywhere" until _Secret Swingers_. I'm silly like that.

And where did this idea about Versus biting Unrest come from?

yes, mark shall lead the British rap invasion.

''Tom if you weaken I shall unleash stuff''

Yuk!