Unrest Classic or Dud?

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.

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."