Unrest Classic or Dud?

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."