Teen-Beat 453.
UNREST (BRIDGET CROSS, PHIL KRAUTH, MARK ROBINSON)
Teen-Beat 26th Anniversary Performances
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
July 5, 7:30pm, at The Bell House
with TUSCADERO,
TRUE LOVE ALWAYS,
JONNY COHEN,
front room DJ: Andy Comer (Tel Aviv)
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
July 6, 8:00pm, at Johnny Brenda's
THE ROPERS,
KEVIN BARKER (Currituck Co.)
MC: Jonny Cohen
HOBOKEN, NJ (SOLD OUT)
July 7, 8:00pm, at Maxwell's
THE ROPERS,
BLOODY AMATEUR (Tel Aviv/Prosaics)
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
July 8, 8:30pm, at T.T. the Bear's Place
BOSSANOVA,
ROBERT SCHIPUL,
YASMIN KUHN (Flying Saucer)
BROOKLYN, NY (SOLD OUT)
July 9, 7:30pm, at The Bell House
VERSUS,
THE RONDELLES (original trio),
BOSSANOVA,
COTTON CANDY
MC: Patrick Bryant (Somerville Speakout)
DJ: John Funke (WMBR's Backwoods)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
July 10, 8:00pm, at The Black Cat
UNREST ('83-'86, Tim Moran, short set),
UNREST ('88-'89, Dave Park, short set),
VERSUS,
THE RONDELLES (original trio),
BOSSANOVA
MCs: Jonny Cohen and Patrick Bryant
CARRBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
July 11, 8:00pm, at Cat's Cradle
TRUE LOVE ALWAYS,
BOSSANOVA,
MC: Patrick Bryant (SOMERVILLE SPKOUT)
TEEN-BEAT 26TH ANNIVERSARY PERFORMANCES
Teen-Beat is an independently owned and operated music and arts organization which began as a cassette tape lending library in 1984 and created it's first mass-produced release on February 23, 1985. Teen-Beat helped ignite the indie-rock revolution in the 1980s and 1990s. Known for its DC based indie-guitar-pop and bands such as Unrest, Tuscadero, Versus, and Air Miami, Teen-Beat has also released records by experimentalists Gastr Del Sol, 1960's icons The Feminine Complex, and more.
UNREST's Mark Robinson formed the label while Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia (just outside Washington DC) with friends Andrew Beaujon (Eggs), Phil Krauth (Unrest), Tim Moran (Unrest), and Ian Zack (Thirsty Boys). Over the past 26 years, Teen-Beat has become internationally known.
UNREST will be reuniting to celebrate the 26th anniversary of Teen-Beat this summer. Six east coast concerts will feature other Teen-Beat bands as well, some of whom are contemporary and some of whom who will also be reuniting and playing their first shows in years.
From 1991 to 1994, Unrest's line-up of Bridget Cross, Phil Krauth, and Mark Robinson lit up the indie-rock world with their many seven-inch singles, their seminal "Imperial f.f.r.r." album, and their "Perfect Teeth" album co-released with 4AD and produced by Duran Duran's Simon LeBon. Spin magazine named their landmark "Imperial f.f.r.r." album album as one of the top ten of 1992 and in 2009, Amazon.com ranked it as the fifth greatest indie-rock album of all-time. Teen-Beat recently reissued the album on deluxe edition CD and 180gram colored vinyl LP.
This is only the second time the band have performed together in the last sixteen years. They performed a one-off show at the Teen-Beat 20th Anniversary concert at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C. on February 24, 2005.
The Washington, D.C. show will not only feature a headlining set by Bridget, Phil, and Mark, but will also feature a performace by the original Unrest line-up of Phil, Mark, and Tim Moran and yet another set with Phil, Mark, and Dave Park, who was in the band during the "Malcolm X Park" and "Kustom Karnal Blackxploitation" albums. Tajinder Chadha, who performed with the band at the 1984 Wakefield High School talent show, might also sing one or two songs.
THE RONDELLES original trio of Yukiko Moynihan, Oakley Munson, and Juliet Swango will be performing for the first time in over ten years. Formed at high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the band moved to Washington, D.C. in 1998. In 2008, Teen-Beat released "In Your Face," a collection of the band's first demos, and "Good Enough for Gravy" a live and studio collection of material from the band's last year.
VERSUS played scores of shows with UNREST in the early 1990s and the two bands appear together for the first time in 16 years. The New York City band are also indie-rock pioneers. The recently re-formed trio line-up of Ed Baluyut, Richard Baluyut, and Fontaine Toups released the classic "The Stars are Insane" album for the Teen-Beat label in 1994 and have a their new "On the Ones and the Threes" LP due on Merge on August 3.
TUSCADERO Melissa Farris, Margaret McCartney, Jack Hornady, and Phil Satloff lit up the indie-rock world with their incredible "Pink Album" in 1994. DCist recently wrote an article about it here. Their follow-up on Elektra/Teen-Beat "My Way or the Highway" is a lost classic. This will be only the band's second show in the past 11 years.
THE ROPERS are one of Slumberland Records' greatest exports. The band released their last album, "The World is Fire," on the Teen-Beat label in 1997, and has played only two shows in the past 10 years.
BOSSANOVA's song "Blue Bossanova" is the best-selling download from the Teen-Beat catalog. Leader and song-writer Chris Storrow put together one of the best albums of the decade with the band's "Hey, Sugar" album. These will be some of the band's first east coast shows.
TRUE LOVE ALWAYS' John Lindaman attended Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia with Teen-Beat founder Mark Robinson. True Love Always have released five albums and a handful of singles of their breezy bossanova-inspired indie-pop on Teen-Beat. Drummer Matt Datesman also plays in Teen-Beat trio Flin Flon, and bassist Tony Zanella performs frequently with +/- {Plus/Minus}.
ROBERT SCHIPUL made his first demo tape of piano-based songs at the ripe young age of 13 in 1994. This tape has been remastered and will be released on June 1, 2010 under the title "Cute-Core." He has performed only a handful of times and lives in the Boston area.
BLOODY AMATEUR is Andy Comer who was a founding member of Teen-Beat band Tel Aviv and Matador Records band Prosaics. Bloody Amateur's debut album is due out on Teen-Beat later in 2010.
KEVIN BARKER has played with Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Vashti Bunyan, Antony and the Johnsons, and Vetiver, and cut his teeth with Teen-Beat's ADEN. He recorded an album under the moniker CURRITUCK CO. on the Teen-Beat label. His new album, "You and Me" is out now on Gnomonsong.
YASMIN KUHN's old band FLYING SAUCER released a seven-inch single on the Teen-Beat label in 1991. She recorded a (still) unreleased album for Teen-Beat under the moniker Cobalt in 1993 and has since played in Boston band Bottleneck Drag. She lives in Providence and designs jewelry.
PATRICK BRYANT (SOMERVILLE SPEAKOUT) of WMBR radio at MIT reads the gripes and groans of his fellow Somervillans every week on his radio programme. In 2009 he released the entertaining "Somerville Speakout" greatest hits compilation on Teen-Beat.
JONNY COHEN has been associated with Teen-Beat for over twenty years. He sings both humorous and thoughtful acapella songs. Not to be missed!
COTTON CANDY is the newest project from Unrest's Mark Robinson and Evelyn Hurley (Blast Off Country Style). They sing obscure AM radio jingles of yore and throw in their own catchy indie-pop as well. Their debut album was released in February on Teen-Beat.
ON UNREST
"In 1992, when they released the seminal Imperial f.f.r.r., it sat on the opposite end of the spectrum from the year's highest-profile indie LP, Slanted and Enchanted. Unrest's music was brittle, crisp and syncopated. The guitars were unvarnished, the vocals sharply melodious . . . Pavement, of course, offered a drawling, slurred, and crackly slather that found more immediate favor. But, in a way, Unrest's shelf-life has proven longer. Their modular, clinical approach and the post-punk pedigree of their references nearly makes them visionaries. Not that bands these days play songs like theirs, they just sound like them."
- Bernardo Rondeau, Dusted, 4/30/10
UPDATES
NEW UNREST STUFF
TREE t-shirt
IMPERIAL F.F.R.R. vinyl LP
NEWCASTLE 1993 live CD
WASHINGTON, DC 2005 live CD
ENGLAND 1992 live CD (July)
RESEARCH
LISTEN
VIDEO
UNREST Live at Criminal Records
WHERE ARE
THEY NOW?
COTTON CANDY (Mark)
PHIL KRAUTH (solo)
MAYBE IT'S RENO (Bridget)
MEDIA
PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS:
UNREST, 1993 (1) [300 dpi]
UNREST, 1993 (2) [300 dpi]
photograph credit: John Falls
PROMOTIONAL IMAGES:
DISCOGRAPHY
ALBUMS
Unrest
Lisa Carol Freemont
Tink of S.E. [and various other titles]
Malcolm X Park
Kustom Karnal Blackxploitation
Imperial F.F.R.R.
Perfect Teeth
B.P.M.
Newcastle, August 2, 1993
Washington, DC, February 24, 2005
England, 1992
E.P.s
Unrest
Catchpellet
A Factory Record
Isabel Bishop
C.C.E.P.
Animal Park
SINGLES
Yes She Is My Skinhead Girl
Cherry Cherry
Bavarian Mods
West Coast Love Affair
So Sick
Cath Carroll
Angel, I'll Walk You Home
Make Out Club
Light Command
ALSO
Tree tee-shirt
Mark E. poster
Perfect Teeth toothbrush
Perfect Hairdo comb
Make Coffee Club mug
2010 Tour poster