YOU ONLY LOVE ONCE: Perfect Teeth by Unrest
Every Sunday, milk crate revisits an iconic piece of music history—artist, album, or otherwise—as a part of our weekly crate digging series.
Design by Diego Gonzalez
By Emeline Chopin
The films of Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse trilogy are charged with the kind of raw, underground energy that sucks you in without ever even trying. They perfectly capture the feeling of being a young adult learning to navigate a messy world of drugs, desire, and decadence, and it makes total sense that the music of Unrest shows up on the soundtrack several times. With their effortlessly cool, lo-fi sound and their lyrics ranging from sweet to sardonic, it’s obvious that they were riding the same wavelength when they were making their 1993 album Perfect Teeth. I was first introduced to the album when I watched The Doom Generation (1995), and now every time I put it on I feel like I’m tuning into the vibe of that movie. It’s scrappy, stylish, and surreal through and through, so when I managed to snag an original pressing vinyl box set, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about.
Unrest, a title derived from the Henry Cow album by the same name, was formed in 1983 by musicians Mark Robinson, Phil Krauth, and Tim Moran as one of many projects under Robinson’s record label TeenBeat. Other bands included Air Miami, Grenadine, and Flin Flon, all started by Robinson as well. TeenBeat had humble beginnings, originally functioning as a sort of listening library for Robinson’s classmates at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. With the help of his friends Andrew Beaujon (of Eggs) and Ian Zack (of Thirsty Boys), he compiled a collection of albums, mostly original recordings of Unrest’s practices, that could be borrowed for a few days at a time. As the years went by, TeenBeat grew larger. Although it was originally founded with the goal of releasing music by local artists, over 100 bands have been featured on its bill since its inception in 1984. Among other artists such as Bratmobile, Gastr del Sol, and Velocity Girl, the record label also released some of Robinson’s solo work.
TeenBeat was a cornerstone of the underground scene in Washington, D.C., and Unrest quickly followed suit. The band’s commitment to strengthening the community while maintaining complete creative control over their work made them a crucial part of the DIY community as well, emphasizing their rejection of commercial success and dedication to anti-consumerism. Unlike many other local artists at the time, Unrest had a clean yet eclectic sound that made them more accessible, while also differentiating them from their hardcore leaning peers.
Seeing as the band was formed around the idea of never playing the same song twice, their earlier material was all over the place, with influences from everything punk to funk. In 1990, Robinson and Krauth were joined by bassist Bridget Cross, the former vocalist of Velocity Girl, who transformed Unrest’s style from deeply avant-garde to a more minimalist, indie-pop sound. The group released two full-length albums with this lineup, Perfect Teeth and Imperial f.f.r.r. (1992), both of which primarily featured their warm, atmospheric sound of the time. Several tracks within these bodies of work, as well as a few of their EPs released around the same time, still reflected their experimental origins though, often combining percussive elements with samples of beeps and sirens.
Unrest disbanded in 1994, making Perfect Teeth their last album. It was originally released by TeenBeat and then distributed later on by the iconic independent record label 4AD. “Angel I’ll Walk You Home” opens the album up ever so gently with a minimalist chord progression repeated by the bass and guitar, followed by a wordless vocal arrangement. Listening to it almost feels like an intimate conversation. The band’s decision to create an album without using any effects pedals allowed Robinson’s guitar to really shine through, giving it a clean yet jangly sound. The vocals of Robinson, Cross, and Kauth, who all took turns singing on different tracks, further established the soft and casual vibe. Unrest’s first album included an insert with “YOU ONLY LOVE ONCE!” written on it, and the lyrics of Perfect Teeth definitely maintained that same levitous, romantic energy. It’s definitely noticeable on tracks like “Make Out Club” where Krauth sings “You are the very first one / making out all over me,” and “Six Layer Cake,” where Robinson sings “I called you with my head / My fingers, your lips to my hand.”
At its heart, Unrest’s music has always been moved by desire, and their final album was no exception. It’s a romantic, restless, and somewhat reckless landmark of the indie-pop genre. Each and every track is humming with the tumultuous push-and-pull of youth, its lyrics replete with intimate confessions and fleeting connections. Perfect Teeth is authentically vulnerable in a way that still resonates decades later as a true indie-pop expression of longing.