Unrest is an indie rock band from the Washington, D.C. area. It was one of Mark Robinson's projects for what would eventually become the TeenBeat label, also created by Mark while in high school. Developing from an experimental approach of never playing the same song twice, earlier material seemed to be influenced by everything from punk to funk to Ennio Morricone. Original members Mark (guitar) and drummer Philip Krauth were joined by Bridget Cross on bass in 1990 and their sound evolved into a minimalist but lively kind of pop. The two full-length albums released with this line up, 1992's Imperial f.f.r.r. and 1993's Perfect Teeth (distributed by the influential British label 4AD Records) featured finely crafted pop songs interspersed with strange avant-garde percussive and sonic tracks (sometimes featuring nothing but white noise, beeps or sirens). EPs released around the same time period reveal an even more pronounced gap between pop and experimental elements. The group broke up in 1994 with Philip pursuing a solo career and Mark and Bridget continued for a time as Air Miami, which released two singles and one album, me me me. Since Air Miami's demise in the mid '90s, Mark has continued to release various solo projects, as well as albums with his bands Cotton Candy and Flin Flon, and continues to run the TeenBeat label as well.
On February 24, 2005, Unrest played a one-time reunion show at Washington, D.C.'s Black Cat club as a part of the TeenBeat Records 20th anniversary celebration. Also appearing were Eggs, +/-, True Love Always, The Fontaine Toups, and Jonny Cohen.
On April 22, 2008, Teenbeat released an album by Bridget Cross under the alias Maybe It's Reno. The self-titled album features Robinson and Krauth on the first seven tracks, almost equating this project to another reunion of Unrest, though this time, all of the songs are written by Cross and she also performs all of the vocals.
Unrest reunited again for a small east coast tour in July 2010.