History loves to project the illusion of straight lines and clear boundaries. It’s appealing to think that the Renaissance started in 1300, ending the Dark Ages and the Black Plague. It’s attractive to consider the Roaring 1920s ended on 1 January 1930 with a black curtain falling on all the Gatsby parties of the Jazz Age, breadlines, and great billowing dust clouds gleefully itching to take center stage. It gives a satisfying sense of stability in a highly uncertain world. Any student of history knows these narratives serve the interests of capital, finance, and power. If someone’s selling you a neat, tidy version of history, there’s a strong chance they’re either trying to sell you something or control you.
Music is no exception, of course. Neat, tidy scenes and musical movements are perfect for repackaging, perfect for licensing to shallow talking heads I Love the ’90s-style documentaries or to be trotted out every decade or so in nostalgic, highly lucrative victory laps. That creates a distorted, highly homogenized idea of specific scenes, genres, and musical movements. The phrase “early ’90s indie rock” immediately conjures images of Pavement‘s “Range Life”, with pretty slacker boys rocking out beneath unending Southern California sun.
Likewise, depending on when you started paying attention, the name 4AD automatically evokes arty, ethereal avant-garde post-punk, pop, new wave, and rock, thanks to the label’s breakout success in the 1980s with bands like Cocteau Twins or This Mortal Coil. The reality is much weirder, convoluted, and far more interesting.
Washington, DC’s Unrest offer an ideal lens to view this eclectic, sometimes contradictory evolution. Forming in 1983 as the city’s hardcore scene was causing its first ripples, they would progress through adventurous, arty improv through wild ‘n’ woolly noise pop a la Dinosaur Jr or Hüsker Dü over their decade of existence. Despite their constant reinvention, the proto-Midwestern emo of Perfect Teeth is still a perfect anomaly in Unrest‘s discography. It’s a wonderful place to start exploring their back catalog and a welcome introduction to a strange, singular moment in musical history.
For its 30th Anniversary, Perfect Teeth gets a lavish reissue, repackaging the original album with a bonus disc of rarities, collecting all the odds ‘n’ sods from that era on a disc titled Extra Teeth. The fact that the spiky, sprawling proto-math rock of disc two opener “Vibe Out!” is every bit as essential as the throbbing, skinny Television pop of “Angel, I’ll Walk You Home” says everything you need to know about the 30th Anniversary edition of Perfect Teeth.
It’s safe to say Perfect Teeth may be the definitive version of this singular record, especially for newcomers, as the outtakes bridge the group’s earlier work. Otherwise, your head may be left spinning when the cutesy twee pop of “Angel” immediately explodes into “Cath Caroll”, which seems intent on giving Hüsker Dü’s Land Speed Record a run for its money.
The hopscotch bassline of “So So Sick” provides some necessary context for the scratchy new wave of “Light Command”, with its blistering, stuttering guitars and double-time breakbeats. The elemental slowcore of “Where Are All Those Puerto Rican Boys” makes the gorgeously atmospheric “Breather X.O.X.O.” make a lot more sense. It also does a lot to explain how underground guitar-driven rock music could go from Buzzcocks to the Smiths to Slint in a decade.
Codifying various shades of indie music under the uselessly broad categories of “college rock”, “alternative rock”, or “indie rock” poses more potential damage to underground music than mere exploitation. It threatens to erase what made, and makes, the music so special in the first place. Instead of taking inspiration from a lifetime of browsing for weird records in thrift stores and your own direct experiences, it replaces the reality with the holographic simulacrum of pop spectacle that is increasingly out of the reach of working-class editions.
Bands like the B-52s, R.E.M., or Squirrel Bait would likely not be possible in such a world, erasing Unrest in the process like a character from a Back to the Future snapshot. How sad would that be? Luckily, 4AD are here to set the historical record straight with this one-of-a-kind document, which is absolutely unmissable if you’re a fan of early indie rock.