Ok so this really isn’t much of an obscurity, but it is  a great album that’s been unjustly unappreciated and overlooked… much like the man behind the band, Mark Robinson. Hopefully that names rings a bell but I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t. Before forming Air Miami, Robinson was one of the founding members and the driving force behind Unrest, the most overlooked (unless you’re from D.C. I suppose), yet one of the greatest 80s-90s indie bands. Robinson also founded and ran of one of my favorite record labels from my youth, Teen Beat.

Upon the break-up of Unrest, Robinson and Bridget Cross went on to form Air Miami and picked up right where Unrest’s final album, Perfect Teeth left off. Me. Me. Me. was Air Miami’s lone album and is filled with more of the delicate and catchy indie-pop that Unrest made their hallmark in the later portion of their career. Truthfully I’ve always likened Me. Me. Me. to be the true final Unrest album, even if it is without founding member and drummer, Phil Krauth.

I’m not sure what it is about Unrest that has never catapulted them to the sort of revered status other 80s and 90s indie rock bands have achieved. Perhaps it was all of those years spent being much harsher and experimental that have kept droves of people from discovering their later work…but you’ll be hard pressed to find a band that crafted indie pop as touching and haunting as Unrest and Air Miami did in the early to mid-90s. I’m surprised with the whole revival of Shoegaze and Dream-Pop, Unrest and/or Air Miami haven’t gotten some sort of deluxe reissue treatment yet. So take this chance now to get acquainted with the charms of Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross, here’s hoping it won’t be your last taste.

Air Miami – Me. Me. Me.

- My Pal the Crook