The Past Presents revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It also looks at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks.

I think most avid music fans can document the highs, lows and even the mid-ranges of their lives by pointing to a specific artist or album that is synonymous with a particular event or period of life. These albums typically stay with you for years, remaining a part of the fabric of your life story. For me, Unrest’s last album, Perfect Teeth, will be forever linked to my four years in college. Perfect Teeth, along with a handful of other standouts, kicked open the door to a whole new world of music that never surfaced in the small rural town I called home. This album was released in August of 1993, just as I was entering my sophomore year. As a freshman I’d discovered the Garden of Eden that was the Washington D.C. indie-rock world. In addition to Dischord, there were labels like Simple Machines and Teenbeat, helmed by Unrest front man Mark Robinson. Among these three labels nearly all of the regions’ best bands found a home.

While Dischord was home to the punk and hardcore acts, Simple Machines and Teenbeat took care of the indie-rock bands. As all three labels grew, Simple Machines and Teenbeat started to add bands from out of the immediate D.C. area, but you always knew that these labels were committed to the music of the Washington D.C. region. It seems a bit crazy now, almost 20 years down the road, that two labels of such prominence could pull from the same indie-rock pool and both do so well. I guess that speaks to the number of quality bands in D.C. at that time. Another factor was the labels had very distinct personalities. Simple Machines embraced a more serious, earnest brand of indie-rock, while Teenbeat tended to align themselves with more playful, and sometimes adventurous, bands. I did and still do hold both labels in high esteem, but they were very different animals to me.

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