Air Miami

As Air Miami, Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross added a new wave-inspired sheen and experimental textures to the elliptical pop they pioneered with Unrest. The project's dual vocals and guitars approach allowed Cross and Robinson to pursue even more sounds than they had with their former band; aided by producer Guy Fixsen, their lone album, 1995's Me, Me, Me, melded hooky songs indebted to dream pop, indie pop, and punk with electronic and post-rock-inspired atmospheres. Though their journey from first recordings to final show lasted barely more than two years, Air Miami's mercurial style still sounds surprising and appealing decades later. Exhausted by the demands of touring and promoting 1993's Perfect Teeth, Unrest disbanded in February 1994. By that March, however, Cross and Robinson were already recording demos for their next project. The pair took a more collaborative songwriting approach, with each of them sharing guitar and vocal duties. After a few months of recording on a four-track in Robinson 's basement, Air Miami's first collection of demos, the Teenbeat-released cassette Fourteen Songs, appeared that May. Around that time, Viva Satellite's Lauren Feldsher joined as the band's bassist; Rites of Spring drummer Mike Fellows -- who Cross and Robinson met at Lollapalooza 1993 when he was playing with Royal Trux -- completed the lineup. In September, the band contributed a demo of the song "Pucker" to the 4AD compilation All Virgos are Mad, while "Fight Song" appeared on Wakefield Vol. 1: A Teenbeat Sampler. Air Miami's debut single, "Airplane Rider/Stop Sign," arrived on Teenbeat that November. Not long after its release, Feldsher and Fellows left the group. Meanwhile, Robinson and Cross continued honing their songs, and in December a second demos collection, Sixteen Songs, appeared. Early in 1995, Cross and Robinson headed to Miami with Laika's Guy Fixsen to record Air Miami's debut album. With Gabriel Stout on drums, they opened up the songs on the band's demos, with Fixsen's production incorporating samples and layers of electronics that complemented the alternately bright and moody songs. Recorded in a month at Criteria Studios -- where portions of Saturday Night Fever and Rumours were also created -- Me, Me, Me was released by 4AD in September 1995. That month, Air Miami kicked off the Teenbeat Circus tour with other bands on the label. The band's touring lineup included bassist Fontaine Toups (ex-Versus), drummer Ben Currier (ex-Eggs) and, ultimately, former Unrest drummer Phil Krauth. In October, the Fuck You, Tiger EP gathered remixes of the album's songs and previously unreleased songs from the Criteria sessions. Though Air Miami didn't officially break up, the band played its last show in March 1996; the EP World Cup Fever Remixes appeared in 1998. In the years that followed, Robinson continued to run Teenbeat, formed groups including Flin Flon and Cotton Candy, and worked as a graphic designer. He also made the 2020 documentary Amateur on Plastic about the Washington, D.C. underground artist and musician Butch Willis. Cross recorded under the name Maybe It's Reno, appeared on albums by Fugazi and Tarentel, and performed in her partner George Kuhar's band Playboy Spaceman. In 2007, Teenbeat reissued Fourteen Songs and Sixteen Songs. July 2023 saw the arrival of a remastered reissue of Me, Me, Me that collected all of the Criteria recordings, including a previously unreleased version of "Pucker."
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