Unrest was 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 Robinson 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 Robinson (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 pop songs interspersed with avant-garde percussive and sonic tracks, sometimes featuring nothing but white noise, beeps or sirens. EPs released around the same time period reveal a more pronounced gap between pop and experimental elements. The group broke up in 1994 with Krauth pursuing a solo career and Robinson and Cross 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, Robinson 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'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 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.