Biography
Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross, performing as Air Miami, layered new wave-inspired gloss and experimental textures onto the elliptical pop they had first shaped in Unrest. The duo’s shared vocal and guitar roles let them explore a wider sonic palette than their previous band had allowed; producer Guy Fixsen helped shape their sole full-length, the 1995 Teenbeat release Me, Me, Me, blending hook-driven material rooted in dream pop, indie pop, and punk with electronic and post-rock-tinged atmospheres. Although the project spanned barely more than two years from initial recordings to its final concert, Air Miami’s unpredictable aesthetic remains striking and inviting decades afterward.
After the rigors of touring and promoting Unrest’s 1993 album Perfect Teeth prompted the group’s February 1994 dissolution, Cross and Robinson began cutting demos for their next endeavor the following month. They adopted a more joint approach to songwriting, trading guitar and vocal duties. Several months of four-track work in Robinson’s basement yielded the Teenbeat cassette Fourteen Songs, issued that May. Around the same period, Viva Satellite’s Lauren Feldsher joined on bass, while Rites of Spring drummer Mike Fellows—who had met Cross and Robinson at Lollapalooza 1993 during his stint with Royal Trux—completed the rhythm section. That September the band placed a demo of “Pucker” on the 4AD anthology All Virgos are Mad, and “Fight Song” appeared on Wakefield Vol. 1: A Teenbeat Sampler. Air Miami’s first single, “Airplane Rider/Stop Sign,” came out on Teenbeat in November. Soon after its release, Feldsher and Fellows departed. Robinson and Cross kept refining material, issuing another demo set, Sixteen Songs, in December.
In early 1995 the pair traveled to Miami with Laika’s Guy Fixsen to track Air Miami’s debut album. With Gabriel Stout on drums they expanded the arrangements from the earlier demos, letting Fixsen’s production add samples and electronic layers that offset the songs’ shifting bright and brooding moods. Captured over a month at Criteria Studios—the same facility that hosted portions of Saturday Night Fever and Rumours—Me, Me, Me appeared on 4AD that September. Air Miami launched the Teenbeat Circus tour alongside other label acts that month; their road lineup featured bassist Fontaine Toups (formerly of Versus), drummer Ben Currier (ex-Eggs), and, ultimately, ex-Unrest drummer Phil Krauth. October brought the Fuck You, Tiger EP, which collected remixes of album tracks plus previously unreleased cuts from the Criteria sessions.
Although Air Miami never formally disbanded, their last performance took place in March 1996; the EP World Cup Fever Remixes surfaced in 1998. Robinson subsequently continued operating Teenbeat, launched projects such as Flin Flon and Cotton Candy, and worked as a graphic designer; he also directed the 2020 documentary Amateur on Plastic about Washington, D.C. underground artist and musician Butch Willis. Cross issued material under the name Maybe It’s Reno, contributed to albums by Fugazi and Tarentel, and performed with her partner George Kuhar’s band Playboy Spaceman. Teenbeat reissued Fourteen Songs and Sixteen Songs in 2007. A remastered edition of Me, Me, Me that gathered all the Criteria recordings, including an unreleased take of “Pucker,” arrived in July 2023.
After the rigors of touring and promoting Unrest’s 1993 album Perfect Teeth prompted the group’s February 1994 dissolution, Cross and Robinson began cutting demos for their next endeavor the following month. They adopted a more joint approach to songwriting, trading guitar and vocal duties. Several months of four-track work in Robinson’s basement yielded the Teenbeat cassette Fourteen Songs, issued that May. Around the same period, Viva Satellite’s Lauren Feldsher joined on bass, while Rites of Spring drummer Mike Fellows—who had met Cross and Robinson at Lollapalooza 1993 during his stint with Royal Trux—completed the rhythm section. That September the band placed a demo of “Pucker” on the 4AD anthology All Virgos are Mad, and “Fight Song” appeared on Wakefield Vol. 1: A Teenbeat Sampler. Air Miami’s first single, “Airplane Rider/Stop Sign,” came out on Teenbeat in November. Soon after its release, Feldsher and Fellows departed. Robinson and Cross kept refining material, issuing another demo set, Sixteen Songs, in December.
In early 1995 the pair traveled to Miami with Laika’s Guy Fixsen to track Air Miami’s debut album. With Gabriel Stout on drums they expanded the arrangements from the earlier demos, letting Fixsen’s production add samples and electronic layers that offset the songs’ shifting bright and brooding moods. Captured over a month at Criteria Studios—the same facility that hosted portions of Saturday Night Fever and Rumours—Me, Me, Me appeared on 4AD that September. Air Miami launched the Teenbeat Circus tour alongside other label acts that month; their road lineup featured bassist Fontaine Toups (formerly of Versus), drummer Ben Currier (ex-Eggs), and, ultimately, ex-Unrest drummer Phil Krauth. October brought the Fuck You, Tiger EP, which collected remixes of album tracks plus previously unreleased cuts from the Criteria sessions.
Although Air Miami never formally disbanded, their last performance took place in March 1996; the EP World Cup Fever Remixes surfaced in 1998. Robinson subsequently continued operating Teenbeat, launched projects such as Flin Flon and Cotton Candy, and worked as a graphic designer; he also directed the 2020 documentary Amateur on Plastic about Washington, D.C. underground artist and musician Butch Willis. Cross issued material under the name Maybe It’s Reno, contributed to albums by Fugazi and Tarentel, and performed with her partner George Kuhar’s band Playboy Spaceman. Teenbeat reissued Fourteen Songs and Sixteen Songs in 2007. A remastered edition of Me, Me, Me that gathered all the Criteria recordings, including an unreleased take of “Pucker,” arrived in July 2023.
Albums
Me. Me. Me.
2023
Fourteen Songs
2007
Sixteen Songs
2007
World Cup Fever
1998
Airplane Rider / Stop Sign
1994
Singles
