Blog: music (for robots)

Later, Alex.

Box Tops - Neon Rainbow - 45 rpm
No text

Hot Chip - I feel better.

Hot Chip - I Feel BetterHot Chip | MySpace Music Videos And that's how you make a music video....

We don't blink at what tomorrow might bring.

P.O.S - Purexed
Okay, I'm officially homesick. Dessa - Dixon's Girl. That is, homesick for a town that was never meant to be a permanent home. My wife and I caught a P.O.S/Dessa show while in Vermont last week, and it reminded me what I love about the Twin Cities scene: so much trying. P.O.S, Dessa, and Plain Ole Bill put everything they had into this show, even though the room was half-empty on a Friday night. Not to get all Garrison Keillor on us, but I think there's something to that "midwestern work ethic" talk - that's how I always feel...
Artist:Dessa
Title:Dixon's Girl
Link Text:Dixon's Girl
File Name:Dixons_Girl.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Year:2010

It doesn't need to be.

There's rain in the forecast here in Boston, which doesn't make me want to play the usual TGIF song. (It's Phil Collins' "That's All", if you must know.) Holly Miranda - Waves. This one fits the bill just fine. It's atmospheric without being too dreamy, and the production - by TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek - is grounded enough to let the song levitate a bit. The Magician's Private Library is a good listen for a day like today, or any time you need a record to remove you from the here and now. The album's title comes...
Artist:Holly Miranda
Title:Waves (Rodaidh radio edit)
Link Text:Waves
File Name:waves.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps

Don't you worry.

Percussion! Electric President - Safe and Sound. When it comes down to it, that's what I enjoy most about the work of Electric President. It's all so tangible, with acoustic guitars and drums like gears, all of it grinding away to keep the whole enterprise in motion. Electric President hails from Florida, and they've put out two other LPs on Morr Music. This is their first record on Connecticut-based Fake Four Inc. The Violent Blue is a good album, full of what we've come to expect from Electric President and member Ben Cooper's solo project, Radical Face. You can...
Artist:Electric President
Title:Safe And Sound
Link Text:Safe and Sound
File Name:safe_and_sound.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Rally around the flag.

We here at Music For Robots are pretty big fans of Titus Andronicus, if only for the crazy amount of enthusiasm with which they attack everything. Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union. Their new record The Monitor has a Civil War theme, but it's rooted in everyday life - which is a funny comparison, but one that makes perfect sense in context. "A More Perfect Union" is the first track from this album, and it's a great introduction. This album is as epic as they come, but it somehow feels intimate, too. I don't know how they pulled...
Artist:Titus Andronicus
Title:A More Perfect Union
Link Text:A More Perfect Union
File Name:union.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

I Been Grindin My Teeth

Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Anxiety. The funniest thing about the Eddy Current Suppression Ring is that they spent six hours and two hundred dollars to record their new album, and spent 800 dollars and just as much time flying their name on a banner behind an airplane for their album cover. It never occurred to them that they could just photoshop it in. And that tells us everything we need to know about Brendan and the rest of the guys. Without a doubt one of my favorite bands, I couldn't be more excited about this new record, Rush...
Artist:Eddy Current Suppression Ring
Title:Anxiety
Link Text:Anxiety
File Name:Anxiety.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Thicker terrain.

I don't know why I'm writing about Minneapolis so much these days. I think a lot of Twin Cities music has just come my way, for some reason. Dosh - Subtractions. When I lived in Minneapolis, I never fully looked into Mr. Martin Dosh and his amazing drumming, sampling, and looping abilities. I knew he was around, working with Andrew Bird and playing the Triple Rock, but I never listened as closely as I should have. Time to remedy that. "Subtractions" is from Dosh's new record Tommy. (I can't be the only one hoping this was a concept cover...
Artist:Dosh
Title:Subtractions
Link Text:Subtractions
File Name:subtractions.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps
Year:2010

Free Energy at Spaceland tonight

Anyone else going to see Free Energy at Spaceland tonight? I hear their set at the Echo last night was the jam... Album drops digitally on the 6th, and physically in May. It's definitely worth the wait....

When the moment dies

Efterklang - Modern Drift. "Modern Drift" is the first song from Efterklang's new record Magic Chairs, out today in Europe and tomorrow in the US. As opening statements go, it's a good one - the piano starts quietly, then more piano, then those thumping drums, then it all breaks open. This track makes the record sound like a gradual incline, which it is. The album is an increasingly ornate piece of pop music that uses its bells and whistles wisely and sparingly. Efterklang hails from Copenhagen, and Magic Chairs is their third full-length. There's a lot to be said...
Artist:Efterklang
Title:Modern Drift
Link Text:Modern Drift
File Name:Modern_Drift.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps
Year:2010

Get over yourself.

I first heard singer Maggie Morrison in the late, lamented Minneapolis band Digitata. (Well, they maybe broke up? This July interview with Digitata drummer Drew Christopher makes it unclear. But it's funny.) Morrison's new band Lookbook keeps some of Digitata's essential elements: bloops, bleeps, synthdrama. Lookbook - Yesterday's Company. This track comes from Lookbook's first full-length, Wild At Heart. It's a good record, and as much as I love Digitata, it's interesting to hear Morrison front a band more interested in keeping things on steady ground. (Digitata simply isn't designed for that, in my opinion, which is one reason...
Artist:Digitata
Title:Take Your Money
Link Text:Digitata
File Name:money.mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps
Artist:Lookbook
Title:Yesterday's Company
Link Text:Yesterday's Company
File Name:yesterdays_company.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps

It's all better now.

One For The Team - Every Little Thing. I've been a fan of One For The Team for a while now, and it's been really interesting watching them change over the years. Their sound has deepened and darkened, and on Ghosts, their third full-length, an instrument that sounds like a Mates of States distorted electric piano adds some murkiness to the mix. It all still pops, of course, underneath Ian Anderson's lighter-than-air vocals, and it all clicks along as if no one can stop it. This band is from Minneapolis, and even though I moved from that scene about...
Artist:One For The Team
Title:Every Little Thing
Link Text:Every Little Thing
File Name:ELT.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

All aboard.

S. Piliso & His Super Seven - Kuya Hanjwa. Look, I'm not the guy to sort out all the political, social, sociopolitical, and other implications of the indie fascination with South African, and specifically Sowetan, music. There's a lot to say about it, especially when it comes to the long American history of appropriation, and there are no easy answers. I will say this: I love that first Vampire Weekend record, but I think the band's characterization of their music as "Upper West Side Soweto" was pretty obnoxious. And when I saw Tune-Yards in Boston last fall, their bassist...
Artist:S. Piliso & His Super Seven
Title:Kuya Hanjwa
Link Text:Kuya Hanjwa
File Name:kuya.mp3
Year:2009

Bobby Charles

Bobby Charles - I Must Be in a Good Place Now. And so we lose another one....
Artist:Bobby Charles
Title:I Must Be In A Good Place Now
Link Text:I Must Be in a Good Place Now
File Name:GoodPlace.mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps
Year:2006

An Ugly Death

This is a great recording of one of the many Jay Reatard shows I was lucky enough to see. Even from the back of the room it was a bloodbath. We're gonna miss him like crazy....

I Dreamed I was an Animal.

Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose - Younger. Like many songs I post on here, this is a song for the in-between times. It's not triumphant. It's not a celebration of success. It's not a shoulder to cry on or a call to move on. It's not about the boys being back in town or the girls having a night out. It's not about love or hope or rock 'n roll. It's about breathing, in and out, as we move along in our day. It's about deciding to make another cup of coffee because it's raining, or deciding to eschew...
Artist:Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose
Title:Younger
Link Text:Younger
File Name:Younger.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps
Year:2009

Through all of my sorrow

Can Numero Group do no wrong? T.L. Barrett & Youth For Christ Choir - Like A Ship. The newest release from the archival label is Good God! Born Again Funk, out January 30. It's the 30th record from Numero, and the third in their Good God! series, which collects rare religious music from small labels. I've been a fan of Numero since their amazing Yellow Pills power pop release back in 2005, and I've tried to check in with their output since then. Their CDs and LPs are immaculately presented, with slipcases and extensive liner notes, and the music...
Artist:T.L. Barrett & Youth For Christ Choir
Title:Like A Ship
Link Text:Like A Ship
File Name:ship.mp3
Year:2009

In-Town Moves

Clogs - Three Two. Up here on the second floor with a windless view through palm trees to the hills of the park, the only sound is the faint hiss and woosh of the carwash on the backside of the building. Over on this side it's an idyllic portrait of southern california life. Pink flowers hover over tiled rooftops as the lush scrubs of the desert slowly surround everything. And into this mix we bring Clogs, the long-standing project of Padma Newsome and Bryce Dessner from the National. They have always worked more in the realm of musical ideas...
Artist:Clogs
Title:Three-Two
Link Text:Three Two
File Name:ThreeTwo.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Beacuse Sound Matters

We'd like to take a second and welcome our new friends Because Sound Matters to our tiny little blogroll over there on the right. They're a new vinyl-only venture from the Warner Bros. family, offering reissues from all kinds of sick catalog titles. Their catalog is slowly growing, but it already includes solid entries from old favorites like Metallica, Wilco, Dire Straits, etc. Anyway, just wanted to give you the heads up....

Yarn Owl.

Yarn Owl - Bicycle. It isn't until the refrain in the back third of the song that it really wins you over. The beginning, begging to be sound in a round, or at least with some harmonies, is the kind of mossy, woodsy thing we expect and love from the Pacific Northwest. It reminds you of hitting sticks against trees in the woods behind your house, all damp, all covered in rich soil. But the final part, where the harmony kicks in and they sing about the girl coming home from her library is the what makes you really...
Artist:Yarn Owl
Title:Bicycle
Link Text:Bicycle
File Name:Bicycle.mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps
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