http://music.for-robots.com/ en-us 2008-05-13T11:15:00-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002402.html Update!! I'm going to be throwing down some tunes this Thursday at Hugs in Williamsburg with my friend Andy D providing live jamz, along side Suspicious Package and Macaque, and DJs Jay McElfresh and Carlen Altman. The show starts early, so show up and party with the setting sun! Here'z the details: Hugs – Williamsburg, 106 N. 6th St. (btw Berry and Wythe.) with Andy D (complete awesome), Suspicious Package (Burlesque Rap), and Macaque (Electro dance) LIVE DJs: Robot Blair & Jay Mcelfresh and videos by Carlen Altman All this awesomeness is FREEEEE - Boom!... PSA blair 2008-05-13T11:15:00-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002406.html Your favorite Japanese law enforcement music ensemble has been busy lately. They finally put out their first full-length, Elephant Shell, they're on tour, and their song "Tesselate" has been remixed by Tom "Los" Campesinos: Tokyo Police Club - Tesselate (Tom Campesinos remix). They're also busy, however, giving stuff away to you. That's right, you! Because you deserve it. If you want either a) a vinyl copy of Elephant Shell or b) a pair of tickets to an upcoming TPC show, be the first person to hit me up at david [at] music.for-robots.com. We have a winner! No more entries, please!... Contest david 2008-05-12T14:33:45-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002404.html Osborne - There When it comes to my 4-4 beats, I've been on a house music kick lately, and just in time for that specific aural desire comes Osborne, aka Todd Osborn, with his new self-titled full length album, via our friends at Spectral Sound, the more techno-oriented arm of Ghostly International. See, I bought the Ruling EP about a month back and played the title track out when I was at Love - the super-bass on that track sounded absolutely amazing on their sound system - and I had been salivating over the Osborne full-length album from that... Electronic blair 2008-05-12T00:40:54-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002405.html "Wait," you're saying. "Is Robot David into Cirque Du Soleil?" No. Well, yes. But that's not what this is. DeVotchKa, guardians of all things romantic and eastern European, played First Avenue on Wednesday night, and it was fantastic. Their new record A Mad & Faithful Telling is easily one of the best releases so far this year, and when the band played songs from it - "Along The Way" and the majestically discordant "Transliterator" - the audience watched in adoring silence, despite not being too familiar with the tracks. Since their records are often crammed with strings and various other... News david 2008-05-09T10:35:17-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002403.html Santogold - Your Voice (link via RCRDLBL) So yeah, MFR is joining the party a little late - if you're a regular reader, you know that we often do, just because Mark and I both like to ruminate a bit, you know, let things seep in a bit more, before hyping something. Anyway, I'm happy to put the MFR stamp of approval on Santi White's new band and album, Santogold, because the record is a solid piece of multi-referential cross-cultural pop music, tying together electronic dance music, hip-hop, reggae and punk into an incredibly listenable album with a massively... indie blair 2008-05-09T00:00:49-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002401.html The Presets - This Boy's In Love (Lifelike Remix) Boom! If you're a regular reader, you know that MFR and Modular have been buddies for a while now. That is because we are fans first - I myself have been a big fan of the label's releases since the Avalanches (where on earth is that second album?) and Cut Copy waded ashore in the early 00s - and blog-nerds second. Well, one of Modular's biggest acts, the Presets, have returned with their second album, the cleverly titled Apocalypso. Their first album, Beams, while a great introduction to the band,... Electronic blair 2008-05-08T00:59:12-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002398.html James Pants - We're Through Awesome. If ever there was a great one-word description of an artist, "awesome" would definitely be applied to James Pants. Why? Because to my ears, James Pants' music sounds like Beck did when I first heard Mellow Gold at the age of sixteen, and that was awesome. It just sounded so unusual and downright freaky, I barely knew how to process it - what is this? Where does this fit in with what I know? James Pants not only sounds a bit like that Beck of old, but feels just as unusual and un-categorizable,... indie blair 2008-05-07T00:38:04-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002394.html Nik Freitas is hot soup, sunshine, an electric blanket. He is lemonade. This is refreshing, reassuring springtime music: the voice goes down smooth, the chords are where you want them. Nik Freitas - All The Way Down. Nik's new record Sun Down comes out today on Team Love, and it's really a great listen. It won't break any ground or anything, but it's not supposed to. It doesn't need anything crazy to hold it up. Nik's bio was written by his next-door neighbor, and if you can't trust the guy who heard this record's conception through the walls, who can... Pop david 2008-05-06T08:58:08-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002397.html The Black Keys - I'm Glad. For the Black Keys this song is like walking into a thrift store and finding a shirt that fits like a glove. A straightforward but smoking cover of this Captain Beefheart jam works pretty much perfectly for them. There's a thin layer of fuzz that makes you forget it was literally recorded yesterday. And somehow I believe them, just as I believed Beefheart when I first heard it. I can only hope they share more tracks from this session, because hot dam this one's fine. Have a good weekend. I'll see you around.... mark 2008-05-02T15:58:02-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002396.html justice_stressUploaded by 75_prod One of the highlights of the Justice "cross" album is the song "Stress" - its all squealing strings and squelchy synths squashed on a pounding beat - the song is actually a bit off-putting, especially when you've not heard it before. That said, the track is absolutely brilliant in a late-night set on a big sound system. Now, the video for "Stress" is a dark one: a mob of angry youths wreaking havoc in the Parisian suburbs? Check. Think "La Haine" cut down to six minutes. If anything, it feels less like a music video and more... vid blair 2008-05-02T12:55:19-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002392.html Sam Keenan is one of those Twin Cities musicians who pops up everywhere. He's one of the creators of Misplaced Music, a site that streams local music; he's a producer at The Current; and he makes a lot of music. I mean a lot of music. He also just put out a record called All The Dark Colored Markers Went Dry, and it's pretty ridiculous, in a good way. Half the record is straightforward rock music, and the other half is... like this. Sam Keenan - Chalk Circle. As a musician, I'm constantly astounded at arrangements people come up with.... Pop david 2008-05-02T11:28:46-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002391.html I first wrote about Meg Ashling in September 2006, when I saw her at the 331 Club in northeast Minneapolis. I loved every second of it - even though she played solo, her songs and her voice were good enough to represent a whole band. Meg Ashling - Move Down The Line. I saw her play at the Java Jack's Hootenanny a month or so ago, and she sounded just as awesome. Her new record is called Look At The Moon, and it's very lo-fi. But it's also excellent, and who needs slick production when you sound this good? I'm... Folk david 2008-04-30T09:41:44-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002390.html It doesn't take much to make a pretty good song very good. It's often something you'd never think of, too - a trumpet solo, say, or really loud backup vocals. In this case, it's someone playing the same piano arpeggio over and over again. (It's just a loop, of course, but I like to imagine there's a guy in The Heavenly States whose sole job is to play this piano part repeatedly.) The Heavenly States - Morning Exercise. The Heavenly States are from Oakland, California. This song is from their record Delayer, which is full of power-pop goodness. I like... indie david 2008-04-28T08:22:52-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002389.html Friday night, in scenic Los Angeles, in that weird no-man's land that is the area between Vermont and Normandie on Melrose, there's going to be a fucking ridiculous show. You've got Yeasayer. And then there's No Age. I'm not super familiar with The Death Set, but I'm willing to listen once. Anyway, it should be pretty amazing. Friday, April 25th No Age Yeasayer the Death Set Free Blood @ the Los Angeles Ukrainian Center 4315 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90029 $8 / 8:00pm / All Ages + Dennis Owens from Good Foot (LBC) will be playing records... You... mark 2008-04-24T16:58:33-05:00 http://music.for-robots.com/archives/002388.html Ghostly Swim (full album via link) All right. Now I'm sure this is a money-making venture on the part of Adult Swim and Cartoon Network's owners, Turner Broadcasting, but I honestly don't have a problem with that. At all. Adult Swim is my favorite block of nightly cable TV programming, particularly when they rerun the bizarro shows from the UK like Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, their own programming like Venture Brothers, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, and ATHF, and their old-school shows like Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law. Well, Adult Swim have teamed up with one of... Electronic blair 2008-04-24T10:30:02-05:00