Lousy Robot

Artist Information

Biography

Bio:
Since its founding in 2003, Lousy Robot has grown into a favorite of indie music lovers in Albuquerque and throughout the Southwest. Their music has been heard on television programming as varied as MTV, The Travel Channel, HGTV, Bravo, Animal Planet, Current TV, the on-line series The Scare Game and multiple television commercials. Building on this success they are set to release their 3rd full length recording, Hail the Conquering Fool, in early 2011 with the help of Hit Records International.

Lousy Robot's songs are cynical, heartfelt and tinged with despair. These boys are happy to sit you down and tell you what has gone wrong in their lives, but you’ll have to pour a drink for them and have one yourself. The pain and regret are not sugarcoated, and neither is their noisy, post-punk music. These songs are the soundtracks to the dramas of lost love and misguided anger, but with better hooks and a 20-20 hindsight view of matters.

Once again collaborating with John Dufilho (The Deathray Davies, Apples in Stereo) at Salim Nourallah’s Pleasantry Lane Studio in Dallas, Hail The Conquering Fool builds on the foundations of the band's first two releases, The Strange and True Story of Your Life and Smile Like You Are Somewhere Else, extending the group’s collection of power-pop darkness into a new area. Continuing Lousy Robot's tradition of inviting special guests to work with them in the studio, Jason Garner (Paper Chase, Deathray Davies) and Knoxville's John Baker join a cast of characters that in the past have included Cory Watson of Black Tie Dynasty and John Lefler of Dashboard Confessional.

We have shared the stage with:
Joy Formidable, The Lonely Forest, Bettie Serveert, Dressy Bessy, Red Elvises, Frank Turner, The Deathray Davies, Colourmusic, Shiny Toy Guns, An Albatross, The Hard Lessons

Press Quotes:
"Power Pop Indie Rock that sounds as if Eels joined forces with The Rentals’ Matt Sharp and The Cars’ Ric Ocasek to create blissfully melodic pop hooks. Their synth-heavy, almost-but-not-quite new wave feel creates pleasing pop perfection." - Alex De Vore, Santa Fe Reporter

"If New Wave is back, this isn't far behind. " - Dallas Music Guide

"It could make even the most bitter souls (i.e. music critics) embrace pop music wholeheartedly." - The Albuquerque Journal

"Happy up-tempo songs about fairly personal and heartrending subject matter. Think Kelly Rippa on Valium." - Coke Machine Glow
"Pop heaven and the happiest music ever about feeling so bad." - Capt. America, WigWamBam

Instrumentation

Jim Phillips - Guitar and Voice
Jack Moffitt - Keyboards
Dandee Fleming - Bass
Ben Levine - Drums

Discography

Hail The Conquering Fool
Hit Records International
Release Date 1/18/2011
Available at http://lousyrobot.com, iTunes, Amazon and all the others you expect.
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Smile Like You Are Somewhere Else
Socyermom Records
Release Date 8/1/06
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Little Radio SXSW 2006 Compliation - March 2006
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The strange and true story of your life.
Traveling in Place records
Release Date 3/25/05
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Indie-Pop Swap June 2005 (Compilation)
Art of the Mix.com
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Rattled and Numb: The greatest freak show on earth. Live @ The Launchpad (7/31/04) - Out of Print

Full length CDs are available on iTunes and many other digital distributors. Physical and digital copies can also be ordered at LousyRobot.com

Official Website

http://www.lousyrobot.com

Links

• Facebook
• Last.fm
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Main Site

Audio

• Christmas In Berlin
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• Cross My Heart And Hope You Die
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• Andy Warhol Is Gone
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• The Peacocks
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• Have You Ever Been Afraid Of The Furture?
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Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Indie-pop quartet Lousy Robot sounds as if Eels joined forces with The Rentals’ Matt Sharp and The Cars’ Ric Ocasek to create blissfully catchy tunes. If hooks could kill, these dudes would be in big trouble, as their synth-heavy, almost-but-not-quite new wave songs are nothing short of pleasing pop perfection. [+ Show ]
  

  Indie-pop quartet Lousy Robot sounds as if Eels joined forces with The Rentals’ Matt Sharp and The C...Indie-pop quartet Lousy Robot sounds as if Eels joined forces with The Rentals’ Matt Sharp and The Cars’ Ric Ocasek to create blissfully catchy tunes. If hooks could kill, these dudes would be in big trouble, as their synth-heavy, almost-but-not-quite new wave songs are nothing short of pleasing pop perfection.

• It could make even the most bitter souls (i.e. music critics) embrace pop music wholeheartedly. [+ Show ]
  

  The Albuquerque Journal - 5/13/05 STRANGE BUT TRUE: I finally received the debut recording from ...The Albuquerque Journal - 5/13/05
  
  STRANGE BUT TRUE: I finally received the debut recording from local indie pop darlings Lousy Robot and I couldn't be happier. Titled "The Strange and True Story of Your Life," the disc glimmers with a certain late '60s pop sensibility that has been filtered through a 1984 MTV video and remanufactured by a corporation run by J Mascis. Guitar hooks upon guitar hooks gracefully glide over tempered rhythms and understated vocals. The songs play so smoothly it's as if the group is recording while kicking back in beanbags. With such lengthy and quirky titles as "Watercolor Sundown Everythings," "Deep Inside A Real Big Empty" and "Not So Happy With Not So Much," this release, produced by John Dufilho (The Deathray Davies), is a pair of bright headlights in an otherwise dark forest. It could make even the most bitter souls (i.e. music critics) embrace pop music wholeheartedly.
  
  --Kevin Hopper
  

• Simple and simply gorgeous. [+ Show ]
  

  Local I-Q 8/27/06 BY MICHAEL HENNINGSEN Quintessentially pop and heavy on sing-along melodies, L...Local I-Q 8/27/06
  BY MICHAEL HENNINGSEN
  
  Quintessentially pop and heavy on sing-along melodies, Lousy Robot bridges a gap on the local music scene with songs that are simple and simply gorgeous. Their unabated efforts to create a gently captivating canon of music is evidenced on the band's Socyermom debut, Smile Like You Are Somewhere Else.
  Eleven songs capture roughly 30 minutes of sheer pop bliss — “It's Getting to Me” and “A Way of Overstating,” a rare final track that forces the listener to immediately start the disc over, are among several highlights.
  The band here sound fully-formed, which is a feat far too few bands are able to accomplish even on their third and fourth releases. Smile Like You're Somewhere Else manages to capture a moment while inspiring the desire for many more to come. Mellow and decidedly low-key, the record is also melodically jovial — a testament to the musicality of the band and the perseverance of its members' desire to create pop that sounds neither contrived nor dated. lousyrobot.com

• If New Wave is back, this isn't far behind. [+ Show ]
  

  Lousy Robot is a band that sounds totally different than the way they look. Hearing them, you expect...Lousy Robot is a band that sounds totally different than the way they look. Hearing them, you expect to see ocean-frizzed curly-haired surf punks or maybe ‘60s mods, but instead you get a bunch of good ol' boys sounding all of nineteen. They play youthful pleasing pop perfect for a sunny afternoon bopping around the pool. It's the opposite of emo; it's the happy punk of the late ‘80s with depressing lyrics and fun melodies. “Train Wreck” takes you back to the dance clubs of England circa '66. It's got that Monkee-ish bounce to it that makes you wanna do the swim. They even take lyrics of totally awkward small talk and covert it into a song you can immediate sing along with. Recorded at Pleasantry Lane Studios here in Dallas by Salim Nourallah and produced by John Dulfilho, The Strange and True Story of Your Life is their debut album. It's perfect that they are from along Route 66 because Lousy Robot combines that happy feeling from southern California and mixes it up with some old English beats and heads to the mall. If New Wave is back, this isn't far behind. Maybe despite the Bush White House, we're all feeling a bit happy again, just like we were in the days of Reagan. Fuck it, let's just go dance! To quote Lousy Robot, “La, la! La, la, la, la, la!”
  
  -- Kate Mackley

• Well-crafted indie pop record rooted more in the fuzzy melodies of 80's [+ Show ]
  

  BlueMag.com by rooney - June 2005 New Mexicans Lousy Robot conjure a good looking ghost of indie...BlueMag.com by rooney - June 2005
  
  New Mexicans Lousy Robot conjure a good looking ghost of indie pop's past with The Strange and True Story of Your Life . After a brief, lo fi voice and guitar opener, "Deep Inside A Real Big Empty", The Strange and True Story of Your Life kicks off in earnest with the single-worthy "Together Somehow" . Mildly fuzzy guitars, upbeat drumming and simple keyboard playing sit beneath a super catchy, bouncy vocal melody making "Together Somehow" a fine introduction to Lousy Robot. "Get Back Down" trades more in minor key melodies and 80's British college rock leanings, while "Watercolor Sundown Everythings" employs heavy reverb on the vocals to create a semi-psychedelic feel, somewhere between early REM and a more tuneful Rain Parade. The driving beat on "No Big Deal" counters the mopey vocals, which take center stage on the more atmospheric "Train Wreck". "The Day We Lied and Didn't Lied" adopts a late-60's garage rock feel, complete with handclaps and a well placed, "96 Tears"-esque organ. "Not So Happy With Not So Much" sounds like a slightly depressed Ramones song, but in a good way - there's even a "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" background chant. The rough jangle adds to excellent Psychedelic Furs-ish vocal melody on "Flying Pizza", another standout track. The final track, "Gone", opens with some cool tremolo guitar before giving way to a tribal stomp and very mod detached vocals mumbling "And I'm Gone". The spacey, two-note guitar solo in the middle of the song and the handclap breakdown towards the end shows Lousy Robot's talent for creative arrangement and tasteful occasional use of the musical kitchen sink. The Strange and True Story of Your Life is a breezy, well-crafted indie pop record rooted more in the fuzzy melodies of 80's college rock than the melodic bombast and experimentation of current bands like the New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene. If you still put on Chronic Town from time to time and drop the term "Paisley Underground" into conversation, check out Lousy Robot

• One of the catchiest songs I've heard lately [+ Show ]
  

  Coke Machine Glow.com - July 2005 It was roughly 10 years ago that the independent yin battled...Coke Machine Glow.com - July 2005
  
  
  It was roughly 10 years ago that the independent yin battled and overtook the major-label yang that was the entirety of my musical taste. The year was 1994, and I had begun my undergraduate career at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Through some of my new acquaintances, I'd heard of a local band making headway in “the biz,” rocking the country via the hometown, and at the time fairly small, record label Sonic Unyon (who since has become the Canadian equivalent of Matador, to some degree). The band was --- don't laugh --- Treble Charger. Before they rocked the EA-Sports-playing crowd (i.e. before Bill Priddle left) they were an enjoyable, relatively lo-fi indie-pop outfit that, back in '94, released a pleasant little nugget called NC-17 . NC-17 was my first indie-record, purchased from the used/indie record store which shared building space with Sonic Unyon. From the first chords of “10th Grade Love,” I was hooked (for those looking for a true gem, check out this LPs original version of their hit “Red”). Sadly, my first pair of Chuck Taylors wouldn't arrive until several months later. Which brings me to 2005. Several hundred indie records and a few pairs of Chucks later, a copy of the debut offering from the Albuquerque, NM band Lousy Robot found its way into my mailbox. Skeptical as I may have been, once the first noises emanated from my CD player, instantaneously images of NC-17 were conjured, and that feeling of discovery that had overwhelmed me a decade earlier punched me in the face for the next half-hour. TSATSOYL, released on the band's own label, begins in an unassuming manner, with singer/guitarist Jim Phillips' solitary strumming on “Deep Inside a Real Big Empty,” which acts as a 30-second intro to the one of the catchiest songs I've heard lately, “Together Somehow" --- on which even the group's vocalist sounds not entirely dissimilar to Bill Priddle. This tune, with its aggressive, punchy yet somehow subdued riff introduces the listener to the tone and sound of TSATSOYL : happy up-tempo songs about fairly personal and heartrending subject matter. Think Kelly Ripa on Valium. The LPs next track, “Get Back Down,” is a bit of a low point --- and by low point, I mean it's the only really boring song in a litter of consistently above-average ones. They bounce back quickly with “Watercolor Sundown Everythings”; borrowing heavily from influences like R.E.M. and utilizing the stop-start dynamic of the Pixies, the song's chorus has this driving guitar that almost begs the song be re-recorded in better equipped surroundings. Along with Swearing at Motorists' cover “Flying Pizza” ( vide supra ), “Watercolor Sundown Everythings” ranks among the album's major highlights. Beyond the low song count on TSATSOYL (only 8 of the 10 tracks are original, “full length” songs), the album is gratifying from beginning to end, even if that journey is under a half-hour in length. For the most part it's an enjoyable way to spend a half hour; there are no songs equal to Treble Charger's “10th Grade Love” or “Red," but let's hope they continue to grow as artists and don't alienate their most unique songwriter shortly after selling out (like someone else we could mention). Bryan Rowsell July 6, 2005
  

• Smug charm and glaze-eyed appeal that it could be one of my new favorites [+ Show ]
  

  Crooked Camera.com - October 2005 First off, I almost didn't want to listen to this because the ...Crooked Camera.com - October 2005
  
  First off, I almost didn't want to listen to this because the artwork is so damn bad… HOWEVER, I'm very glad I did. This is unadulterated shoegaze goodness. Lousy Robot bring a smile even to the most battle-hardened and cynical reviewer, me. The production is even as honest and the guitars are, warm and true. The vox are introspective, while the drums are consistently keeping the toe-a-tappin. The bright spot on the disc is song called “watercolor sundown everythings”; it has such a smug charm and glaze-eyed appeal that it could be one of my new favorite songs of all time. The Strange and True Story Of Your Life is that summer driving cd you've already wasted a lot of money trying to find. Fans of Pink Floyd, The Shins,, Aislers Set, Belle & Sebastien or driving on warm will dig this.

Setlist

Songs off of our current albums and songs not featured on recordings.

Set times range from 30 - 50 minutes.

Basic Requirements

Calendar