Lousy Robot

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. - Alex De Vore, Santa Fe Reporter (Sep 17, 2010)

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 - MICHAEL HENNINGSEN

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
- The Albuquerque Journal - 5/13/05

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 - Dallas Music Guide

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 - BlueMag.com by rooney - June 2005

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
- Coke Machine Glow.com - July 2005

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. - Crooked Camera.com - October 2005