CT Show

Robots and Empire played Wrench In the Works's record release show last Saturday. Check out a review of it here.

NURSE YOSELF

Check out this new song “Nursing” that Robots and Empire recorded all by themselves except for some help by Keith and Sean and Sweet Spot who recorded vocals and Bill Henderson and Azimuth Mastering who mastered. Click here for a promotional video complements of Red Baron.

Recording Frenzy

Robots and Empire spent yesterday recording vocals for a new track we've been working on in our home studio. Keith and Sean from Sweet Spot Studio came by and worked as vocal producers galore, demanding excellent takes instead of fixing everything with studio magic. It was a long day but a good one, and we're excited to work on mixing these vocals and the recording as a whole. Maybe we'll find time between shoveling.

Evan and Paul

Need a break from your Leadbelly and Hank Williams mp3s? Well, unlike those guys, the musical collaboration Evan and Paul isn’t from anywhere. Evan and Paul do not have supper together after rehearsal in some town you’ve never heard of, a town whose name they do not associate with the band preferring instead the name of the nearest small city. They do not touch each other’s instruments, joke around between takes, name songs, or ‘jam’. They are a sudden band. Made by cords and wires. Evan makes robots. Paul plays with pliers. They trade files over the Internet. They trade audible eight-lettered poems, and easygoing they stride next to sounds; they send them around in a baton relay till they reach the end and this is the end. They are not sure how many songs they have. I have two that are not repeats or replacements. The name of the first one is “Life on the Asteroid Colony”. The name of the second one is “Death march of the unemployed atom-smashers”.

Life on the Asteroid Colony:

Death march of the unemployed atom-smashers:

Brett Laffin in a Yacht Kingdom.

Glacial affiliate and TCP soul man Brett Laffin's solo mixtape, The Champion Sound, will be coming out Feb. 1st, 2010. Go to myspace.com/shelf to hear some tracks off it. You'll hear him crooning over beats by Boogie Knights, Ian Cahil, Water-B, and Glacial's own Yacht Clubbers, and more. Check out this track "Mouth of the Lion."

The waiting is the hardest part...

The 4-track is DEAD. This means I can't record my drums any time I want. Boo-hoo for me. However, I am a believer that there is always some good that comes out of a terrible situation. So I tried my hand at fake electronic drums played on keyboard-pad-things, and that led to learning more guitar chords, and then that led to some other things. Like writing silly lyrics about having to make adjustments to a way of life and always changing in order to survive (like having to play fake drums in order to record when you just want to play real drums).

You Weren’t At Zuzu’s Saturday?!

Maybe it’s because you read my status update and looked around Beacon all night for a place called Zulu’s. Or maybe other stuff was happening, or maybe you just didn’t want to go out.

Sorry to say, you missed a splendid night.

Robots was scheduled to play at the exact moment the art opening ended. We loaded in during the opening and set up in front of what was, in my opinion, the coolest artwork there. Only a moderate number of families looking to have a nice artsy relaxing evening were displaced. The place was loaded with these families, whose children needed to be removed before the music started for the sake of their functioning eardrums.



I drank two 16oz. Mile High Blend coffees while we got ourselves situated in the corner near the back door, next to the cool paintings. I talked to some of my former students, whom I was glad to find out were doing well as high school seniors. I was happy they came out. I made a stupid joke about them being drivers, which they probably hated. Anyway, by the time we played, the caffeine was launching blood through my veins and my face felt at least thirty degrees hotter than it should have. So needless to say, it was a good set. We played old songs, new songs, and a cover.

Glass Half Empty played after us. There are rumors floating around about Glacial and Glass Half Empty, and the rumors are probably true, except for the one about the Elmer’s Wood Glue, the seventeen scorpions, and the gallon of sewer filth. Definitely not true. They plowed through a spirited and brutal set of their Setzer-Deadguy-Dissolve-influenced material that they pull off so well, and I plowed through another 16oz. of Mile High, which forced me to miss their last song for a walk outside. I prepared to vomit, but happily did not. That would not have been the first time I threw up from drinking too much, but it would have been the first time it happened from drinking too much coffee. The problem was there was no pizza in my belly, so I put pizza in my belly.



The pizza made me feel sooooo good and recovered during Casket Architects’ set I almost moshed and sang along. Instead I stood in the corner, and appreciated them from afar. The songs they played off their new album Future Wounds (get on it) filled that softly lit and peaceful nook with sounds joyously contrary yet strangely fitting for the environment—like if Jaws somehow smuggled himself into Sea World, performed some tricks for the crowd, then ate a seal and a couple human beings. They played a song of their 7” for the first time live. You couldn’t tell they never played it, except that their set ruled slightly more than usual.



Other notes about the Jan. 9th show:

I met this cool guy named Skip, but I called him Chip. What a jerk. Sorry Skip.

Also, so many great friends came out that it felt like that pink battery bunny was in my chest cavity, pounding all night at my soul with his felt mallets. Because of their attendance, there will be more shows at Zuzu’s in the coming months. A Spare Parks show is in the works for what's looking like March. Thanks, everyone. I love you all.

Pure Shit in Brooklyn

I've been obsessed with live recordings lately. I scour the internet for as many different live versions of a particular song as I can find and enjoy discovering all the intricate differences in each version. The spontaneous energy and grit on a good live performance is captured as it happens in the moment. That being said - here is Robots And Empire's "Pure Shit" live in all its sloppy, noisy glory.
Pure Shit - Live at The Charleston, Brooklyn, NY 11/09

Casket, Robots, Glass Half Empty - Beacon, NY

My vacation began a few days ago, so I've had a lot of time to spend with my dog. Lucille and I know our way around Vassar Farms rather well by spending most of my last four to six mornings there with her. She is very passionate about stampeding through mud. Vassar Farms is one of the many reasons why I enjoy where I live so much. I love that the solitude of a forest is a few blocks away from the average upstate city stir. This is what brings me to Jan. 9th at Zuzu's in Beacon, New York.
What, pray tell, does Vassar Farms and Poughkeespie have to do with a local rock and roll show? To me, in fact, there is a great deal in common. The people and music of Casket Architects, Glass Half Empty and the three other men of Robots And Empire are also another reason why I love where I live so very much. This group of humans, when it comes to the art they make, are as diverse and florid as a Poughkeepsie street corner. Such a street corner may have on it - a thug rapping while other dudes stare at you, a maniac cat-bum-lady-man, a redneck whose heart and sleeve reside on the rear bumper of his pick-up truck, Paul Harris, a group of high school senior girls who try to steal your bike, a dude wearing a neon yellow robe with one mesh arm sleeve and a perfectly shaved mustache, a woman who could've played Biggie Smalls in “Notorious” who wants to kick your ass, and a guy that looks like an older version of Josh Mosh – all chilling on that corner at the same time.
The aforementioned group of musicians and other Glacial related artists in our area are making compelling music for all to inquire about. Their performances on Jan. 9th will be an opportunity for the rest of our music community to witness their current statements. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there will be a Polish Club show any time soon, hopefully another Poughkeepsie venue will come about in the future. Beacon is a wonderful place to see a show. Feasibly, there will be many potential new listeners to these bands with it being the “Second-Saturday.” There are more plans to have shows at Zuzu's every “Second-Saturday” once a month. I am excited for this. I'm giddy about watching every band stampede through mud.

Ghost Bat

Rising above the lip of a transitory mercurial urn, a bat leans back its head and stretches its fingerwings and dissipates into gusts, where it mingles with Aristotle and Plutarch and a transcendental aardvark, and listens to amaranthine black metal in preparation for the eternal black metal singalong. Touch it, melt in it, manhandle it, break it, submerge it, make love to it, single it out, leave it bleeding, singe its extremities, gnash its features, boil it, peel its heart, sell it, breathe it, listen to it:

Zzzz by jeffreypaggi

Jeff Paggi ft. the Psycho Choir and the Batclouds of Gotham and ghostbat I guess. Are you immensely pleased.