Weekly: Wish I Could

You wanna know the bummer thing about blogging? It's this phenomena which everyone has latched onto, while simultaneously saying that it's an oversaturated medium. Too many bloggers is what everyone is saying. I'm just hoping that if I keep my chin up long enough, the other bloggers will all die and then I'll be the only one left and that will make me feel good.
Ah, ain't gonna happen.
I Am Robot And Proud has always been sort of cool. Definitely a little ahead of his time, too ... Shaw-Han Liem creates some of the most compelling electronic pop music I've ever heard. It's cheery, but depressed, meditative yet energetic. Crazy, huh? Mr Liem has release two records since he started back in 2000, and his newest album, The Electricity In Your House Wants To Sing, is due out later in March. You would think that by working with such a restrictive electronic palette, I Am Robot And Proud would have run out of ideas by now. Most of the songs are constructed with a similar songwriting aesthetic, making the creative process, from my perspective, a frustrating one. But there's something in this stuff that makes you want to always come back for more. Listen to The Electricity In Your House Wants To Sing to figure out what I mean.
I don't see how Pterodactyl can be classified as post-punk. I thought post-punk was like, what happened when guys who liked the idea of punk, but not necessarily the anger and style it encapsulated, wanted to make a band. What if DEVO was the first punk band? Then Pterodactly would be its Sex Pistols or something. These guys are (a) very angry, (b) make no sense at all, and (c) very noisy and still make no sense. Listen to I Can See A River.
Ha ha ... very funny. The Prix ... I get it. Okay, lame names disregarded, the Prix are actually kind of cool ... part indie-pop, part psychedelica, completely fun. You usually can't really dance to psychedelica stuff, but in the Prix's case, I would say that you can (although I have not yet tested this theory, as I would feel foolish dancing around my room at this moment). Listen to All In The Way You Trip, Top Ten, and Shoot Out The Lights.
A while ago, I wrote about They Shoot Horses, in regards to their self-titled EP. But since that post, the B.C.-based eight piece has signed to Kill Rock Stars and released an album, Boo Hoo Hoo Boo. The resulting record is pretty cool ... lots of screaming, bizarre, yet creative, percussion arrangements and rhythm synchronization, and plenty of cool instrumentation. They're so delightfully lo-fi, yet grand and that makes them super neato. Listen to Emptyhead.