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IMA ROBOT + KILL HANNAH 17 February 2004: The Metro — Chicago by Chris Bailey http://www.popmatters.com/music/concerts/i/ima-robot-040217.... Ima Robot Unless you're a new rock radio DJ, Ima Robot are better than you think. Yes, a good portion of what they do could be described as "dancepunk." And yes, a lot of people out there are ready to jump that particular ship, or at least to hate on any major label band that tries to board at this late stage. It doesn't help that the members of Ima Robot have hair and clothes that are immeasurably hip, or that, in a rather odd turn of events, they are beginning to be embraced by nu-metal-heavy mainstream rock radio. After their show at the Metro, opening for Kill Hannah and the Sounds, the most striking thing about Ima Robot is just how much of a disservice their album does them. The band's main asset is obviously their absurdly spastic frontman, Alex Ebert. His gloriously nasal vibrato swings from Travis Morrison to Freddie Mercury in a single song, but on record it's so covered with studio sheen that Ebert sounds like any two-bit nu metal shrieker. As he pranced around the stage, wearing a white T-shirt proclaiming that "white people don't exist," he pulled off postpunk spit-ranting, arena-rock preening, and plain ol' fist-pumpin' shouting with equal success. More importantly, he pulled all of these off with an equal lack of irony. Whatever you may say about Alex Ebert, he's not trying to fool anyone. And, hey, when he decided to climb the Metro's scaffolding, he got higher than any frontman I've ever seen there. Good work. Ebert was backed by "Timmy the Terror" on guitar, and a rhythm section of Justin Meldal-Johnson (bass) and Joey Waronker (drums), both longtime Beck-backers. A fellow named Oligee does some quite admirable work on the keyboards, giving Ima Robot their best moments, when they conjure up a cheesy/spooky sound akin to the background music at an elementary school haunted house. Coupled with Ebert's spaz-out vocals, these moments easily surpassed Ima Robot's too-little-too-late stabs at new new wave. In fact, Ima Robot were great except when they were trying to do the dancepunk thing, which, contrary to other reports, is only about 20% of Ima Robot's act. They went out on top, though, by playing "Black Jetta", during which Ebert even busts out some rap skills. He sounds exactly like Debbie Harry on "Rapture". He tried to use this moment to climb amidst the crowd of 16-year-old girls, who were happy to grope him in Kill Hannah's absence. And that brings us to the problem of Kill Hannah. Under normal circumstances, I tend to like Chicago bands first and ask questions later, especially if they're on the brink of grabbing some real mainstream attention. I've also noticed a few reputable music bloggers who've nobly risked considerable cred to endorse this band. Also, fed up with apathetic 21-and-over crowds, I was quite ready to be down with the kids. It's just you and me here, though, dear loyal Popmatters reader, so let's not kid ourselves: Kill Hannah is an abomination. Seriously, I think Stabbing Westward just grew their hair, threw in some highlights, and put on (more) makeup to try to fool us all. If lyrics like "I am hooked from the start / Now I'm falling apart / That's what you get for falling in love" make you swoon, or if you'd like to see more Christ poses than a Creed show and a Mel Gibson interview combined, by all means, check out Kill Hannah. On that note, I'd like to end with a plea to all those girls in KH hoodies: If you liked Ima Robot's set, please give them a closer look. May they lead you to greener pastures. — 25 February 2004

Yeah! Alright, I love the last paragraph!

I've heard that comparison of KH and Stabbing Westword before....I've never seen them live, so I don't know. I was hoping to catch them in Philly, but since the Bot is playing in B-More, I'd much rather see them....especially headlining!

Thanks guys for coming back to Baltimore!!! Yippppeeee!

got to love that review.

Yeah, a good one indeed. However, ahem, the Joey thing.

And the day will soon come when we get a USA-Today-style pie chart breaking down the percentages of sounds represented by Ima. 20% Dancepunk, 30% postpunk, etc. etc. Kyle maybe you can put that one together in Excel for us.

[Edited on 2-25-2004 by draconian]

I loved that review!

the reviews get better and better each time

I agree with Turtle that the reviews seem to be getting better and better each time. They are starting to make a name for themselves and now reviewers see the actual talent. I dont necesarily agree with the album review, because I quite enjoyed it, but he does go on to say that the album does them no justice...they are better than their album portrays...cool. I love this reviewer...
Peace

Quote:

Originally posted by draconian USA-Today-style pie chart breaking down the percentages of sounds represented by Ima. 20% Dancepunk, 30% postpunk, etc. etc. Kyle maybe you can put that one together in Excel for us.

Sounds like a fun summer project. I actually have some software that will do it automatically like. I just have to get all the articles together.

We should move all the old theards that should belong in media...into media. Lara, maybe you can do that for us.

Ha, yes, I have a ridiculous final tomorrow morning, and non-functioning home computer, but the article thing is nagging at me enough that I'll move a bunch over here to Media right now.

Lara for president.

kh = burn!

that's great though - from what i've heard, IR has been popping up on a lot of "to watch in 2004" lists, so some great publicity going on... :D