Here's a nice interview from Manchester Online:

manchestermusic
indie & rock

Friday, 30th April 2004

Robots a riot
Gary Ryan
ROBOTS have a bad press - usually the sole domain of men who can translate your name into Klingon.

First, there's the sheer, undiluted camp of C3P0; then there's Craig Charles introducing another son-and-over-enthusiastic-father team on Robot Wars ("Keep Your Hands Off Daddy's Killing Machine!".

Fortunately, with their fiercely individual style, US cyber punks Ima Robot buck the rabid Carrie Fisher- lovin' freaks'n'geeks trend.

Hailing from LA, they were in Manchester on Monday to support the Von Bondies. Which surely begs the question: have any of them smacked frontman Jason Stollsteimer yet? (Tonight Matthew....I'm going to be Jack White)

"No," laughs guitarist Tim Anderson, "Not yet. I might."

Breathlessly and shamelessly frantic, Ima Robot are truly bonkers - a quirky collision of Sparks and Devo and the B52s - who have amassed something of a cult following in the US.

"It was weird for us in Manchester," explains Tim, "With no-one having heard or ever seen anything of us, there was jaw-dropping going on, which I thought was cool."

He continues: "We came on to to absolute silence, which was a shock to us. Up until a month and a half ago, there were no challenges for us.

"Everywhere we were playing in the US, we already had a cult status. We'd show up and it was all-good and we were happening. And so to come out to dead silence was just like the Twilight Zone. It puts me in a real punk rock state of mind."

Ima Robot started as vocalist Alex Ebert and Tim's hip-hop project.

Recalls Tim: "The three founding members - Alex, the singer, Ollie, the keyboard player, and myself - we were all hip-hop obsessed in the early 90s. It's become a cliché for us in interviews, but hip-hop was the punk music of our generation."

"Alex and I were in rival rap groups, and Ollie had a hip-group. When we met, we knew we wanted to make a rock group. But we didn't like rock. It's like rock didn't have anything to offer in '98. Not to me, anyway."

"Hip-hop went through the same channels as punk; it was renegade, it was cutting edge, you had to go to weird places to find it. We became obsessed with the beginnings of the things we liked. That's when we turned to the bands that you hear in Ima Robot - The Wires and the Gangs of Fours."

Can you describe yourself in the form of a rap, then?

"Yeah . . .but I need some kind of inspiration. And I'm embarrassed; I'm not going to lie.

"You get a little older and you realise that you really are white, and you're not supposed to be rapping in front of everyone."

This apple-on-the-head revelation, alas, has yet to happen to Madonna.

Ima Robot have already garnered attention for their frankly odd choice of smutter. At last year's Reading Festival, Alex wore pyjama bottoms that gradually slithered down his skinny frame.

So, Tim, what's your pulling outfit? "Well", he muses, "for me it's about accessories. I usually wear one piece of women's clothing if I'm going out on the town.

"Because for some reason, women's coats, once you've ripped the shoulder pads out, really work for me. And sometimes a blouse. And regular pants. Some Louis Vuitton slippers or Nike Air-Force One trainers. And then a straight-up pink grandma's blouse."

Brandishing their own inimitable brand of "intelligent punk", Ima Robot have the controls set straight for the heart of the dancefloor.

"It's all about dancing," affirms Tim, "At our shows, it's not like dancing at an Abba show or slam dancing. It's like a riot.

"The funniest question a kid has ever asked me at a show is if our music was "mosh-able".

You should resurrect The Robot Dance... He laughs: "The keyboard player is a pretty seasoned break-dancer, and we're all born of West Coast United States hip hop culture.

"We're all pretty versed in break-dancing and stuff. We throw the Robot out a little bit, but we don't want people to think that's our shtick. That we're all obsessed with robots."

What songs do you dance to in your bedroom?

"To be honest, recently, I've been playing the hell out of that Scissor Sisters record. You gotta pull out the ABC, you know, Tears Are Not Enough.

"I like to put on Abba; people make fun of me. You either love them or hate them, but I'll put Fernando on and put a rose in my teeth and romance myself."

Well, it's a good enough way to spend Valentine's Day as any.

[Edited on 5-5-2004 by draconian]