With the recent flurry of posts, I almost forgot to mention this...

While in NYC I met a really nice fellow named Nathan Scott and his friend (who’s name, regrettably, escapes me at the moment). In the midst of conversing with him about music I learned that he has his own band, Aalacho. He was nice enough to give me a copy of his latest CD, Sugar. While not the usual brand of robot-pop touted here, Sugar is a lush electronic, sweeping cinematic-sounding album that is worthy of mention. I find it’s the perfect chaser to Massive Attack’s 100th Window and it’s nailed that a well deserved spot in the iRobotnik rotation. If you’re intrigued, it’s worth checking out.

She managed to somehow smuggle a Nikon N90 35mm into the aforementioned Interpol show at the Fillmore, I'm not quite sure how, but she did. Here is her online album.

Electrobleep Radio is a great streaming radio station that takes requests! Just search and browse for your favorite song and their gentle robots will play it almost immediately.

Here at iRobotnik, we're concerned with more than just robots and electronic music and stuff. We're also concerned with national security. To that end, we've developed a new line of products available at the iRobotnik online store. The first of which is being offered exclusively to our loyal robot army:

Secure our homeland while securely transporting your lunch with the new iRobotnik "Biological Readiness Lunchbox" - available for just $15.99 in the iRobotnik online store.

Terrorism forces us to make a choice, we hope you'll choose to shop iRobotnik.

A weekend in NYC is not enough time. Period. Still, I had a great time soaking in the city (literally with the huge lakes of muddy slush) and catching up with friends. After breezing into town I hooked up with my gracious hosts for the evening, Michael Doyle from Burnlab and fellow Burnlab conspirator Karl Zeiss for a fun evening on the town. We met at Plant Bar where I was immediately impressed with the tunes being spun by the DJ. I asked Michael, "so who's that spinning?", to which he replied, "oh, that's John Selway". Welcome to New York! After that we headed over to 59 Canal St. - a nondescript upstairs karaoke bar turned nightclub to hear Magda spin an awesome set and catch up with Brian and 'Nix from Memory Systems who are getting ready to head overseas and introduce Europe to their unique brand of synthetic meta pop.



Although I was having a great time, by the time 5 a.m. rolled around I was feeling the jetlag in a pretty bad way, so I had no choice but to turn in (despite the fact that the party was still going strong). Sunday was basically a chill out and recover day. I lucked out and landed a fabulous pair of Yohji Yamamoto Y-3 Adidas kicks, picked up a few new CDs and ended up having dinner with Sarah at Rice on Mott St. where we dined right next to Melissa from WIT - again, welcome to NY! We ended the evening with a stop by the brilliantly gimmicky Remote Lounge, where every table and barstool has a remote controlled video camera installed - the cameras are controllable via joystick by the bar patrons who can view the output of the different cameras at custom-designed consoles, therefore allowing you to "spy" on other patrons and to be "spied" on in return. It's frighteningly addictive and could easily turn into a guilty pleasure - it would be an instant hit in San Francisco. All in all I had a fantastic weekend - I can't wait to go back when the weather is a bit more temperate. A big thanks to Michael, Dan, Brian and Phoenix for making a fun trip even more enjoyable with their hospitality!

Fischerspooner's US Tour goes on sale this weekend. But, EXCLUSIVELY for subscribers to the mailing list (and the iRobotnik faithful), we have an opportunity for you to buy tickets in advance of the public courtesy of Music Today.

Presale begins at noon Tuesday, February 25th with tickets for the April 8th show in Toronto and the April 13th show in Washington DC. Tickets for the April 25th performance in San Francisco will be available on Thursday, February 27th at noon. Presale tickets for all other shows will become available at noon on Wednesday, February 26th.

Here is the link for advance ticket sales.
http://www.fischerspoonertickets.musictoday.com

username: fischerspooner
password: tickets

Fischerspooner US Tour
Tue/Apr-08 Toronto, ON The Guvernment
Wed/Apr-09 New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom
Thu/Apr-10 Boston, MA Avalon Ballroom
Fri/Apr-11 Philadelphia, PA TLA
Sun/Apr-13 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Tue/Apr-15 Atlanta, GA Eleven 50
Thu/Apr-17 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
Fri/Apr-18 Chicago, IL Metro
Sat/Apr-19 Minneapolis, MN The Quest
Tue/Apr-22 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
Wed/Apr-23 Seattle, WA Showbox
Fri/Apr-25 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
Sat/Apr-26 San Diego, CA Spreckels Theatre
Sun/Apr-27 Los Angeles, CA Coachella (not eligible for pre sale)

Last weekend in New York was a blast, but more on that later...

Word is the official Client website has just been updated with a new MP3 - Client no 4, which can be downloaded from the audio page. Also, check out the live page for venue details for Client's upcoming DJ dates in Copenhagen and Paris.

Spreading the news around the world...



Depeche Mode and their offspring are making news. First off, as mentioned several months ago, Andrew Fletcher's new label's first release will be Client's Price Of Love to be released on 4/7 in the UK. If you haven't already checked out Client, you can download 3 free MP3 tracks from their website: client-online.net. In other things Mode, Martin Gore, the brains behind Depeche Mode's songs is finishing up his solo project, a sequel to 1989's Counterfeit entitled Counterfeit 2. It will be released on Mute records on April 29th here in the US. A single called Stardust will hit UK stores on April 14th. Thanks to Orac UK for the tip on the release dates.

We interrupt our normally scheduled dose of robotic rhetoric to bring you a quick political update:

Yesterday I joined more than 150,000 people here in San Francisco (and millions of voices around the world) in hitting the streets to protest the proposed U.S. invasion of Iraq. The outpouring of support for the anti-war movement was impressive, spanning nearly 12 large city blocks stretching from the waterfront to City Hall. Here are a few images from the day’s events:



Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

…and Deutschemark, FBI and Scotland Yard.

Thanks to Sabrina, Randall and their extra ticket I was able to go to last night’s Interpol show at the Fillmore. While a bit more indie than my usual robot band d’ jour, I really enjoyed their performance. They sounded amazing, had a great on stage presence, and flaunted a flair for smoking cigarettes that in my experience has only been topped by Ian McCullough of Echo and the Bunnymen (who only had to casually raise his to fingers to his lips in order to have a roadie scurry onstage and carefully place a lit fag into his idle hand - a sight to behold). Anyhow, the show was great.

And imagine my surprise when the first opening act came onstage, and it was S.F.’s very own Ghost Orchids! They put on a rockin’ electro-goth set that is sure to be talked about. Nice job, guys. I was able to snap just a few shots before I had to skillfully negotiate with the Fillmore’s security staff to keep my Sony spy camera, but I’ve posted what I did get below.



I also got a chance to meet Bridgit, Juju (a skillful catcher of drumsticks with her own band called Park Avenue Music) and a nice guy who works at Apple who’s name I can’t remember.

It looks as if my comment system is now operational. I need to redo the popup design, but at least it's functional. Go ahead, give it a shot.

In the notable short films of interest dept. I recently saw Todd Lincoln’s Leave Luck To Heaven (the literal translation of the Japanese word "Nintendo").



It’s a gorgeous, fascinating exploration of human loneliness and the longing to find answers in video games and technology. I highly recommend checking it out if you get the chance.

I just recieved my copy of This Is A Magazine's Compendium #1. It's stunningly beautiful. Over 200 oversized pages filled with amazing words and pictures by 30 artists from around the world.



If you don't have yours yet, I suggest you get on it before they run out. It's available in the U.S. at Vacant, 43 Mercer St. @ Grand, Soho NYC, or puchase online.

Uh huh, that's right...

I have a feeling this Friday night’s Fischerspooner release party with DJ Unknown at Club Fake is going to be the party to end all parties. I mean, sure it’s been over two years since I first heard FS and saw them perform live, so the fact that their album is finally being released domestically is a total *non-event*, and a testament to how slowly the big ship of the lame mainstream record industry turns. Nonetheless, I’ve got friends converging on the cit-tay this weekend from all over the globe, and we’re all going, so you should too. Let’s bring the Cat Club to its knees and pack it so tight with gyrating bodies that the Fire Marshall bursts a blood vessel.

Oh yeah. Hell yeah. The luxury of space is definitely not over-rated. To quote Ferris, “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up”.