I'm not sure exactly what this whole Japanese Kumauta singing polar bear PS2 game is about, but it looks just weird enough to be a winner. My Japanese is bad enough to where I can just make out the "ku" on his uber-stylish tracksuit.

04/05/2005 Fischerspooner "Odyssey" Record Release Party
Cinespace, Hollywood, CA. Details: Casey will DJ. Open to the public on a first come-first serve basis.

SF Robots, tonight head over to Active at 9th & Folsom for a very special visit - direct from the Hague in western Holland Legowelt will be bringing his analog synth grooves to hungry robot masses. Legowelt is not to be missed!

Just a quick note for all LA robots, get your gears in motion and head down this Saturday night to Data Age. Not only is it LA's exclusive venue to see drum machines, sequencers, and computers along with their live counterparts, you'll just may also get a glimpse of neighbor and friend Mike, as he fires up his keytar. Check out more information at Curious Recordings.

Rockstar Games launches Beaterator, a real-time, online Flash music sequencer and sampler, complete with loops from Ghostly artist Matthew Dear.

The rain they promised for LA never came, so it proved to be a nice day to head out on foot and take the Lensbaby and the D70 out for a spin in the 'hood. Lomography has nothin' on this combo!

I've been listening to an advance copy of the new Fischerspooner album, Odyssey and it's really grown on me. The art troupe extrordinaire have returned to prove that they're for real, with some incredibly catchy melodies and lyrics. It's clear "Just Let Go" will be the breakout single, but equally fab is the sassy "Never Win" or the more contemplative "All We Are" with rifts that harken back to the Cure's "A Forest". Definitely worth picking up when the album is released in April 2005. For now, you can check out Casey and his new Napoleon Dynamite coiffure in the "Just Let Go" video here.

Anyone who knows me knows I am obsessed with music and images. I have also harbored a secret desire to explore the relationships between sound and image; to "see" what a song sounds like, and to "hear" what an image looks like. Blogger and software engineer Tim Omernick takes my obsession one further with his innovative SoundOfAnImage software, which converts images into music. Sometimes the music even sounds like music, especially if you play images with a lot of structure and/or symmetry to them. Here's the results of some experiments with recent pictures from Rem Koolhaas' and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture's amazing Seattle public library. They might not make your iTunes playlist, but they're very interesting nonetheless.


Listen


Listen


Listen

All work and no posting makes BitBoy an unhappy robot...
All work and no posting makes BitBoy an unhappy robot...
All work and no posting makes BitBoy an unhappy robot...
All work and no posting makes BitBoy an unhappy robot...

Robot DJ. 'Nuff said.

Robots!
So many things going on, as John Stewart would say, "Man, you are blowing my mind." Here's a quick update of LA musts:

Droid Behavior is on fire - so much electro goodness coming to town it's going to make you short circuit. Kick things off with our favorite Berliner, DJ HELL accompanied by LA's own Mount Sims and Savas Pascalidis. It all happens at Circus Disco on Santa Monica Blvd. this Saturday night from 9-4 am. Do not miss this event! More events including some of your favorite Kompakt DJs coming soon!

On Feb 17 catch DJ Carlos from Interpol as he spins at the Beauty Bar. Hopefully he'll bring a little left over Detroit party mojo to the City of Angels.

And for all you SF Robots, don't miss Julian Destrukt, Teflon Jacket and Audioelectronic tear things up at their all new night of Synth, Acid and Electronic Bass at ACTIV. It happens Saturday, Feb 19th at The Shadow Lounge - 9th & Folsom.

Target promotes Design for All.

Oh, Lemur. You will be mine someday. You're so very beautiful, and you can control Traktor. Another chink in the armor of vinyl. Just imagine yours truly rocking the spot like this, this or this.

Feeling a little uninspired by the dearth of new music out there, robots? Never fear, there's a musical tsunami on the horizon and it's headed this way. Here's a little sample of what to expect in the coming months from some new players and old favorites:

Daft Punk
New album "Human After All" expected to hit stores in March 2005.

LCD Soundsystem
Their first self-titled album will be released February 15th. Until then, check out the video for their single 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' is now available for viewing at lcdsoundsystem.com.

Tiefschwarz
New album Misch Masch is released domestically on February 8th, 2005.

Fischerspooner
In addition to the recent news about their new album, Odyssey due to be released on April 5, Fischerspooner and gallerists Deitch Projects have announced the re-opening of their evening Salons held at the FS studio space at 110 North First Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn every Thursday. The opening party will be held this Thursday, January 27th.

Mu
Out of Breach: Manchester's Revenge - if you haven't already heard clucky, punky electro sounds of Mu, check out her single "Paris Hilton" download it for free from Index Magazine.

Portishead
In an interview to the BBC 6 Music they are in the process of writing a new album, that was well on its way to completion. On the rumoured break-up of the band, member Geoff Barrow commented, "We've just had our heads down really, we've never actually broken up, or parted, or whatever. So for us it just seems, even though we haven't played for years, we still see each other and write - we just haven't released a record for a long time."

New Order
New Order returns with their eighth studio album in the spring, and join the class of 2005 by taking their inspiration from... classic New Order. The album, "Waiting For The Sirens Call" is divided between guitar tracks in the vein of previous album "Get Ready" and the synth-based tracks that are their trademark. And yes, as normal, sleeve art will be designed by Peter Saville. Check out their single "Krafty" with your RealPlayer here.

Depeche Mode

In addition to being featured in this month's Q / MOJO magazine, with "The Complete Depeche Mode Story", the band has already started work on a new studio album on Monday, January 17th along with with Daniel Miller, Jonathan Kessler and Ben Hillier at the production console.

All this comes from a varitey of sources, including our friends at Burnlab, Index Magazine, XLR8R and others.

Molotov Media for the Masses

Gabe Dunne over at UCLA's media arts program has taken guerilla advertising to it's next logical step with his Molotov Projector. Simply attach the projector to any surface. Then call it via cellphone and reprogram the projection as desired. Multiple projectors may be linked to create a moving message across multiple surfaces. Brilliant!

WTF?! I am officially "obsolete". Bleep bleep bleep.

Easily the best spam subject line ever received.

Looks like Netflix has updated their site, and with it brought along some much needed features. One feature I've been wishing for is a way to share your movie queue. It looks like I may have my wish with the new Netflix Friends feature. With Netflix friends, you create a friends list and share movie ideas with your Friends. Once you build your list, you can see what your friends think about specific movies, suggest specific movies to your friends and add comments next to films that will help your friends discover great movies or avoid those you didn’t enjoy. Finally!

So the Earth is getting less sunlight than 50 years ago. The big question is, do I have enough of a claim against polluters to make them pay for my loft's new lighting?

Looks like the FS gang have a new splash page up precluding the release of their new album, Odyssey. I suppose it would have been bad form to name it #2.

Here's a little note from Warren and Casey:

We are happy, excited, tired, relieved and proud to finally have finished our new album, Odyssey.

And what an Odyssey it has been! It was a quest to say the least, personally and creatively. We set out to make something artistically innovative and to evolve our sound on this album but in doing so we had to evolve as artists as well, which was at times perilous and painful. In the end, you can hear it, the agony and the ecstasy.

We worked hard, for an extraordinary two years with some extraordinary collaboraters, to make a coherent AOR record, a total statement. Inspired along the way by psychedelia, classic rock and the ideas of the romantics that were the roots of rock and roll (intuition over ration; emotion over intellect; transcendence through the supernatural; the artist as hero), we tried to combine those influences with our own take on modern pop music to create something new and, hopefully, unique.

We can't wait for you to hear it and we’ll see you in 2005.

Sincerely,

Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner

Doyle informs us about Clear Magazine. He recently helped them put on the first ever fashion show at the Detroit Auto show. Nice work!

John Selway has updated his site at selwaymusic.net. Looks like it still has a few bugs if you're on a Mac, I'm sure he'll get them ironed out. The important thing is, if you find yourself in NYC on the 21st, don't miss ROBOTS featuring Selway and Derek Plaslaiko at Cafe Deville. John also has an old favorite mix posted for your MP3 listening pleasure here, and damn is it ever great! A painful reminder of the difference in skill between those who DJ professionally (Selway) and those who do not (me). Ack! Enjoy.

The rain is gone, and LA is charged up for some great electronic grooves. Here's what's coming your way courtesy of Droid Behavior:

Anarexia and Deathstar (Modern Romantics) explore the future and the past of minimal electro this Sunday, January 16th 10-2am at The Parlour Club: 7702 Santa Monica Blvd, W. Hollywood. Cover is only $3.


Then on Saturday January 22nd, make sure to check out the Native Insutruments NI LAB featuring:

Kaskade
Matthew Dear
Telefon Tel Aviv
Richard Devine
Terrestre
DJ Battlecat
The Executives
RD & Trichome
Drumcell (NI, Droidbehavior)
Suspect Seen (NI)
Walton (NI)
Kazell (NI)
leVEL (NI)
Visuals by Scott Pagano

It all happens 9-4am at The Blue Monkey Bar @ 5521 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. $15.

And on Sunday, you can get more of Ghostly artist Matthew Dear for FREE from 9-2am at Monroe's @ 8623 Melrose at Huntly.

Finally, take a trip back to the late 80's and early 90's with this fantastic acid house and minimal mix by Turbo here.

Winners of the "I Look Like My Dog" contest [thanks, Jason].

What to do when you're bored and it's raining in LA? Design a t-shirt, of course. Check out my t-shirt design, it's called "high voltage" at threadless.com. If I get enough high scores the shirt will be printed and sold from the site and I will win some prizes. Take a look, and if you like it, sign up and give it a score.

It's Friday night, robots. Woo-hoo. Start your evening with this news [from Jess, thanks!] about South Korean scientists who claim they've developed the world's smartest robot able to think and learn like a human. They plan to do so by creating a "learning network", much like Star Trek's infamous Borg. You can read more about it here.

Then go get your groove on in the LBC at Training Bra. Tonight you'll enjoy the electro sounds of DJ Barbeau/Dirty Sanchez and special guest from NYC Dr. Wundt. More info here.

It has come to my attention that some of you might not know what QRIO is. Shame. Fire up your Real Player and get ready to be amazed with these videos. I just want a dozen or so of these guys wandering around the loft. And yes, QRIO's progeny will someday posess the technology to kill you, so play nice and get on his good side while you have time.

Engadget reports news of the next Robosapien robot from the CES show floor. We weren't too impressed by version 1, especially after comparing it to the magically smooth moves of Sony's uber-advanced, uber-expensive QRIO, maybe version 2 will be better.

Detroit techno legend Kenny Larkin is a major force in Detroit's second generation of renowned producers — including Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva — Catch Kenny tonight at Droid Behavior's warehouse party, it's sure to attract quite a crowd, so RSVP to get your name on the list. Only $5 at the door. Bleep, bleep!

More on the Zissou, here's the official word I received about my inquiry to Adidas' online customer service:

Unfortunately, the Zissou is a "one-off" custom model made especially for that project and it will not be available for sale. The Zissou actually is a version of the ROM, with "zissou" on the side in place of "rom". Here are some specialty dealers who usually carry the ROM:

It goes on to list a number of online retailers who sell the ROM.