This heartwarming little tale is kind of like a cross between Futurama and Mike Judge’s upcoming Idiocracy (aka 3001) except if it were a children’s pop-up book.
Starring a robot with the curiosity of a two-year old.
Oh, and instead of waking up to a future of stupid humans, he (it?) wakes up to a future of stupid dinosaurs.
Lunchbox-toting dinosaurs with tiny arms.
Eventually Bustobot makes a friend and the two of them end up blowing each others’ minds while staring at clouds and chucking a mango back and forth.
Easy on those pulls tabs. Pull too fast and you might miss some important dialogue.
Could this be the Japanese Polyphonic Spree?
Robes? Check.
Effervescent glee? Check.
Hippie idealism? Um…
I pause because the Onitsuka Tiger National Choir is really just an advertising gimmick to sell Onitsuka Tiger Injector DX soccer shoes. But still, the choir is made up of Onitsuka Tiger employees and that’s gotta stand for something. Plus, if you want, you can sing along with “Lovely Football” and win yerself some new kicks.
See Performance. See, see performance. S-E-E-P-E-R-F-O-R-M-A-N-C-E.
How queer is it that the day before I was planning to post a couple of tracks from Leeroy Stagger, the ABC show Grey’s Anatomy plays his song Just in Case over the closing minutes of the show? This show has definitely gone up a notch in my interest. Not that it’s a bad show. It’s a much more interesting primetime soap than ER ever was, if only because it deals with emotions more 
significantly than your average young doctors in love melodrama. Including good independent music in the score is quite the bonus. Well, good onya Grey’s Anatomy. Go forth and become ABC’s Gilmore Girls. Please?
Anyhoo, back to Leeroy. My notes from last week, coincidentally enough, suggest that Just in Case would be a great theme song for a TV show, like if Ed was back on the air and still changing the opening theme each season. It’s a warm and welcoming song. A great opening for his most recent album Beautiful House. My wife and I were listening to the title track over the weekend while we ran errands. While walking around Target, Keleigh kept singing It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) and I could see how she had connected Beautiful House to the REM song. I particularly like the mistake at the end of the song. Leeroy’s harmonizing with himself singing the chorus This is our house, beautiful house when one of his voices accidentally begins to repeat the chorus before remembering that the song is over. By leaving the mistake in the recording, the song comes across as even more endearing. It’s a wink, like it’s a private joke that you and I get to share with Lee (which is what I imagine he’d let us call him). Thanks, Lee. 
- Leeroy Stagger — Just in Case
- Leeroy Stagger — Beautiful House
Flotation Toy Warning‘s debut album Bluffer’s Guide to the Flight Deck came out in September of last year. (Yeah, so I’m a little slow; I’ll probably post older songs to this site at some point; anyway…) The British quintet seems like yet another indie band waving their freak flag high. On their website bio, they eschew any connection with the real world claiming to have no influences and an esoteric desire to impact the world. But who really reads these things for the truth. It’s rather common for bands to make up shit for their bios. But, wait. Don’t write these guys off. Their music sounds really cool. Popstar Reaching Oblivion incorporates organ and outer-space muppet voices in such a way that it sounds like the church organist has her sheet music turned upside-down. And Happy 13 sounds like Beck and Pink Floyd together. At last. So whip your geek out of your pants and have a little fun.
- Flotation Toy Warning – Popstar Reaching Oblivion
- Flotation Toy Warning – Happy 13
I’m not sure where I find out about most music. Okay, it’s usually from blogs, KCRW, links from other artist’s websites, labels, etc., but I don’t ever remember where I hear about particular bands. Typically I write down a list of bands to research, I look for MP3s that the bands are willing to share for free, and I make a mix of enough songs to fit on a CD (I don’t yet have an MP3 player). Then I listen to the mix at work noting which songs appeal to me enough that I want to hear more.
Anyway, recently I downloaded a couple of tracks from a Los Angeles band appropriately called the Southland. After a few listens, the two tracks I had downloaded (Debris and Shadow) had wiggled their way far enough into my brain that I had to have the full CD. I found a copy of their debut Influence of Geography at Amoeba this weekend and have listened to it over the past few days with rather mixed results. At first, the tracks I had originally enjoyed were still enjoyable, but the rest of the album made me cringe. It reminded me of Phil Collins or Sting: sincere rock. Indie rock shouldn’t be sincere. Should it?
After a couple more listens, though, I’ve realized that the album deserves more credit. Most of the album is sincere, it’s true, but it’s the kind of rock from the 80s that you turn up when the Jack plays it. However, a quarter of the album sounds like the kind of dreck your favorite 80s band put out when they changed formats. Like Elton John when he came out of the closet, or Billy Joel when he wasn’t depressed or angry anymore, or Hall & Oates when they tried to make disco music. I like most of the album. It occasionally reminds me of Neil Finn, and there’s a fantastic cover of the old standard I Only Have Eyes For You that makes me wish they did more covers. But I’m torn, since I hate the tracks Radio, Good Grief, and Shining Sun, a track which reminds me of the soul-deadening Jack Johnson.
Ah well, judge for yourself and let me know what you think:
Trivia note: the lead singer Jed Whedon is (Buffy and Felicity creator) Joss’s brother