Beatbots Webzine

News : September 13: Beatbots @ Hampdenfest (Meatrots)

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:59:31 -0400

BEATBOTS @ HAMPDENFEST (MEATROTS)
Saturday, September 13th // 11AM - 7PM

It's going to be just like online, but in the meat. We'll have 100 square feet of spacious tent space for folks to hang out, drink a soda, distribute flyers, and pal around.

In the tent we'll have a big table set up, where people can leave their flyers / free zines / pins / stickers / whatever. If you run a DIY venture of any capacity in Baltimore (band, artist, venue, publication, etc) be sure to whip something up and bring it with you. Last year our booth got a ton of foot traffic and we expect even more this year.

We're still looking for a tent and chairs! If you have any lying around, consider lending them to the cause (hit us up on the message board). Basically, we can do whatever we want in the booth as far as activities go, so if you have any ideas, holler.

Here's what's happening in earshot ...

ATOMIC STAGE (36th & Falls Rd)
11AM - The Jennifers
1

Audio Reviews : Such Buds by Starving Daughters

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:59:44 -0400

Ever get that feeling? The one where you hear something�whether it�s a person talking, a musician playing, or whatever�and something about what was said, sung, picked, or strummed clues into some latent cortical context. Snap-crackle-pop go the neurons, and off you are, singing along to some old pop tune that was inadvertently dredged up from the depths of your memory. Spoken words bleed into sung lyrics, and the next thing you know, everyone around you is singing along. Choreographed dancing ensues�stage lighting, finger-snapping, toe-tapping, the whole Bob Fosse shebang. All thanks to you and your uncontrollable foray into musical stimulus-response.

Then there�s the worst-case scenario: you hear a certain chord progression, and you start singing along, only it�s the wrong song. Forget the insanity of a real-world song-and-dance number, now it�s a chorus line of sighs, awkward silence, and the wary side-eyed stare. Nice going, slick. Way to fudge your lines.

On my fi

Audio Reviews : Gentleman Jesse and His Men by Gentleman Jesse and His Men

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:18:45 -0400

You may or may not be familiar with this (former?) Carbonas' member's solo project. If you missed out on Gentleman Jesse's debut single then you seriously effed up. No shit. Seriously. Easily the best powerpop single of 2007 (technically 2006 since it came out in December of that year, but screw it, it doesn't matter, best powerpop single of the last ten years). Seriously. Douchemaster Records. Check it out. If you don't love the A-side ("I Don't Wanna Know") then you can't be my friend. It's that simple.

Douchemaster Records has done us the immense favor of bringing us GJ&HM's full-length and it is no less fantastic than that single was. Joe Jackson? Chump. Elvis Costello? Amateur. Nick Lowe? Don't make me laugh. Gentleman Jesse is the new king of Purepopperfectionville. Put your dancin' shoes on, shine 'em up good, and scamper on down to the malt shop with your boombox blaring this 12" and just watch the girls' with their ponytails and poofy skirts heads spin and the greasy

Audio Reviews : Learn the Hard Way by The Copyrights

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:38:50 -0400

If you are unfamiliar with Illinois' best power-pop-punkers (and probably the world's second best, behind the Ergs, of course) then you've missed out on three fantastic full-lengths and a couple great EPs. The prolific Copyrights bring us their fourth album less than a year since they dropped their previous one, Make Sound, also on Red Scare Records (and they also recently self-released a split CD with Chicago's Methadones). For most bands this would border on overkill, but the Copyrights' infectious hooks, anthemic choruses, and cheeky lyrics combine to create some of the most fun rock music going today.

It's so simple and that's part of what makes it so great. Nobody is attempting to rewrite the book on catchy poppy punk here because that book would be stupid and boring. Nobody would read that book. The pop-punkers want their books full of action, love gone awry, snide humor, degenerate friends, self-deprecation, and a solid fuck off attitude to those who take themselves too

Audio Reviews : Curse of the Golden Dracula by Burbis

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:18:15 -0400

Burbis is one of the few bands i have managed to keep in semi-steady rotation over the last five years or so. Explosions in the Sky flitted through and Neutral Milk Hotel stopped in for an extended stay, but neither had the humor to combine with the passions at play. For a long time, though, I only had a couple of songs to enjoy - "I left my heart in Sri Lanka" and "Let Our Powers Combine." This all changed a few months ago when the brothers Longo (+ 1) released The Curse of the Golden Dracula.

This album is a beast of a far different nature compared to what I expected. The band harkens back to some members' earlier explorations of metal in the project When All is Lost while also engaging in seemingly disparate Yes and Album Leaf influenced parts. The final result is a sweeping melancholy that envelops the individual parts. Soaring ambient guitars mingle with melodic keyboard parts while the rhythm section pounds out the kind of beat that would have Hades ready to march into o

Poetry : Alexis by Koye Berry

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:55:33 -0400

It was Saturday, July 5th,
A cookout.
I had been drinking martinis for breakfast
When you invited me to get high.

I could see, then,
A glimpse of the future
In which we were cleft,
Walls between us,

Intimacy lost.
After these years, really,
Is she my censor? Is she
Worth this dissolution?

Video Reviews : Wanted by Timur Bekmambetov

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:29:50 -0400

I just saw that action movie "Wanted," by the Russian director Timur Bekmambetov. I'm feeling these action movies. When I used to work at a barbershop, there was this busted dude who used to come in and hit on me on this "you like fine wines and foreign films and jazz" tip. This was some bullshit because, if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times--I'm more of a Geto-Boys-and-Jubilee type. You can't judge a book by its cover--these action movies are on point. Folks are tired of that movie about the little ballet dancing Irish boy. We wanna see Angelina Jolie's snakey arms and guns!!! (You see her butt too!)

This movie "Wanted" follows the story of some feckless mope named Wesley Gibson (James Mc Avoy) who works in an office and gets crapped on so hard by life that he seems to be sort of pumped about it. He ALMOST wriggles in it--there's a great Dickens/Harry Potter fairy tale flagellation thing going on here. His boss is an overweight lady (prejudice) who is ira

Video Reviews : Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by Steven Spielberg

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:04:13 -0400

What can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said? Indiana Jones/Harrison Ford is old as shit--but I ain't saying anything new there, because Shia LaBoeuf's character asks Indiana Jones at one point during the movie, "What are you, like 80?" Here I am thinking I'm smart and sassy on the way to the Senator with my friends and folks razzing on Harrison Ford for being a million years old, and lo and behold, the filmmakers are aware.

So maybe I can go on about how cheesy the film is--but it knew it, it was aware as well--Spielberg wanted the film to be like a 50's B-movie. I thought it was on some original old people behavior, not getting the joke as to how ridiculous and over the top the movie was, but apparently it was the filmmakers' intentions to laff and laff and laff when Old Man Adventure gets sassed by a Marlon Brando baby boy (LaBoeuf on a motorcycle), or when he survives nuclear fallout by hiding in a refrigerator, or when he witnesses an alien autopsy

News : Beatbots A/V Club interview on WYPR's Maryland Morning

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:08:33 -0400

Incase you missed it, check out WYPR's interview with the Beatbots A/V Club (featuring Jeff Mewbourn and Justin Blemly) on June 2, 2008. Posted where else? The Beatbots A/V Club, duh.

Beatbots A/V Club interview on WYPR�s Maryland Morning

News : Beatbots at the Big Art Show

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:46:04 -0400

Hey Baltimore, we're going to have a table at the Big Art Show this Saturday (June 14) at the Load of Fun. Tabling what you ask? Good question ... we have no idea! It's going to be fun though! Come hang out with us, say hello and get your luls on. See the attached flyer for more details.