The Robot Ate Me - They Ate Themselves (Swim Slowly / Standard Recording, 2003)

The Robot Ate Me
They Ate Themselves
Swim Slowly / Standard Recording
2003

Rating: 8.5 chalky sugar bones out of 10 
 
It is releases like this one that really makes me glad that I get to write reviews. I get a fair amount of material I already know and like, but there’s something imminently more exciting when you get a release by a band you’ve never heard of and it actually turns out to be pretty good. Or in the case of The Robot Ate Me (TRAM), it turns out to not just be good but amazing.

TRAT are a group of youngsters from San Diego that play some delightfully beautiful music. Try to imagine the amazing Microphones album "The Glow pt. 2" as run through a Wayne Coyne/Flaming Lips filter, with occasional tinges that will have you thinking of Neutral Milk Hotel and Of Montreal. These four lads play a wide assortment of instruments in their songs – horns, moog, violin, power tools, accordion, toy instruments, along with the normal drums/bass/guitar/keys/vocals; but instead of falling into the trap that so many young bands fall into of trying to jam everything in there at once, they practice restraint, possibly realizing why a saying like "less is more" is so popular. Some songs can be both upbeat and depressing at the same time; other tracks are almost ambient in nature, but you never forget that they are there.

For a debut album, this release is nearly perfect. Most veteran bands can’t even come close to this kind of originality and inventiveness, so it’s especially impressive that it came out of a bunch of Southern Californians in their early twenties. There’s no doubt the talent is here – it’s just a matter of whether or not people actually get a chance to hear it.