Ima Robot

MEMBERS:

Alex Ebert (vocals),
Timmy "the Terror" Anderson (guitar/flutes),
Andy Marlow (guitar/keyboards),
Filip Nikolic
(bass), and Scott Devours
(drums).

Album:

Better Than Knowing Where You Are

Past Albums:

Ima Robot.

Release Date:

September 12, 2006.

You'll Like 'Em If You Like:

The Killers, Panic! At The Disco, and Hot Hot Heat.

Ima Robot on Ima Robot in Five Words or Less:

Black and blue.

Take your CD collection, put it in a blender, and you've got a taste of Ima Robot's unique mix of electro, punk, new wave, and hip-hop. The L.A.-based rock band met about nine years ago, when founders Alex Ebert and Timmy Anderson were working in the hip-hop scene. They joined up with a few more members (including a few guys from Beck's touring band), and started playing a bunch of shows in Cali. Soon, Ima Robot had built up a dedicated following of new wavers and released their self-titled debut. Now, after some roster changes, Ima Robot is back with their irreverently cheeky tunes. Before you check out Monument to the Masses, check what Timmy had to say about rap's connection to punk rock and the joys of YouTube.

So how is this record different than your debut album?
Luckily, our singer, [Alex] has a very unique voice, so we can probably get away with doing a lot for different stuff. As long as he's singing on it, it's always gonna be our band. [For] this record, we spent less time getting nervous and freaking out over all the cool little sounds that we have. We're all old hip-hop guys and DJs and producers -- not old as in age, but we've been doing it forever. We know how to make things sound really cool and do really cutting edge stuff. But we just wanted this record to speak from the songs. We can't recreate what we were doing on our last record because that was what we were doing then. We try to let things happen naturally.

The video for "Creeps Me Out" is pretty natural looking -- it's very YouTube-ish. Was that on purpose?
We love YouTube! We modeled "Creeps Me Out" on YouTube. We shot this video with just two handheld cameras, and wanted to look like just something kids have shot for themselves. If you go on YouTube, you can find all these amazing things of people video taping themselves. [And] kids make videos for our songs all the time, and sometimes, it's just them sitting in their room just lip-syncing the words. It's kind of awkward and weird to look at, but at the same time, it's amazing and hilarious. I love what the Internet has done for music and art because everyone can just be creative and just put it out there.