Monday, October 19, 2009 11:53AM - By Seraphina L.
It’s finally here! It’s the week of CMJ Festival 2009 in NYC and it all starts tomorrow. The Big Apple will literally be bursting with more noise than usual from October 20 and through October 24. If you’re going to be in the area, make sure you do your last minute registration. You have until 6:00pm tomorrow.
After that, passes will be available onsite at the Judson Memorial Church which is located at 55 Washington Square South, between Thompson and Sullivan Streets.
Also, we assume you’re planning a schedule before you go. (It gets crazy!) So check out our top pick of LA bands who will be playing CMJ this week. We’ve got dates, locations, and times for you below!
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009 4:00PM - By Brian McConnell
As our BeatCrave Fave Pick of the Month and a band whose concert we have joyfully reviewed, it seems there is little left to be said about the awesome foursome comprised of Sarah Ellquist (vocals), Daniel de Blanke (guitar), Preston Scott Phillips (drums, percussion) and Keith Boyarsky (bass). BeatCrave however, thought it would be a great idea to go beyond singing (pun completely intended) the bands praises and take some time to talk with some of its members.
The Robotanists thought it would be a good idea as well and Sarah, Dan and Preston gave us a rare glimpse behind the scenes of this truly spectacular group of artists. Take some time and get to know, even better than you already do, the one and only Robotanists!
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Friday, June 19, 2009 9:43AM - By Laura Aguirre
The Echo Curio may be the smallest venue to host a show in Los Angeles, but even so, the Robotanists were able to rock the house Wednesday night. As soon as the band started playing people started to dance, and you could feel the musical fusion being created. The stage was surrounded by mock-like christmas lights and colorful lanterns, all of which went off and on to the beat of the music.
Perhaps it was the tiny size that the Echo Curio is that made the guitar, drums, bass, and electronic sounds overpower Sarah Ellquist’s hypnotizing vocals because it was hard to listen to the song’s words; though, if you’re a huge fan, then you probably already know the lyrics and would have been okay, but to the rest of us, it would have been a nice gesture to turn up the mic in order to listen to Ellquist’s great vocals. Other than that, the show was golden.
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Monday, May 11, 2009 2:00PM - By Lindsey Darden
April is but a distant memory; your pick of the month, however is not. It’s time to pat yourself on the back for the most efficient use of your right-click finger- your BeatCrave Fav of the month is the Robotanists.
Los Angeles, circa 2003. A young married couple – Sarah Ellquist and Dan White – found themselves the musical contributors to the experimental effort, Loma Lynda. The name of the game was to combine film and corresponding live musical performances as a means of veering away from the familiar boundaries of rock music. Naturally, this fed into the collective’s primary aim to be “a rock band out to destroy rock music.” Essentially, the ultra-artistic hybrid worked to revive a style of performance which are not regularly utilized in the present day, and this approach provided a foundation for what would eventually set apart what was to become the Robotanists from the average indie rock band.
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Friday, May 1, 2009 2:30PM - By Mali
You’ve had your week to vote and now we present to you, your favorite BeatCrave Fav band of April ‘09. They must have hypnotized you with their music because apparently the band that could not be described could be voted for. The winner was by a landslide was the Robotanists!
The band will be featured on the site with Mp3s, background information, and (if your lucky) an interview on BeatCrave in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, you can check out some videos and tour date below…
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009 2:00PM - By Kara
Holy cow! It’s the end of April. Wow, an entire month has passed already. Fear not, a new month of BeatCrave Favs is on it’s way, but first you have to vote for your April favorite.
Each week we put up a poll of our favorite bands and let you vote. Our three top bands ready to go head to head for a chance to win our best of the month spot are…
The wonderful folky-acoustic sound of Bon Iver (listen here), fun and modern LA-based band, Robotanists (listen here), and the eclectic sounds of The Secret Chiefs 3 (listen here)?
Don’t forget that the winner of this poll will receive a feature at the end of the month! Be sure to vote below…
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Friday, April 24, 2009 4:30PM - By Seraphina L.
We’ve picked out favorite artists of the week. Now it’s your turn to pick yours!
The perfect blend of indie pop and shoegaze of Asobi Seksu (listen here)? The twee rock-pop septet, Los Campesinos! (listen here)? The hypnotic and engaging modern sounds of the Robotanists (listen here)? Or the gothic metal rock/jazz group, Diablo Swing Orchestra (listen here)?
The number one voted artist will receive a special BeatCrave feature at the end of the month. So support your favorite band and vote them in our BeatCrave Fav Poll!
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009 2:00PM - By Lindsey Darden
It’d almost be unfair to pin the Robotanists to a specific sound and type; separate words would actually be more succinct a description – for instance, mesmerizing, hypnotic, engaging would be much more accurate than ‘rock’, ‘alternative’, or ‘ambient/modern/etc.’. General classifications are not the stuff that The Robotanists are made of. Outside of the Los Angeles-based band’s ability to escape the Dymo labeler, we love the feel of a local band that you can possibly coerce into grabbing a beer with after a show, just as much as we enjoy being taken out of our element without the assistance of booze (but only sometimes; we work hard, okay?).
Their seven-track EP, Close Down the Woods, is like listening to a raw recording in an abandoned warehouse on Alameda or an art gallery off of Spring Street, while their sound overall is of a familiar longing and questioning that doesn’t fade along life’s journey, no matter how many speedbumps are uncomfortably run over. The Robatanists are just really good.
We like them, and we think you’ll like them too – and should you happen to as much as we do, be sure to vote for them in Friday’s poll!
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