Idolator
Welcome to another edition of Track Marks, in which your Idolators perform an autopsy on the latest MP3-blog sensation.
Artist: Robbers On High Street
Hometown: New York, NY
Album: The Fatalist EP (New Line)
First blog mention: An April '04 post on Drive A Faster Car.
The Build-Up: indie don't dance and The Rich Girls Are Weeping took note of the Robbers last spring, while Both Sides Of the Mouth and Music Glob covered them in August.
The Dam-Break: "The Fatalist," the title song from the Robbers' new digital-only EP, was released to MP3 blogs about 12 days ago, if this Information Leafblower post is any indication; posts featuring "The Fatalist" followed from Hobby Box, out the other..., I Rock Cleveland, and about 10 other blogs. The song is currently sitting at No. 2 on the elbo.ws chart.
Odds of Backlash: 4-1; already, commenters on some blogs are bristling at the Robbers' indie-by-numbers sound.
Are They Worthy?: The Robbers aren't much to write home about—they seem to have derived a lot of their musical template from a circa-2004 NME stash. But we're very impressed by their label's ability to dispense a single MP3 and have it work magic around the blogosphere; hey, it even worked with us, even if we're pretty lukewarm about their sound.
Robbers On High Street - The Fatalist [MP3, link expired]
Robbers On High Street [MySpace]
Comments
How did a post from 2004 get to the front page?
That's exactly what I was about to comment upon!
Any backlash over ROHS I think culminated with one of my favorite lines in any Pitchfork review ever (paraphrasing), "If Brit Daniel lives on High Street, then the band's name makes sense..." That was almost 2 years ago I think.
well, they're back. just look at the elbo.ws chart! apparently the cycle of 'retro' is on the verge of eating itself, and not a moment too soon.
AGH! NO!
Not the worst Spoon cover band in the land!
*gag*
They do sound like Spoon, but...if Spoon were young and cute and full of funny antics, rather than self-importantly scoring mediocre movies. How is that not better?
Ugh. I'm no Spoon apologist or anything, but Robbers are really the most pale of imitations.
It's not better.
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