April 5, 2011: Robot Parade

If you send me a record in the mail, you may very well get a themed radio show out of it. Yes, even if it is a K-Tel disc of hits:

Non of the Songs on this have anything to do with robots.

Robots have been a pet project of mine ever since the year 2000 when I was involved in a one person show called Binary Opposition. I just googled it and most of the internet presence has vanished. But in an eleven-year old forum post, someone has quoted the show. I still think it is a good quote, though it has nothing to do with robots:

"Computer geeks know they're geeks, but that's okay, because they control the invisible world inside their computer. Classic geeks know they're geeks, but that's okay, because they control the invisible world the Dungeon Master creates for them. But drama geeks don't know they're geeks! They think they're so cool, with their devil sticks and their cat-in-the-hat-hats..." - Sandy Donaldson, Binary Opposition

I think the same is true today, though the Cat-in-the-hat-hat is replaced by the animal toque. Back to robots. I love the clunky old robots that shoot sparks from their mouths and can't really do anything. The Will Smith i-Robots do little for me. While it comes around about once a decade, I still think the robot genre is underused in sci-fi.

A Robot Threat that only stairs could foil.

As it is in music. I just hobbled the list below together off the top of my head. 

To somewhat contrast, out Robot News dealt with the Robot Opera.

While I played something from the same album, listeners were spared any "domo-origato"... this time.

Played List

 Artist - Track - Album

Gyorgy Ligeti - Requium for Soprano - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now - Music Machine

Goblin - L'Alba Dei Morti Viveti - Zombi [soundtrack]

Gershon Kingsley's First Moog Quartet - Images - Gershon Kingsley's First Moog Quartet

Kraftwerk - The Robots - The Man Machine

Amon Duul II - Archie the Robot - Archie the Robot

They Might Be Giants - Robot Parade - No!

Kate Bush - Deeper Understanding - The Sensual World

Mahogany Frog - Sanchez Says... And Soon the Aces Will Ensue

Hawkwind - The Spirit of the Age - Quark Strangeness and Charm

Black Sabbath - Iron Man - Paranoid

Styxx - High Time - Kilroy Was Here