From Metropolis to Star Wars, we’ve been tantalized by robots that can walk like us, talk like us, even look like us. Well, it’s 2001: Where are all the robots? Sure, they can weld a car door; so can a unibrowed high school dropout. Worse are the robots at shopping…

I believe there exists an alternate universe–a parallel world in which Eminem doesn’t win Grammys, Fred Durst doesn’t run a record company and the Backstreet Boys work at Abercrombie and Fitch. In that world, bands like Teenage Fanclub top the charts. The Scottish trio has been crafting infectious power pop…

Stephen Malkmus doesn’t break any new ground with his first solo release, but then he didn’t have to. Back in the ’90s, when he was fronting Pavement, Malkmus was hailed as an indie-rock legend, his lo-fi arrangements and obtuse, stream-of-conscious lyrics inspiring countless burnouts on college campuses across the nation…

What’s the point of a best-of anyway? In Blur’s case, any self-respecting fan already owns the band’s entire catalog, and the casual fans have either downloaded “Song 2” off Napster or bought the latest volume of Jock Jams. The answer, of course, is money. Take some old tunes, add a…

Afew years ago, former New Times Los Angeles music editor Keven McAlester (who once held down the same post at the now-defunct Met) came up with a system to determine the worst albums of the year, a scientific formula that separated the chaff from the wheat with such precision, its…

1. Badly Drawn Boy, The Hour of Bewilderbeast (XL Recordings): Damon Gough, a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy, is mopey and sad; he’s the art-school kid who always got his ass kicked. He spilled out all of his emotional baggage on The Hour of Bewilderbeast, and it amounts to the best album…

As the great David St. Hubbins once said, “There’s a fine line between clever and stupid.” The line is equally fine between charming and cheesy–stay on the right side of the line, and you’ve got The Smiths; stray over the line, and you end up with Air Supply. Manchester trio…

Remember that anti-drug commercial with that really hot chick who goes nuts and trashes a kitchen with a frying pan? The ad hit you over the head with its message: Drugs are bad. Well, the British band Electrasy has issued a counterpoint. Their new album, In Here We Fall, also…

Back when electronica was the next big thing–around the time the only things that needed counting in Florida were dead German tourists–Norman Cook was just another washed-up pop musician. Little wonder the former member of the Housemartins and Beats International decided an identity change was in order; better to check…

FOR: “It took a lot of work to be the ass that I am,” sings Isaac Brock on Modest Mouse’s latest release, The Moon & Antarctica, and quite a few people would agree with him. The work has paid off: After two albums on Calvin Johnson’s K Records label, and…