Worthy modern successors to the British-punk-women-punk reins? I think so. Robots in Disguise

[the_future_modernes]

So. I like electronica and I am beginning to really dig punk. Put them all together and the band that results will be awesome yes? HELL YES, imho!!!

Wake Up! - Robots in Disguise (Official Video)

Never Mind the Bollocks – the Robots Re-write Rock… Seriously this is an AWESOME interview. Shoo, go read!

“I’d say get the bass out from under the bed, stop trying to pull boys with it, and play it!” Sue Denim, bassist and one half of English electro-punk band Robots in Disguise laughs, a twinkle in her eyes half hidden by a pair of enormous Jarvis Cocker-esque black glasses. Her partner in music, guitarist Dee Plume, smiles from under her red and black fringe and adds: “Try and write a song everyday, that’s what I’d say.” “Why don’t you follow that advice now?” teases Sue.

We’re sitting in a noisy bar an hour or two before their debut Irish gig in the Village, chatting about the new single (The Sex Has Made Me Stupid), the new album We’re in the Music Biz and what it’s like being a female musician. I’ve asked Dee and Sue (Plume and Denim are pseudonyms, but it seems strange to think of them with ‘normal’ surnames) about what they’d say if they could go back ten years and give their younger selves some advice. ...
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One thing that marks out the Robots from many of their peers is that they generally have an all-female band, something that they strive hard to keep. “I still think there’s sort of a massive imbalance – that’s why we specifically wanted a female drummer,” says Sue. “We did have a male drummer at one point, but we specifically wanted a female drummer, because despite the fact there’s probably a lot of good male drummers that applied for the job, we still had to be sexist and say no…positive discrimination.” The image of three female musicians on stage is a powerful one, and the meaning is not lost on Dee. “I think visually it has loads of impact,” she muses. “Because you come to a gig and if you’re a boy or a girl, you see three women on stage playing their instruments, and their own songs. You know, that sticks in your head.”

“If there were equal numbers [of men and women in music] at this time, which there still really isn’t, then you wouldn’t have to even think about it any more, really,” says Sue. But being an all-female band isn’t just something they want to appeal to women. “I think there are a lot of men who don’t want male stereotypes [pushed] on them, like young men who are a bit more girly, who don’t just want to be a stereotype or whatever,” says Dee. “I do think it’s empowering for guys to watch us,” agrees Sue.MORE

Contains robot sex. Probably NSFW

Robots In Disguise - The Sex Has Made Me Stupid

Wikipedia on Robots in Disguise

Robots in Disguise are an English electropunk band. The group is composed of Dee Plume (Delia Gaitskell – vocals, guitars), Sue Denim (Suzanne Powell – vocals, bass), and a rolling live line-up of backing musicians. Their current drummer is Gemma Hill, also known as Ann Droid.^[1] Robots in Disguise have released three studio albums.
They are based in Berlin, Germany and London, UK.
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ROBOTS IN DISGUISE - 'We're in the Music Biz

For those of you who know of the British program The Mighty Boosh, it might interest you to know that the women are affiliated with it.


ROBOTS IN DISGUISE - 'The Tears' - Featuring NOEL FIELDING

Robots in Disguise - Arguments

Robots In Disguise- Turn It Up

Pop News 2002 interview

It seems your music influences range is quite large. Is their a special band, or musical genre that inspired you ?

Dee : There's loads of music that's inspired us. Since I was small I've always enjoyed singing - I love acoustic guitar/vocals like Loudon Wainwright III and Johnny Cash and their folk storytelling. I couldn't play the guitar much when we started in our garage band so Punk is a total influence, The Slits, X-Ray Spex especially - girls with attitude in bands. Indie-dance stuff - Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses for mixing melodies and strong rhythms. I'm not massively inspired by beats alone - I need to connect with a voice and good lyrics.

Sue : I was brought up on English folk music, The Beatles (of course) and songs from musicals such as Oliver!, The Sound Of Music... I think it was very strange mixture. In my teenage years I drifted into David Bowie and Velvet Underground. And The Pixies. Then I moved thru Hip-Hop to Electro. Bands I relate to now... well, Sneakers Pimps...uh, Throbbing Gristle... Chicks On Speed. MORE

Exclusive: Robots in Disguise Interview

You seemed to have been one of the first female fronted girl groups of this decade to use sexuality and simply being yourself in what you do. With so many other's now like Lady Gaga and La Roux, how do you feel about them casting a shadow over what you were doing first? (Really? What a question. I am not sure his premise is correct and I do not appreciate the set up for fellow-artist bashing here. Nevermind the part where a rock band is apparently supposed to be competing with bloody solo pop artists. Which somehow only happens with women bands. I love the response though)

Sue: I don't really think about it except occasionally when people say 'Haven't you noticed Lady Gaga's make up looks like yours did 5 years ago' then I'm like 'Oh yeh' .. but because we're not doing that right now it is totally irrelevant and anyway their music is really different from us. They're women out there in a man's world, so good for them! Solo female artists are not really in the same arena as us - we are trying to corner the 'girl gang' end of the market.


Who came up with the idea for the cover of your last record, "We're in the Music Biz?" What seems to be you ladies innocently wearing dress shirts and ties is certainly not the case, it is you nude wearing perfect body paint. Did you ever think anyone would notice? Were you ever afraid of being censored?

Sue: We came up with it of course! We wanted to do something cheeky and also a little aggressive, and to make a statement about women in the BIZ (note the body painting is the uniform worn by your average boy indie group). We were inspired by the Slits album cover for Cut. We also happened to find a really good body painting artist in Berlin so that helped. Talking of whether people notice or not, it is really a double take thing. The evening after we'd done the shoot, we went out to White Trash in Berlin and walked down the street and were in the club 'dressed' like that. It was very funny. MORE

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Encore:

Robots In Disguise- Chains on Raybans Rooftops