Ima Robot "Disconnect"

If the song “Disconnect” (mp3) is any indication, Ima Robot looks like they might want to assume the position as the spazzier sibling to Andrew W.K. I’ll let it be known here, as is my wont, that I harbored a rather significant disdain toward the band on the strength of their first album, but only based on their remarkably annoying southern California hipsterism, represented most prominently in lead singer Alex Ebert. Seriously, I hate guys like him. But that didn’t stop me falling for the song “12=3″ from their first album, with all of its yelpy, conceptual grandeur, and I found that I liked in Ebert’s voice the same thing I liked in John Lydon’s: a confrontational and bratty but also kind of perceptive insouciance. It’s catchy as all hell, you should check it out. But on this song, they’re in full-on arena mode. There are probably dozens of common dynamics that can be applied to southern California punk rock, but one that I always associate with the region’s music is the fist-pumping sweaty-dude anthem, like “Rise Above” or even Pennywise’s “Bro Hymn” or whatever. There are lots more if you think about it. And “Disconnect” is playing off of that pretty well here—taking W.K.’s towering synth/guitar party wall and adding a wallop of teenage immobility and frustration: “Hello operator, please connect me/To the human race, I’m disconnected.” And goddamn it if these twerpy fuckers didn’t just make another good song.