Smile Like You Are Somewhere Elese (Current Release)- Below
The strange and true story of your life.- HERE


Smile Like You Are Somewhere Else
Socyermom Records - 4/29/08

Delusions of Adequacy - 10/17/06
by Lisa Town

A roller coaster ride through upbeat, danceable music makes way for a few mid-tempo pop gems.

Local I-Q 8/27/06
BY MICHAEL HENNINGSEN

Quintessentially pop and heavy on sing-along melodies, Lousy Robot bridges a gap on the local music scene with songs that are simple and simply gorgeous. Their unabated efforts to create a gently captivating canon of music is evidenced on the band's Socyermom debut, Smile Like You Are Somewhere Else.
Eleven songs capture roughly 30 minutes of sheer pop bliss — “It's Getting to Me” and “A Way of Overstating,” a rare final track that forces the listener to immediately start the disc over, are among several highlights.
The band here sound fully-formed, which is a feat far too few bands are able to accomplish even on their third and fourth releases. Smile Like You're Somewhere Else manages to capture a moment while inspiring the desire for many more to come. Mellow and decidedly low-key, the record is also melodically jovial — a testament to the musicality of the band and the perseverance of its members' desire to create pop that sounds neither contrived nor dated. lousyrobot.com


Albuquerque Journal - Venue Magazine July 28th (subscription needed)
Lousy Robot Mixes Catchy With Deep
By Dan Mayfield

Sometimes it's easier to bare your soul if you can dance to it.

Take Lousy Robot. For three years, the Albuquerque band has specialized in letting it all hang out over a smooth modern pop-rock beat.

Instead of the melancholic tones and drowning vocals of emo music or the grind of punk these guys make it all tasty and comfy to hear about lost loves and broken souls

The band lets its inside voice tap out a beat that could've come from '60s Top 40, almost like Phil Spector is running the show— with Ray Davies producing.  

"It all comes from the same kind of music," said Lousy Robot singer Jim Phillips. "It's catchy, noisy and we're both."

The band was started by Phillips and Dandee Fleming as a side project three years ago and the pair hasn't been able to stop since. "We were working together, and I'd met Dandee, and I'd said I'd wanted to put a band together. I'd started this boat, and Dandee picked up an oar," Phillips said. "We just worked together very well. I said, 'We're going to do this once a month, have fun, and get some free drinks.' Every time we'd do that, we'd say, 'You know what we could do ...' There was no end in sight." The ideas kept flowing, he said.

They both started sharing CDs and found both love the band The Deathray Davies and other indie-pop outfits that inspired the pair to work out songs that were both deep and fun.  "We wanted nice catchy cool songs. We wanted to be catchy. That was our main interest," Phillips said. "Dandee said, 'Can you write catchy songs?' and it went from there."  

The band's first CD, "The Strange and True Story of Your Life," released last year, earned high marks locally for its catchy approach to deep issues. One of the band's heroes, John Dufilho of The Deathray Davies, helped produce it.

"Smile Like You Are Somewhere Else," the band's new CD that will be released on Saturday, July 29, at the Atomic Cantina, continues with the same catchy pop. "When we finished the record ("The Strange and True Story of Your Life"), that was difficult to write, it was one of those things you wanted to just get out. When we did it, we started immediately on the second," Phillips said. "The last one was a pain." But this time, he said, the band worked on getting mixes right and spent months polishing it— and it worked, he feels.

Now, the plan is to tour. Already, the band has dates lined up around the Southwest.

But, Phillips is already about halfway done with songs for the band's next CD. "This one's going to be more experimental," he said.

Weekly Alibi V.15 No.30 | July 27 - August 2, 2006
By Laura Marrich - Music Editor

Crouching deep inside Jim Phillips' cerebrum is a kid with his hands between knees. Let's call him Ned. Ned is busy counting the number of syllables you've just said to Jim. Now he's making a rule about it. It's called “The Disguise of Changing Scenery,” or something equally splendiferous and literary. Now he's humming the idea back to Jim in musical Morse code, which is being broadcast onto the back of Jim's skull like a home movie. The colors bleed onto everything. And now Ned's resetting the whole thing back to zero, like winding a clock. Since Jim Phillips is the songwriting guts of Lousy Robot, at the core of the band are the unquestioning rituals of an obsessive- compulsive child. It's simultaneously confining and overflowing with limitless possibility. (As in, I must to sing to the cat or the universe will turn into scrambled eggs.) And, somehow, it just works. Jim writes his songs not just in complete reverse, but from the inside out. “Actually, I don't really like to write songs,” he says. “I like vocabulary and the rhythm of language. It's weird.”

He usually comes up with the title of the record first. “I can't work on anything without a title,” he admits. This time around, it's Smile Like You Are Somewhere Else . Next he comes up with 20 or 30 song titles. He write lyrics to about half them, then scoops up a handful of those and places them on his coffee table with a tape recorder and a guitar. “Then I kind of unleash it to the band, without any instructions. It's really very juvenile,” he says. “And it can get a little intense at rehearsals. Like, 'Well, what are you looking for? What do you want?' I don't know. I'm not going to say. We just keep plugging away at it to see what we come up with.” What they've come up with on Smile Like You Are Somewhere Else is their most accomplished album yet. It's a progression of the many strange and lovely moods of pop- influenced indie- - sometimes rocking, sometimes contemplative, sometimes a little spacey or nerdy—fused together like a puzzle that tumbles into alignment right out of the box. Jim talks about an idea the band borrows from Andy Warhol. “He said he only liked people to work for him if they misunderstood him slightly, because if people don't misunderstand you, then what you end up with is just a bad carbon copy of what you had in mind.” Jim says bassist Dandy, drummer Mike and keyboardist Jack constantly misunderstand him. “And it's not purposeful! They're trying really hard. But the misunderstanding always comes through beautifully in the end.” It's an odd experiment, but so far, it really does seem to work.

Etheriousity 9/20/06
by Kate mackley

Opening with a volley of Jet -like guitar and "yeahs!" and lapsing into the post-punk that defines the band, Smile Like You're Somewhere Else is more, better Lousy Robot . A year of work under their belts, plus a renewed relationship with engineer Salim Nourallah and producer John Dufilho ( The Deathray Davies ) have created another fun, danceable album. Having a bad day? Not quite happy with life? Pop in this CD, and adjust your groove. "Slower" is the dirge of the album until it slips quietly into a trancelike, swaying melody. Jack Moffitt adds moody, psychedelic keys to the pop. Jim Phillip's concise and quirky lyrics take ordinary anxieties and make them universal and trifling. Channeling the Ramones and early Beatles influences, Lousy Robot builds a sound that is both evocative and fresh. Contributions by Dallas heavy-hitters Johnny Lloyd Rollins , Cory Watson , ( Black Tie Dynasty ), John Lefler ( Dashboard Confessional ), and both Nourallah and Dufilho highlight the potential of this Albuquerque band. Not since The Shins left the Land of Enchantment has an unsigned quartet inspired collaboration of this caliber. Lousy Robot's sophomore album is lusher than The Strange and True Story of Your Life and just as fun. Help me count the ways that I say, “Yeah!”

Song highlights: “Mr. Falls Apart,” “Help Me Count the Ways I Say ‘Yeah!',” “A Way of Overstating.”