Be Brave Bold Robot understands you and your twentythirtysomthing heartaches, your existential angst, your weekend drunks and all that whatnot. Shelling out a few bucks for their self-titled album, you’ll see how much as they throw their hearts down on the bare wooden bar top to point out all its scars. The problem is that they really don’t make me care. Instead they throw about songs that vary from maudlin and melodramatic to so saccharine that it’ll make your teeth hurt.
Within the album we have “Gamma Rays†in which lies the revelation of eating pancakes with Grandma, “Shun-shine†a tiny footnote of a song that illustrates how much songwriter Dean Haakenson can drag out a simile and then slap you in the face with it, and “Secrets,†Haakenson’s four and a half minute spoken word track carries the prize for the most odious of lines, with meaningless quotes like “he had the practiced stubble of a civil engineer†and the irritating paradox “silent din of the darkness.†The last is as unnecessary as it is irritating because it’s a prologue, set to explain the premise of “The $1000 Grape Drive-By.â€Â
But BBBR can play and “Those Things†boasts a plunky banjo climax sweeping you into the story of a night out to meet girls. If Haakenson reins it in a little bit, their second album will probably be worth the money you didn’t pay for the first.
The Sac Rag 
Bugaboo… didn’t I see BBBR on late night tv sometime recently? Google is not helping me find it but I swear they performed on a talk show of some sort.
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Hm. Not sure. That thing is a bit too late for me usually. But if you really want to know, there isn’t anything to prevent asking them at one of their shows. They have about 4 within the next month.
My instinct says no, but Conan likes to promote a lot of up-and-comers.
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