He has been labeled by Daytrotter as “One of the most creative and potentially scary minds of our generation” and by Spin Magazine as "purely artistic, baffling, and almost completely uncommercial".
In 2002 he released They Ate Themselves, his first record as The Robot Ate Me and played his first shows in Los Angeles opening for notable touring acts such as Daniel Johnson, Tegan and Sara, Metric, Stars and The Blackheart Procession. Skyscraper Magazine described his first release as "Quite possibly the year's most arresting experimental pop record, They Ate Themselves is a dizzyingly vibrant trip through death and multi-layered dissonance."
The controversial and highly experimental On Vacation was released in 2004 in which Adam Gnade declared "It's not even music outside the margins. Here the margins were never there, and if they were to encroach, The Robot Ate Me would probably up and croak."
Punk Planet followed suit describing the album as "A hypnotic two-disc record that will score your twisted nightmares and fanciful dreams."
Splendid summarized "It is impossible to understand a Robot Ate Me album from a written description."
After the release of On Vacation in 2004 he signed with Kill Rock Stars and toured the US heavily the next few years playing close to 600 shows in the following three years. His shows relied heavily on audience participation and were known for being fairly unpredictable. As part of his shows he would sometimes be dragged across the floor by attendees, wear masks, scream loudly, have the audience play the supporting instruments for his songs without rehearsal, or abruptly leave after playing one song.
The 2005 release of Carousel Waltz brought a set of minimal American folk songs.
The album was lauded by Babysue as a "strangely compelling and uplifting vision of how love affects a person. Soft and focused, these unusual tunes are simultaneously accessible and peculiar. The Robot Ate Me remains one of the most unique acts on the planet. Brimming with credible substance, Carousel Waltz is yet another killer album from an artist who just keeps getting better and better with time..."
2006 brought the avant-garde Good World which comprised mostly of sparse clarinet lines mixed with minimal percussion and falsetto vocals by Bouchard. Pitchforkmedia asked "Has someone bludgeoned frontman Ryland Bouchard?".
Tinymixtapes declared: "Not since the glory days of punk has an album come and gone so fast and left one with more questions than answers."
In 2008 Ryland Bouchard released Seeds, a hand-made limited edition box set with close to two hours of music (divided between an A-Sides cd/vinyl and a B-Sides cd), a DVD of Super 8 videos, four 7" vinyl records, letter-pressed lyrics, a hand silk-screened shirt, bag, poster, and a set of illustrations by his longtime collaborator Daniel Gibson. Only 500 copies of the set were made.
In 2009, Bouchard completed a Take-Away Show video session for La Blogothèque where he performed songs from Seeds.
The 2009 double vinyl release Cowbirds and Cuckoos was released on November 15, 2009 by Swim Slowly Records.
In The Fire
The Robot Ate Me Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
hurts.
The Robot Ate Me's song 12 In the Fire seems to explore the theme of the costs and consequences of relentless work and the search for warmth and comfort. The repetition of the phrase "work work until you die" emphasizes the idea that many people's lives revolve around their work and that they end up working themselves to death. The line "you wanted to fill your hands to fill your stomach to fill your skin with something warm" suggests that the desire for warmth and comfort is what drives many people to work so hard. The repetition of the phrase "it felt good once but now it just hurts" might indicate that while the pursuit of warmth and comfort initially feels satisfying, it ultimately leads to harm or even destruction.
The repeated phrase "we end up in the fire" seems to be a metaphor for the consequences of working too hard and trying to seek comfort through external means. The cracking and crackling sounds in the background of the song might represent the sound of a fire burning, adding to the overall metaphorical meaning of the song. The song seems to suggest that although the search for warmth and comfort might be a universal human desire, it can also become destructive if taken to the extreme.
Line by Line Meaning
Work work until you die.
You must constantly work tirelessly until your inevitable death.
work work until you die.
Life is simply an endless cycle of work until your ultimate demise.
work work until you die.
The only way to exist is to consistently work until the end of your existence.
you wanted to fill your hands to fill your stomach to fill your skin with something warm.
The desire to obtain comfort and satisfaction through physical means has overtaken your priorities and actions.
and we all want to be warm!
As humans, we all desire warmth and comfort above all else.
so we end up in the fire...
Our unrelenting desire for warmth and comfort can lead us into dangerous and harmful situations.
we end up in the fire...
Our obsession with personal fulfillment can result in self-destruction.
crack crackle crack crack...do de do...
The sound of burning and destruction, represented through repeating musical phrases.
it felt good once but now it just hurts
Initial pleasure and enjoyment can turn into pain and suffering.
it felt good once but now it just hurts
Temporary satisfaction can lead to lasting agony.
it felt good once but now it just hurts
Pleasure-seeking can lead to negative consequences.
it felt good once but now it just
The pursuit of temporary satisfaction can result in long-term pain.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
phlangephace
fantastic