Burlington, VT’s Robber Robber just released their debut album, Wild Guess. It brings together a disparate set of influences into a unique style that doesn’t sound quite like anything else. It’s terrific — you can read our review of the album here and listen below.
As for those influences, the band’s primary forces — singer/guitarist Nina Cates and drummer Zack James — have made us a list of 10 things that had an impact on Wild Guess. It includes Harry Nilsson, Gucci Mane, Tom Waits, Cibo Matto, Arthur Russell, Steely Dan and more. Read their list and commentary below.
ROBBER ROBBER – 10 INFLUENCE ‘WILD GUESS’
Gucci Mane – Droptopwop
We keep coming back to this record year after year, and it remains to be such a banger. Really makes you think about the attitude behind word choices, keeping it casual and conversational. Gucci is such a master of delivery – always calm but somehow very menacing. Metro Boomin’s production is minimalist and rock solid and really creates an ideal backdrop for the vocals. Whole record has a darkness and sleekness. “Finesse The Plug Interlude” is an all time song. Definitely one of the most underrated Gucci Mane albums.
Harry Nilsson – Nilsson Schmillsson
Playful intuitive songwriting, he’s very free and explores a lot of styles and gives each of them care. Not sure how much our music resembles his, but he’s probably what we were listening to the very most when we were writing our record. So many jokes and strange creative choices that always end up sounding totally natural. His sense of humor is always present in his singing. Makes you feel like you can really do whatever you want.
Cibo Matto – Viva! La Woman
Super expressive vocals. It feels like they’re telling you a secret. They keep everything gestural and vague and every individual word sounds good. But also at times there’s a distance between the singer and the listener. We also love messing with a bunch of textured percussion stuff, building layered grooves and whatnot. Very inspiring use of sampling.
Living on a busy street corner
We share the block with some bars and restaurants at a pretty crazy intersection. Lots of conversations, fights, sirens, car accidents, laughter, etc. We also get a lot of live music seeping into the apartment – most of what we can hear ends up being the low end bass stuff, so we hear a large variety of rhythm sections that groove in different ways. Also we hear a lot of little snippets of songs playing loudly in people’s cars as they drive by. Great place to appreciate the presence of songs in the world and also the big sound collage that never stops.
Outkast – Speakerboxxx / The Love Below
I (Nina) had this record on CD in my first car and would listen to the Speakerboxxx side almost every single day on the way to and from highschool. Recently I’ve been having a bit of a renaissance on it, the whole record is fun and feels like a party. The flow of it is something that I’ve been stuck on. The songs individually go and push you through enthusiastically and the record as a whole is so amped and driving. Also a great example of honoring sounds from a certain region while bringing them into the future
Tom Waits – Rain Dogs
Very shifty record. Full of silly noises. Relentless, grating, unnerving, tense, but also beautiful in its moments of reprieve. Also we love that Marc Ribot stuff – Rain Dogs is kind of a guitar album even though it isn’t necessarily guitar music.
Gábor Szabó – Dreams
Benny Yurco showed us this record while we were working in the studio with him. One cool part of collaborating with people on a record is listening to music together and putting each other on to different stuff with an intention that feels vaguely oriented towards the music we’re working on, not in a “let’s rip this off” sorta way, but more about expanding the shared musical taste of the group. The tension and release using repetition and layers of guitar is gorgeous, especially on the opening track. Thought a lot about doubled or harmonized guitar leads after listening to this.
Steely Dan in general
People accuse Steely Dan of being too serious but we think their music contains some of the funniest shit ever. They’d get all the best players on a track and record a ton of takes, and then the final result would end up being a reggae song with slap bass and pan flutes and a Hawaiian guitar solo. Truly slapstick stuff. Just tasteful enough to trick you into thinking it is serious, plus they act very serious about it and the records come out sounding so good.
Arthur Russell – “Barefoot in New York” (Iowa Dream)
A lot of our songs start off as a concept before we touch any instruments. Who knows how Arthur Russell made this song, but it seems like there’s a strong concept there. We love how this song takes its time and gives itself some breathing room yet it is also at times very chaotic and bursting with sounds. Seems like throughout his career he was experimenting with different processes and approaching music from so many angles, which we’re heavily into – often the initial concept is just an idea for what the process itself could be. No two songs on Wild Guess were made using the same process.
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Robber Robber play a hometown Wild Guess release show tonight and their tour includes a Brooklyn show at Baby’s All Right on August 11 with This is Lorelei (solo) and Pet Fox. All dates…
Robber Robber Tour Dates
Fri. July 26 – Burlington, VT @ Foam Brewers (album release show)
Thu. Aug. 8 – Portland, ME @ Oxbow Brewing Company [with Hello Shark, The Clearwater Swimmers]
Fri. Aug. 9 – Boston, MA @ The 4th Wall [with Clifford, Prewn]
Sun. Aug. 11 – New York, NY @ Baby’s All Right [with This is Lorelei (solo), Pet Fox]
Wed. Sept. 4 – Washington, DC @ TBA [with Lily Seabird]
Fri. Sept. 6 – Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Music Festival
Sun. Sept. 8 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Dolphin [with Lily Seabird, Cult Objects]
Tue. Sept. 17 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground [with Gift, Fantasy of a Broken Heart]
Sat. Sept. 21 – Rochester, NY @ The Bug Jar [with Overhand sam and Bad Weapon, Bugcatcher]
Sun. Sept. 22- Cleveland, OH @ Little Rose Tavern
Tue. Sept. 24 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village [with Closebye, Oyeme, Elijah Berlow]
Wed. Sept. 25 – Indianapolis, IN @ State Street Pub [with Closebye]
Thu. Sept. 26 – Columbus, OH @ Cafe Bourbon St. [with Closebye, Neil, Abel]
Sat. Sept. 28 – Williston, VT @ Spirit of Vermont Festival