Ryland Bouchard

One of the most prolific and inventive songwriters of the last decade, Ryland Bouchard (previously known as the Kill Rock Stars/5RC recording artist The Robot Ate Me) has managed to defy convention consistently pushing the boundaries of recorded music. Labeled by Daytrotter.com as “One of the most creative and potentially scary minds of our generation” and by Spin as "purely artistic, baffling, and almost completely uncommercial". In 2002 as The Robot Ate Me, Ryland Bouchard released "They Ate Themselves" a quirky gem of indie pop Skyscraper described 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." Then came the strange and puzzling "On Vacation" 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." The 2005 release of "Carousel Waltz" brought an unexpected set of bittersweet love songs. The album was rejected by fans of The Robot Ate Me's experimental work but 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 "Good World" which confounded fans of "Carousel Waltz" and was described by many as career suicide. Pitchforkmedia asked "Has someone bludgeoned frontman Ryland Bouchard?". And 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." Then in 2008, Ryland Bouchard returned with "SEEDS" an ambitious and beautifully handcrafted box set with close to two hours of music, a DVD, four 7" vinyl records, letterpressing, and illustrations by his longtime collaborator Daniel Gibson. More ambitious in content and quantity than any of his previous releases, reviewers were at a loss and no press outlet covered the release. The most recent album, "COWBIRDS AND CUCKOOS" came out in November 2009 on Swim Slowly Records. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.