Live!
In-the-flesh Robert and Karen will commence in the coming months! We started practicing a week ago, and it has reinvigorated our desire to be a band that "gets out there." We will play selections from FTNS as well as some oldies and some newer tunes from the pending follow-up. We guarantee the new material will be the funnest stuff to listen to of any Robert and Karen music yet -- though perhaps not as good for doing drugs (not that we'd ever recommend anyone do that, of course. From the Nervous System would totally not be a good album to listen to hell of stoned. Hell no it wouldn't.)

Demos!
For the curious and yearning we have made available a collection of FTNS demos and practice recordings, sequenced for maximum Nervous Systemy effect. With this special feature, you can get a first-hand ear-taste of FTNS's roots, gaining insight into how it came to be, and how far it flew, and over how many canyons of jeopardy. Click here to visit the FTNS Demos download page.

Ray!
We have welcomed our fourth housemate, Ray, into the band. He will be playing shows with us (on rhythm guitar and bass) and posing enticingly in our upcoming publicity photos. (Finally, we have a cute one!) Ray is incredibly affable. He likes playing guitar and making jokes about popular movies. He may dance at R&K shows. He will be the best dancer. If you don't already know Ray from his rolling down your street in his El Dorado and making girls turn the color of an avocado, then you can head over to his bio page to learn more about him.

Lyrics!
Over at the FTNS page we have posted lyrics for the four songs on the record with substantial vocals. Check them out and then sing along if you're a bad enough dude.

Store!
Our online store is up and running again. We will see about designing new t-shirts and pressing tangible copies of From the Nervous System. For now, you can order our heavy cotton, blue "+" design tees for a new low price of $5. Maximum Love Vibes is also still available, if your first order wasn't quite maximal enough.

Myspace!
Just a note for those who missed it, R&K now have a page at myspace.com. You can check us out and friend us at myspace.com/robertandkaren.

House!
At the R&K home in Davis we watched TV for the first time all school year the other week. We chose House, M.D., and boy were we rewarded. What a wit on that doctor! It stings! Sure, sometimes his wisecracks cross the cruelty line, but it is understood that he insults the young, naive doctors only as a way for them to learn and get better. Be sure to come to our future shows, because we plan to have more insightful things to say to everyone about House.

R&K

An End to Broken Promises
The Rumpelstiltskins of Rock are back and better than ever, spinning unassuming vibrations into digitally encoded music once again.

Yes. The new album, From the Nervous System, is on this very website, ready for you to download and share freely. It features 8 songs over the course of its 48 minutes. (Yes, you're right, that's 32 minutes per song. Yes, we know, you've raised children in less time than that.)

Details on How to Get "FTNS" on Your License Plate
Head over to the From the Nervous System album page and notice the song titles that appear on the back cover art. These song titles are also download links. Download the songs and save them in a folder of your very own creation. Play them in sequence using a media player such as iTunes.

Thank You, Friends
Genuine thanks to everyone who has remained interested through all the setbacks of the distended album making process. Give the album some of your time and we think you'll be rewarded.

Also, we're greatly interested in your feedback. For quite a while these songs have existed solely in our heads (and on Mike's computer), so we're anxious to hear what other people make of it all. So don't hesitate to send us an email.

Shows
Well, not yet. We'd like to have a release party of some sort, but that might not be possible until sometime in January. Alex, Arthur and I will soon discuss how to go about performing these songs and in what capacities.

New Promises to Break
In the spring, Sub Pop will be releasing our live album Go For It, featuring fan favorites "Nothin' To Lose" and "(I'm Too) Risky." And next July we'll put forth FTNS's true sequel, Recycling Bin / Been Recyclin'? (Double Album)

Love you too,
Mike

To drum up a hell of a lot of publicity for our future exploits, we have revamped the website. Content has not been fully transferred and updated from the old site, but we wanted to get a working version up as an excuse to notify you about... Some Things:

FTNS
We are done recording, and are just starting to mix, the new (okay, "forthcoming") album, FROM THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. It will certainly be finished and available for free download from our website this summer. Real, huggable promo copies of the CD will be available at shows for the cro-magnon among you still so technologically retrograde as to require a tangible object.

We've been very much sidetracked people, far from fixated on the idea of being the fully-realized Indie Rock Band we envisioned in our high school days. Yet we are still very excited about the album and are perhaps even more enthused by our future as artists in a more liberal sense of the term. More on this later.

A Different Album, Which You Can Hear Forthwith
In the meantime you can download Alex and Arthur's excellent album of experimental music sculpted with a program they wrote which interprets the musical input of Playstation controllers, controlled by them! The free mp3s and more information are all available here.

The Site That Never Was
Last summer we started work on a Flash website. We went out into the Bay Area evenings and took some pretty pictures as background for the website's various pages. We decided to scrap this layout after concluding that it is too aesthetic and does not lend itself well to text-heavy pages. But we thought we should let you see it anyway. You can treat it like a slide show. Mmm... Treviņo's!

New Name, Same Great Sex Appeal
Oh, also, we have changed our name to Cndnsd Mlk.

-Mike