Stream: The Bots, ‘Girl Problems’

Kevin Bronson on July 9th, 2021

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Before the Bots could legally enjoy an alcoholic beverage, they’d released an album, played Coachella and enjoyed toasts as punk-rock’s next big thing. Now 28, singer-guitarist Mikaiah Lei — the elder of what used to be a sibling duo — is making music without kid brother Anaiah.

The Bots have announced that their third album — and first since 2014’s “Pink Palms,” released when Mikaiah was 21 — will be out Sept. 8. It’s titled “2 Seater,” and it’s comprised of songs he wrote between the ages of written between the ages of 19 and 22, reworked and recorded under the production guidance of Grammy-winning Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas.

Last month, the first single — a shot of adrenaline titled “See It” — arrived with a Ted Newsome-directed video of Lei and friends skateboarding around downtown L.A. This week brought the second single, “Girl Problems,” a track that throws back to the indie-rock of the 2000s. Each features the raw guitar work that drew fans to the Bots in the first place, along the melodic sensibility of pop bands.

“People would never refer to our band in the way I viewed it,” Lei says of the Bots’ formative years. “We were always labeled as a ‘U.S. punk band.’ I love punk music and I get why those references stuck for so long, especially because we started out trying to play as fast and as loud as we could, but we were a younger group who wanted to prove everyone wrong who thought kids couldn’t play rock. I love all genres of music and wanna continue to make pop music at its core, but I’m definitely interested in exploring many genres and styles of music.”

||| Stream: “Girl Problems”