A couple of months ago I briefly mentioned Spike Jonze’s latest short film, I’m Here, in my re-cap of VICE/Intel’s The Creators Project exhibit in New York City.

In the same post, I raved about LA-based singer/songwriter Aska Matsumiya, who performed a short set following the film’s screening.

The 30-minute film is a boy-meets-girl love story, only with, er, robots. It’s surprisingly endearing and compassionate (I got kind of choked up during the screening, but refrained from tearing up because I was in a roomful of hot New York girls who aren’t typically impressed by sensitive dudes with a soft spot for robots).

But you can see for yourself, as I’ve posted the first 10 minutes of the film above (since YouTube only allows 10-minute clips, you’ll have to watch Parts two and three separately, or watch it all in one viewing on the film’s official Flash-enabled site.

Aska is featured on three songs on the film’s soundtrack, including a new version of “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal” with Of Montreal.

If that wasn’t enough, the soundtrack also boasts Animal Collective, Sleigh Bells, and Sam Spiegel (N.A.S.A.).

And while the soundtrack won’t be released until October 5th on Chocolate Industries, you can pre-order it now as part of an I’m Here collector’s CD/DVD/Book package at McSweeny’s, according to The Playlist.

Black XS and La Blogotheque’s Take Away Shows recently teamed up to find the best new bands in nine different countries, which they fittingly called Live Sound Take Away Shows. When the tour stopped in Japan, they didn’t need to look any further than Shugo Tokumaru. 

With his avante-garde (which is usually French for unlistenable, but not in this case) brand of pop, electronic and folk, he has often been called Japan’s answer to Animal Collective.

North Americans really started to take notice in the fall of 2008 with the international release of Shugo’s third album, Exit. Now he’s back for his highly anticipated fourth record, Port Entropy.

In this beautifully-shot Take Away Show clip, Shugo and his bandmates walk aimlessly through a tranquil residential neighbourhood in Tokyo and never once miss a beat on the whimsical “Linne”.

La Blogtheque recounts the experience:

We hadn’t planned it (and how could we have?), but the streets were full of music. No orchestras, no songs drifting pleasantly out of nearby windows—just some insistent refrain coming out of little speakers every fifty meters. We had convinced Shugo and his band, and not without difficulty, to play for us out in the street, but now the total absence of silence made this nearly impossible. Ramen restaurants, bike shops and little old boutiques spewed forth the same annoying melodies.

Shugo walked alongside us, guitar in hand, keeping his silence as we became more and more disoriented. We were lost who knows where, and the whole time he kept a melancholy, somewhat adolescent look on his face. He continued to follow us and, courtesy of the language barrier, we didn’t know if was completely resigned, losing his patience, or still optimistic.

We turned through a covered market, passed by an old man avoiding trouble from the Yakuzas on the corner, retraced our steps, went down a passage and then back out again, then made three or four more turns before finding ourselves in a residential neighborhood straight out of a manga comic. And then, finally, we were able to start playing, with only three kids and an old lady to give us trouble. It took us hours, but at long last we were ready to go.

And then, everything was at peace. The afternoon was coming to an end, everything was suddenly calm, as if the whole town had stopped to let Shugo sing. He was slowly awakening, but that’s another story…