It’s been a minute since the release of Idiota’s self-titled debut — February 23, 2024, to be exact — but not everything worth talking about comes stamped with a Friday morning playlist. Some records sit there quietly, waiting. This one is five tracks, seventeen minutes, and more interesting than a lot of noise that came out after it.
Idiota is the duo of Matthew Robinson and Mike Rasimas, both writing and co-producing. The sound lands somewhere between indie rock, indie pop, and post-punk, without trying too hard to fit into any lane. The guitars are bright, the melodies stick without begging for attention, and the lyrics feel like someone thinking out loud — not preaching, just processing.
“Lady Bird” opens the EP with a synth line that nods toward The Cars, but the subject is sharper: the 1965 Lady Bird Johnson Highway Beautification Act. It’s less about nostalgia, more about what happens when political optics age badly and infrastructure collapses in plain sight.
“Party Wall” uses the thin barrier between row houses as a metaphor — 20-somethings on one side, 70-somethings on the other, trickle-down economics in the middle. It’s not bitter, just observant: a track about wealth gaps, stalled mobility, and the weird tension of inheriting a future shaped by someone else’s math.
“Tides” is a quieter cut, explicit in language, intimate in tone. Post-pandemic parenthood, memory, the slow movement of time. It reads like someone talking to themselves after everyone else is asleep.
“Invidia” picks up pace but stays self-aware — a pop-leaning rhythm wrapped around envy, insecurity, fear of running out of time. No big emotional meltdown, just someone saying the quiet parts plainly.
The closer, “Visibility,” might be the most grounded of the five: New York City seen through the Anthora coffee cup. Caffeine, routine, identity, the small rituals that make a place feel lived rather than mythologized.
Robinson didn’t come out of nowhere. Early 2000s in rural Connecticut, punk and indie bands, two Ivydrive EPs that never made it to streaming. Later, he started work on an electronic indie pop album inspired by Ellsworth Kelly, then shelved it to pursue an MFA and a decade in public education. Music returned when he finally had a computer that could record what he heard.
The collaboration with Rasimas began in Beacon in 2023. Rasimas — also recording as M.Roosevelt — helped shape the sound, playing and producing. The partnership didn’t end with the EP. By 2025, the lineup grew: Francisco Gonzalez on keys and guitar, Zach Baxter on guitar. They’re playing shows, writing, and working toward the next release.
Their relationship to the local scene is practical, not romantic. As they put it: “Up here in NY we have Tubbys Kingston, they house touring musicians when they play at the venue, and it’s the best place in the area to play (we hope to get in there soon).” That’s the scale — real rooms, real crowds, no grand narrative.
Idiota play next on November 21, 2025, at Happy Valley in Beacon, alongside Frankie Sunswept. Doors at 8pm.
No hype cycle, no rollout calendar — just a band with a debut worth circling back to.
