Slashdot Mirror
Captured! By Robots - A Musical/Mechanical Marvel?
Duke Boo Boo of Ouch writes: "Last night, I ventured out to the local tavern to catch musical acts Mini Band, and more importantly Captured! By Robots. This act is comprised of one human and seven fully functioning musical robots, which play guitar, bass, horns, drums, and percussion. To ensure the full effect, this must be witnessed live, but there are some videos to spark your curiousity." If you've seen one of these shows, please share your thoughts on the experience.
In the future there will be robots!
I knew robots would one day replace humans in jobs, but THIS? I mean, artists are ALREADY so desperate that the RIAA has to sue 12-year-old girls without having to compete with ROBOTS too!
I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
I for one welcome our new Robot Musician Overlords.
So this is what happens when Chuck-E-Cheese lays off their entertainment.
I saw this band at Chuck -e- Cheese. They rock.
I've seen all his shows that come through chicago for the last few years except for the recent holloween show- forgot about it.
very cool, the robots are awesome and certain parts of it will definitely remind you of practicing profanities when you were 5....
my favorite song is call 'I wish I had a pussy I could crawl into': it's about finding 50 ft woman with a six foot pussy he could go into and not have to shower or eat or work or dishes and just live in the pussy...
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
In the future will we have robot celebrities and rock stars? With the ladies chasing them for sex? If so it's time to invest in these sex machines you when searching for porn on a peer to peer network and on other places on the web.
Captured! By Robots. This act is comprised of one human and seven fully functioning musical robots ...
Any other Vice City players here immediately think when reading this summary: "In the future, there will be robots"??
Reality, meet fantasy.
:-)
I saw this guy and his "band" in some TV interview at least a decade ago.
I guess the "news" here is he's still doing it. I'd have thought the novelty would have worn off by now.
BTW, the "robots" don't play music in the classical sense that us "non-artistic" folks would appreciate. They're just a bunch of relays and motors that bang drums and make a bunch of noise. It's art like flinging horseshit at a white wall is "art".
I can do better with a bass drum strapped to my ass and a harmonica in my mouth. It's one thing to use robots to say something, it's another to say it badly.
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
That sounds like a train wreck. I am sorry, but it does.
They have a better plot line than Matrix Revolutions.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
CBR rocks my socks off!
I discovered them three years ago when they played a little punk rock record shop in tampa called Sound Idea. Back then, I was renting a 4 bedroom house, and only had one roommate, so I graciously offered to let j-bot stay at my house. In the morning me and j-bot went to an IHOP to eat some breakfast, where I interviewed him for a local zine called "Burn Brandon"(brandon is a suburb of tampa). Back then, he only had GTRbot666 and drumbot 0110, with "the ape which hath no name" on backup vocals. Drumbot used to be pneumatically controlled by j-bot. There was a pedal setup where j-bot would stomp on the pedals to control the bass drum, snare, hi-hat, and splash. He also had a keyboard/touchpad deal strapped to him like a guitar, where he would control GTRBot, and do synth work. I saw him last time he came to tampa, when he had assembled this new motley crew of 7 robots, and it was quite the show. The music is alot better than before, and he's quite the showman, just as he used to be.
It's definitely something to see. If J-bot stops by your town it would be worth the price to check him out, you will not be dissapointed.
I seem to have a couple of videos of Fat Bastard rushing the stage at the Enchanted Tiki Room...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I saw them (him) about a year ago, I think?
Engineering: Good
Engineering by doing it for fun standards: Awesome.
Songwriting: I want to go home now.
IMHO, overshadowed by opener Reload, who has gone on to form The Punk Group.
I saw CBR a year or two ago at Jay's Upstairs in Montana (now closed, and good riddance). All the college kids ate it up, but it was really a one trick act that got old pretty quickly. The music was typical really bad loud stuff, and I figured "they" were a local trick act. Basically it was a glorified ventriloquism act. Ex-girlfriend loved it, so maybe thats why I don't like them :P
I saw a CBR show in Sacramento at Worlds Best Comics in Sacramento.
It was great, even though I was sober. I believe they played with The 4 Eyes, another great geek rock band.
I say that with a straight face, for being a Star Trek punk rock band.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
1. Yes, but in Soveit Russia does the beowulf cluster of Linux that you imagine run the Robot Musician Overlords that I, for one, welcome?
2. ???
3. Profit!!!
#define DRM chmod 000
Umm so what exactly are they trying to play?!?!?!
Sounds like all of the robots have their own tracks going at once not in sync with others.. Sorry, but that is NOT music.. sounds like a train wreck to me... now this whole concept is very fascinating, if they were actually playing something useful!
Looks like they need another robot, to learn how to properly configure Apache. . .
You are not the customer.
I found it disturbing but not quite as disturbing as Britney Spears.
It's all Politics
One that can either constantly scan slashdot and remove all media at the sign of linkage to their website, or one that goes ballistic when DDoSed, and initiates a jet propelled flight to CmdrTaco's home.
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
That doesn't sound like your average drum machine/ synth/ sampler powered band at all!
For cool music robots and contraptions no one beats these guys from Japan. They are extremely twisted but spookily and well dressed.
Hey Nate et al. I saw "them" at the FSB as well. He/they are very cool. It makes me happy to think that people are so interesting. Its also sort of funny to think about CBR getting /.'d, I guess I am not the only one who see's a direct connection between the values of Open Source and Punk Rawk!
John
Here is the link to the Drum Buddy, designed and manufactured by the amazing Mr. Quintron
I saw him live in concert and I must say, his act is amazing and his skill with the instrument he designed is fascinating.
Be sure to see his infomercial.
This isn't a dupe, but a mention of this band has appeared on slashdot before. I thought I remembered hearing about this band over the summer.1 765
Here's the link to the original comment, with props. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=66547&cid=612
The robot band members may look freaky but that fact is that this is what band members look like to lead singers every time they take the stage.
Especially the drummer.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Isn't that what the Aibo is for?
DRMbot??? Sounds to me like they're working FOR the RIAA. ;)
I saw Captured! By Robots at the Elbow Room in beautiful downtown Ypsilanti, MI and it rocked my socks off. The concept is cool, and the execution is flawless. JBOT is hilarious and really knows how to work the crowd. This is not something to miss. My buddy posted some pictures from the show that you check out.
My only regret is missing the 10 Commandments show that he's touring now.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
a "rhythm" robot. Never have so many electronics had so little sense of syncopation or timing.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
A year ago, I had the dubious pleasure of running the sound board for CBR. It was fun watching him set up the robots, talking to him about how he built them. Asking him how he programmed their actions etc ad nausuem. Then, the music started. I put my earplugs in and tuned out the show. Most people who showed up for the beginning of the show left after the first song. They were just there for the novelty of watching some dude dance around on stage with a bunch of robots playing backup for him. The music? Well, all I can say is that it was as if Slayer, Metallica, The Ramones, Drop-kick Murphies and Strongbad got stuck in a blender together on high and were poured into funny shaped molds with about a gallon of Jell-O powder. The talkback was raucus, racist, sexist and obnoxious. Partly amusing, but then again, I was paid to be there. After the show I asked the guy why he uses the robots. He told me that he used to be in a band with other people, and decided that he hated it. He couldn't control their actions, he couldn't control the way they played. Can we say control freak? Robots breed consistency. However, during the show one of the robots broke down. On the geek end, he had 2 whole racks of computer equipment, micro-controllers, pneumatic pistons, a pneumatic compressor, keyboards, voice modulator built into a mask. Rather neat stuff all around. Would I ever run sound for him again? Sure, if I had a paid monkey to run the board during the show. Would I love to help him in his shop? Yep, but he would never let anyone near his tools or his robots, they are like his little children. Ahh well... rather entertaining. But I wouldn't pay money to see it.
Once more into the birch deer fiends!
I saw him about 4 years ago when I lived in Madison, Wisconsin. His show is pretty popular around here and has been for awhile. He has 3 "robots"; one that is "string bot", "percussion bot" and the ape. The guitar or string bot is more of a harp and it has mechanical picks, one for each string that is triggered by him (the human who is captured) He is in bondage, center stage and has a keyboard controller thing and has all these foot pedals that he controls drum bot with. Each peddle triggers a drum. You can imagine it's pretty intense on the stage. The whole show is he's in bondage (captured) and the robots make demands from him, he tries to disobey but they torture him into playing. As for the music, it's loud and fast. All in all, it's a great show and generally costs about $5.00 for admission. I saw him play with the "Lonesome Organist", a man with an old organ playing hockey game like music with a twist. Great stuff. I still wear my "Capture! By Robots" t-shirt. Oh, and for the ape? He's a robot in a gorilla suit that has a tambourine on his head and has sympathy for capture man. It's a great alter-ego.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
you're the reason that slashdot isn't any fun anymore
Some more good names for Robot Bands:
1. Three Laws
2. Optimus Prime and the Malfunctions
3. 11 Doors Down
4. The What
5. Flee in Terror, Puny Humans!
6. Gortastic
7. IF Ready THEN Rock ELSE Next
8. Chrome Fetish
9. Kryten's Khaosium
10. Al Gore
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
this is far from being a new thing.
If you don't want someone to copy something, don't give it to anyone.
Dude, did I just use bandwidth for that? Granted, the concept is cool, but dude, what is up with his outfit. I guess it could be worse. I could have just downloaded another security hole, I mean patch, for windows 2k.
Good thing they were robots, cuase it was the worst music ever, and i really mean...EVER :-p
I saw CBR's halloween show in Chicago, and it's one of the most interesting things I've seen onstage in a long time.
The current tour is inspired by The Ten Commandments (you know, that old Heston movie), with 10 songs that follow the storyline of the music. Our hero, the one human onstage plays Moses. GTRBOT plays Ramses. DRMBOT plays Nefertiti. TAWHNN plays God, and Jesus was written into the script just to give SOTAWHNN a part to play.
The music isn't as good as his normal stuff, but how can you resist a song titled, "Nefertiti Sex Jam"?
In Soviet Russia In Soviet Russia, "Profit!!!" comes first YOU!!
Does anyone from the Portland area remember the Organ Grinder restaurant? They had a pipe organ and a wide assortment of mechanically controlled instruments that could be played by the organist.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
The last time I saw 'CBR' I was dating a new girl and I wanted to test her tolerance for random entertainment. So I brought her to a Captured by Robots show at a transvestite bar in San Francisco (Kimo's).
She seemed to be able to hang. So I kept her.
After you get over the initial technical marvel gimmick you'll find that CBR's music is kind of mediocre. That's why you need drunk 40 something transvestites for back-up entertainment.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
I've seen Captured by Robots twice when they've come through Champaign, IL.
The Ape Which Hath No Name he ain't not goddamned bear!!
I saw these guys about a year ago at Spider Babies in Dallas. Its quite impressive to see these guys live! Worth the cover if they ever come to your area.
You Like Science?
You Like bottomquark.
He tours around quite a bit, missed him a few times but finally caught him in Kansas City. Really interesting stuff. The bots not only play, but they do little skits and "interact" with the crowd. In KC, a noisy fan was rebuffed by the drumbot with, "Whatever, human heckler," while the guitarbot instructed Season to Risk (the headliners) to play a particular song or die.
If you're a geek, you should go just to see the cool instrument playing robots this guy has engineered. It's pretty neat shit.
"We are the Robots" indeed! These German pioneers of electronic music are still awesome to listen to, and I only wish there were videos of their performances.
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
Having been up close and personal with the band, I must say it's pretty damn incredible. JBOT really has something going there. Be sure to check out his newly produced DVD!
Jory
P.S. My favorite part of the band are the Headless Hornsmen, a 3-piece airhorn section that looks as if it was decapitated!
Jory
I think you may have C!BR confused with something else. C!BR is a pretty heavy rock band where the robots most definitely DO play the music.
In fact, the music is pretty good, and in some cases, better than other local bands I've seen.
Jory
I am sure that there are other examples of robots (or automata) making music that are centuries old. There are many composers and artists interested in machines making music, from Conlan Nancarrow who wrote incredible player piano rolls to current musicians like Pierre Bastien or Frank Pahl (look them up).
Captured by Robots sound like fun, though.
In the future, there will be robots...
(Sorry...)
--- My dad's political betting
To my mind, it's a better read than listen. The robots are definitely cool, much better than Chuck E. Cheese - the instruments are actually being played by the robots, after all. Maybe you won't be blown away by their quality, you wouldn't see it in a sci-fi movie or Rocky III, but the man definitely has put a lot of time into it.
The stage show isn't the greatest - the songs are pretty generic rockers. Also, given the difficult task of controlling robots while running a 1-man band, it's not surprising that the between-song banter about how the robots have enslaved him and insult him ends up not being as clever as one might wish: a whole bunch of "fuck yous" are thrown around.
So I can't consider him a top example of SF wackiness - he had Extreme Elvis open for him once, and Elvis had him beat, without much of a contest.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
I saw CBR play a couple of years ago on tour with Bob Log III.
I have to say that whilhe engineering that went into creating the robots was impressive enough, the really amazing aspect of teh show was the banter between J-Bot and the rest of the band. Whenever J-bot tried to speak to the audience the robots berated him for being a stupid hu-man.
J-bot is a funny guy. After the show I went to his merch table and told him that I was really impressed with what he was doing.
"Well, it really isn't much, you could do it too."
"I guess I could," I replied.
"You could get captured by robots too you know!" he said frantically. "But I wouldn't recommend it! It's not very fun being captured by robots!" he yelled as I backed up and planned my getaway.
Make pr0n twice as good with
Sorry, it was Prince Charles.
a bit similar product, while being only a computer.
:) (fm synthesis musics, singing is done via some text-to-speech synth)
:).
but it sings too itself..
http://www.easylife.org/386dx/ is the homepage.
how is it different from playing some mp3 on faster machine, or playing just wavs? well, the user experience might be the same for some(but it has taken some work to make it sing like that
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
this look like a parody of slipknot let's call him slipbot
Gay, as in homosexual. One who takes a penis up the 'ole pooper, assuuming that one is male. Faggots, as they say. Cum-guzzling aids bags, as it were. Alternate lifesyles. Bone doggers. Smoking Steve's salami. Gay like the guy who uses too many quotation marks below. The skank on your crank smells not of tuna, but of pewp. A male who prefers the one-eyed worm instead of the fleshy love tube. A, ahem, queer. Looking for a life partner.
Writing this list of euphemisms got you hard, didn't it?
Go on. You can admit it to me. I won't judge you.
How short are they?
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
oh, right on. should probably enable those.
The King and I
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Saw CBR in Chicago, last year I think. "Robots" is a bit generous to describe the technology. Think more like the classic one-man band with electronics, and that gives is all a silly/fun character rather than a BDSM enslaved-by-robots feel. Don't know enough about punk to comment on the quality of the music. Very very loud, so that I could make out the lyrics at all.
"We're whalers on the moon, we carry a harpoon, but there aint no whales so we tell tall tales and sing a whaling tune"
.. Brought to you by the monsanto corporation ..
Online Starcraft RPG? At
Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
I saw them at our local musical Mecca, Ralph's Corner about a year ago. He's a great entertainer. The robots have pre-programmed phrases to say through the show, but he can also switch his mic to talk through the robots to heckle the crowd.
The basic plot of the show is that the human built some robots to be his friends and play with him, but the robots rebelled and took him prisoner, and rip his guts out for fun. The take the human around the nation on tour so they can ridicule him in front of other humans to show their superiority. There is also two stuffed monkeys involved... The-ape-that-hath-no-name, and another one who's name escapes me.
Great show. If you go, check out the merchandise table, they have hilarious stuff for sale, including Captured By Robots cock rings.
First question:
Question: What sort of people buy REALDOLL? REALDOLL customers include futurists, artists, art collectors, film-makers, scientists, health professionals, housewives -- you name it.
As though to suggest that the doll would be used more than just sexual gratification... that misconception is removed quickly, followed by the next thirty questions answering how real the sex will be!
Mad Hatter
Okay, so I'll say Captured By Robots is a great and entertaining show. But my problem is that what I want out of my enslaving machine musical masters is a little more up-front politics of destruction. I mean, I don't remember the Robots threatening to capture me. Or charging the humans for the privilege of liberating their automobiles via bumper sticker.
I believe the true pinnacle of the genre is the now-defunct Servotron. (Forgive the archive.org link, it's sad to realize how much disappears over time- I guess I should feel lucky I found it.) Those guys were dressed and ready for sonic domination, and they had the lyrics to back it up:
Today is your birthday; We are going to kill you
Silly celebration; there is no logic for it.
I don't really mean to take anything away from Captured By Robots, but as a veteran of a few Servotron shows, I end up wishing for Z4-OBX on drums instead of DRMBOT 0110.
Though some may not like him, I have to hand it to him for trying something over and above the ordinary.
Ordinary = Backstreet boys, Britney Spears
photosMy Photostream
sorry, the voice in the coffeepot made me say it.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
Says it all. I am your only friend, J-Bot!
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
I saw them at the SF Eagle the night Wil Wheaton was fighting Barney for EFF around the corner at DNA Lounge. I was supposed to leave for the EFF beatdown but I was mesmerized by C!BR and stayed.
Truth be told it is mostly covers. I think the appeal for me is the theatrics. From a performace art perspective it's pretty cool with some old rockin' tunes in there too. More like a one man musical with robots.
I saw them again at Bottom of the Hill when they were shooting the DVD. I should be the guy who takes a knee at one point. What really dissapointed me at that show was the meatheads who decided it was time to mosh. Not because I'm scared to be in the pit, but because they made me spill my beer!!! My precious beer!!!
Anyway, if you like robots, music and crazy theatrics, I reccomend you check C!BR out.
And an earlier poster is right. If you want the spectacle more than anything else, you can't beat Extreme Elvis rubbing up against you in an SF dive.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
Well, I first saw CBR earlier this year at the Elbow Room in Ypsi. It was very much a novelty and I have to say the music was earbleeding loud. But I thought his comments were funny and made me and my friends laugh. CBR came back in town a few weeks ago with the 10 commandments show. Extremely polished and a lot more drama - considering the subject matter. And I have to say, he had a completely new set of music to go with his 10 commandments theme. How many other bands do you know can write two completey different sets of music in the same year, produce it, record it, and play it live on 7 robots via computers, huh, huh?? So no more down talkin' on the J-Bot cuz he a whole new kind of good.
I sent the link to their site to a friend right after this was posted, he wrote back "are we going?"
I had no clue that they were playing here Wednesday. SWEET!
It will probably be too late, but I will reply to this comment Wednesday night or Thursday.
The truth doesn't care what I think.
My buddy Alex (quite possibly the most talented rock musician to come out of Cleveland since Joe Walsh) opened for them here a couple of weeks back. I didn't make it to the show, but the rumors were that the robots were really funny but the music was awful. Drew
With much anticipation I awaited the comimg of Captured by Robots to our Oklahoma City hole in the wall, 'the Green Door.' Word of mouth and a trip through the site had hopes high...with such an elaborate concept I naturally assumed the music would be equally as well developed, even if a bit inaccessible at first listen. Sadly, after the lengthy introduction of plot and the robot oppressors the only thing to hold interest was the delight of seeing these cobbed together mechanicals do their thing. Once THAT novelty wore off not even going over budget on beer could keep me on the floor. I closed my eyes in an attempt to accurately assess the musicality of the act and all I could think of was what to do when I got home. Go to the site, enjoy the concept...that is where the road comes to an end.
This is the most beautiful insanity I have ever seen on stage. This year's show is the story of Moses (Jbot)and the escape from evil Egyptian rulers (the GTRBot and the drummer robot) and how the Jews (the audience) were led across the desert and given the Law by God (the big stuffed bear/gorilla?), with a special appearance by Jesus (the small white gorilla). A lot of the time, JBot was singing and playing along with the band, but sometimes he was in the audience singing while the bots played the song without him. Incredible and remarkable in that nothing ever broke down.
If you would like to see some pics from the show, send me an email and I'll give you the link.
The truth doesn't care what I think.