The Trons: self-playing robot band totally kills our self-esteem

We'll admit, we reckoned we were coming along alright with our bar chords, but now we're teetering on the edge of just giving up. Yeah, we've seen robotic mechanisms programmed to make meaningful sounds before, but The Trons are a bona fide band, man. We hear they're going on tour as well -- talk about a guaranteed sell out. Totally killer Sister Robot video after the jump.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jun 18th 2008 10:27AM]

Gizmodo said they were as good as Coldplay... :(

[Mike10010100 @ Jun 18th 2008 10:34AM]

Shows what Gizmondo knows.

[Mike10010100 @ Jun 18th 2008 10:37AM]

OH GOD! I've fallen into my own trap! Gizmodo, not Gizmondo.

Stupid n, how did you get in there. (Ouch Mike, stop whipping me!)

[Anon @ Jun 18th 2008 11:18AM]

They're much better than Coldplay

[John @ Jun 18th 2008 11:33AM]

Coldplay sucks my bawls.

[Mike10010100 @ Jun 18th 2008 7:23PM]

Very mature. Bravo. I try to make a joke and you shove me down.

Just because you are insecure in your masculinity doesn't give you the right to project your own insecurities onto other people.

Humorless blobs.

[Aarun @ Jun 19th 2008 3:36AM]

The Tron's are from Hamilton in New Zealand. They got the name from what New Zealanders have nicknamed Hamilton, Hamiltron. Unfortunately, Coldplay aren't coming to New Zealand.

[Brad @ Jun 19th 2008 3:09PM]

Actually, it was a reference to 40 Year Old Virgin. You just missed it.

Who's the humorless blob now?

[Allan @ Jun 25th 2008 1:52PM]

I would TOTALLY see these guys live.

[gandhigandhi. @ Jun 18th 2008 10:35AM]

But I don't get it...if they're robots then how do they go on tour? How is that possible?

[Danny @ Jun 18th 2008 12:16PM]

FREEBIRD!!!!!

[Mike10010100 @ Jun 18th 2008 10:36AM]

An interesting attempt. Some things to consider the next time around is to add a little variety to the lead guitar line, as the robot only strums up and down, instead of varying the strum times. Also, picking individual strings is useful for some songs.

Give this set the sheet music to Freewill, and it would esplode.

[Danakin @ Jun 18th 2008 10:41AM]

they're robots...

[Jarhead2012 @ Jun 18th 2008 10:45AM]

I agree with Danakin

[Juice @ Jun 18th 2008 10:45AM]

I for one, welcome our lego robot guitar strumming overlords.

They are at least way less annoying than real musicians. Can we get some hip hop robots?

[Seminole @ Jun 18th 2008 10:48AM]

Those look like Erector Set pieces.

But cool nonetheless.

[Teazo @ Jun 18th 2008 10:46AM]

I'd love to see (hear) some synthetic voices belting out a few "computerized" words.

[the_fozz @ Jun 19th 2008 3:28AM]

~This was a triumph, I'm making a note here, huge seccess~

[d840 @ Jun 18th 2008 9:08PM]

@ the_fozz

~It's hard to overstate my satisfaction~
.... with your comment!

[Bunson @ Jun 18th 2008 7:41PM]

All your base are belong to us

[Jaque-o @ Jun 18th 2008 10:46AM]

Computer generated musical sounds > Robot on instruments

what's the big deal, It'd like... here you have the wheel, a perfect round circular shape, and someone tries to make another very complex object that roles aswell, but isnt a wheel.. Brings a new meaning to the word.. "Fail" imo

I said fail ! now bash me, robot fanboys !

[LarryLarryLarry @ Jun 19th 2008 6:25AM]

Now if they just had a robot soundman, we could hear something besides the pie pan and the rhythm guitar.

[Sean @ Jun 18th 2008 10:47AM]

I love that orange guitarbot.

[Dave B @ Jun 18th 2008 2:05PM]

Yeah, he's got all the robot groupies swooning... what a hunk... of metal

[Ryan Trevisol @ Jun 18th 2008 10:49AM]

Improvements for 2.0: Include wheel drive so that the "chord hands" can move up and down the neck and/or keyboard. Then there'd be no stopping them.

There's also nothing stopping them from fully automating an entire drum kit, responding to midi commands like those generated by any decent drum program.

[christopheraven @ Jun 18th 2008 10:49AM]

"... in a totally unrelated event today - Lead animatronic singer Chuck E. Cheese was found dead in his New Jersey apartment this morning. Local residents reported seeing earlier in the morning "a strange man that looked like the love child of a coat rack and a tuba..""

[Galley @ Jun 18th 2008 10:50AM]

It's not quite Animusic quality, but they're getting there!

[Matthias @ Jun 18th 2008 12:17PM]

Hi,

be sure to also check out Rozzobianca:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG60NDehr0c

Fredy Fantastico on Drums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH9AhHDbe9g

and Lemmy on guitar are simply great.

http://www.rozzobianca.ch/fotovideo.php

Matthias

[HOLOTYPE @ Jun 18th 2008 10:57AM]

You guys should really give props to Captured! By Robots. The band only has one human member, and he created all the bots himself. They are all self-playing and are quite impressive. Not only that, but they have been around for over 10 years. They have tons of videos on YouTube. I got to see them late last year here in Orlando and I have to say the technology he has invested into the bots and the way they work is quite impressive!

Heres a song off their 'Dubya' tour (the tour I got to see). Unfortunately there are no closeups of the bots in this vid, you will see he has them doing some rather technical stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZHrVCxrcY

[nth256 @ Jun 18th 2008 11:22AM]

Captured! by Robots FTW!!!

These guys are a lame rip-off.

[ddub @ Jun 18th 2008 9:29PM]

And Captured by Robots ripped of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.

[eMpTy @ Jun 18th 2008 11:14AM]

I for one am going to kick back and relax to soothing metal screechs as our music playing robotic overlords take over the world


my first "I for one" pls forgive

[shmengie @ Jun 18th 2008 11:15AM]

sounds like the white stripes, but with a better drummer.

[Josh L @ Jun 18th 2008 11:24AM]

And a better singer.

[jackhole @ Jun 18th 2008 11:27AM]

I think stephen hawking would be the perfect front man for this band...

[skulldriveshaft @ Jun 19th 2008 8:32PM]

so now what?

[Mycroft @ Jun 18th 2008 11:30AM]

Yes, but can you f them?

No?

Tokyo is off the world tour then.

[Blaktornado @ Jun 18th 2008 11:30AM]

You mean "Barre" chords ;)

[Carlos @ Jun 18th 2008 12:10PM]

Didn't Herbie Hancock do this like 15 years ago.

[EMoShunz @ Jun 18th 2008 12:13PM]

gibson needs to sponsor this guy. get him a couple self tuning les pauls and have him incorporate them into the band...tuning between songs. great promotion...i can see ads for that in my head.

i accept finders fees, thank you very much :)

[wodheila @ Jun 18th 2008 12:52PM]

At least they won't have to worry what they'll look like when they're touring 40 years from now.

[Tina Darby @ Jun 18th 2008 5:23PM]

Bring in the robot groupies!

[MikeWard1701 @ Jun 18th 2008 1:49PM]

Don't let Simon Cowel see these! Otherwise they'll be 40 of em in the charts next week.

[toyotaboy @ Jun 18th 2008 2:01PM]

captured by ghosts?

[evplasmaman @ Jun 18th 2008 2:46PM]

Prft, its only cool if they are Rock Band playing robots.

[JT_X @ Jun 18th 2008 3:14PM]

Kraftwerk was doing this *30* years ago… ;)

[ZeroCorpse @ Jun 18th 2008 5:15PM]

Very cool.

Reminds me of a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, or perhaps to Disneyland to see the County Bears, but without their "skin" in place.

Dammit. I miss that gorilla at Chuck E. Cheese. The new layout sucks.

[Nytrojen @ Jun 18th 2008 7:16PM]

Rockobot and the kick-ass-tunes ftw

[Mike10010100 @ Jun 18th 2008 7:23PM]

Very mature. Bravo. I try to make a joke and you shove me down.

Just because you are insecure in your masculinity doesn't give you the right to project your own insecurities onto other people.

Humorless blobs.

[Colin @ Jun 18th 2008 9:23PM]

Ever play Street Rod II way back in the 286 days? This song sounds remarkably like something from that game. I think I just won a 1967 Camaro in an aqueduct race.

One of the great things about humans is we can't keep absolute perfect tempo (something about not having a built-in oscillator)…and the little screw-ups are what make music art instead of math.

Cool concept nonetheless!