Dude, I almost peed my pants when I read the headline.

And for the record, I like Coldplay.

univision

This article has the best headline I've read this week, and its already Monday!

The Dude

This is definitely not the first robot band to give personality to their robots. Captured! By Robots has been around for years, and the entire concept is that the robots enslaved their creator and force him to sing for them while they play. Best of all, you don't need to fly all the way to NZ to see them, though they haven't played recently.

[capturedbyrobots.com]

saltmine

@mike-atron: Thank you for your explanation.
That allowed me to end my boycott, watch them, and like them very much.

92BuickLeSabre

Sharon Apple 1.0?

Cashak

The 'Tron' or Hamiltron is the local name for Hamilton, some dipshit major used the phrase "Hamilton - City of the future" as a slogan a few years back which reinforced the name somewhat. I do love my "Hamiltron - City of the future" T-Shirt with tron bikes though...

mike-atron

I also liked Coldplay...when they we're still called U2.

Adrian Covert

I go to Kotaku...Coldplay hate
I go to Gizmodo...even more Coldplay hate
Drop the haterade, Gawker. Their new album is great.

CHU BOI

That is the coolest thing I have seen today. Thanks, Giz. And if Apple likes Coldplay, I like Coldplay. But The Trons will be my new favorite band if they score an iPod ad.

The Magnificen7

my wife likes coldplay, especially that one song in the ipod commercial where the singer raises the roof.

omfgitsdon - RUN

The Tron's Kick ass..

DJJS

If you like Coldplay, you suck as much as them. No wait, you suck more.

thirty6chambers

A more accurate band name "The Never Enders."

UniComp

okay, cool, now program them to play some primus.

robot-shmobot

I refuse to watch this video because I'm so offended that they named themselves The Trons. Get a group of digital warriors to form a band and call themselves The Trons, then we can talk.

*harumph*

92BuickLeSabre

isn't Coldplay already a robot band? ;)

dOk

What is your problem with Coldplay lately?

ramman345

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. This type of thing is why I like Gizmodo as much as I do.

kylo4

Fine, but I love The Trons.

John Herrman

Hey, I like Coldplay.

Jason Chen

How do they snort their cocaine?

michaelleung

@P3nnst8r: Ugh...who the fuck likes coldplay?

Kramen loves her MBP

where's the bass? why do nerds hate bassists!!!

glaeven

Why does everybody like Coldplay?

P3nnst8r

I think the genius of this article lies behind the "attempts to robotize music" link.

Hahaha.

michaelwiggins

Probably gawker wanted something from coldplay, and coldplay don't gave then...
If Anyone like or dislikes coldplay, there is nothing to do with the "robot band". But not even Gawker/Gizmodo (or Herrman) know how to respect those who like something they don't. sad.

Guilherme

Someone tell the keyboard(ist?) to get out of the bass range!

Sumone989

@ballashoes: :(

Kramen loves her MBP

Bumper sticker seen on Jeep:

"No I'm not that old and yes your music does suck."

:-)

petard

@Kramen loves her MBP:

Then don't hate on Coldplay.

ballashoes

@ballashoes: UH ME!!! SHUT UP..DON'T TALK ABOUT DEATHCAB

Kramen loves her MBP

@Kramen loves her MBP:

Ugh...who the fuck likes Deathcab?

ballashoes

@Kramen loves her MBP: Apparently most the people in this thread, lol.

P3nnst8r

I knew as soon as I saw the words "robot" and "New Zealand" that this would be about Hamilton.

The place also has a statue of Riff Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show, so it fits perfectly with my perceptions of the place, based mainly on stories from people who lived there...

[hamilton.co.nz]

FunkyJ

@Jason Chen: @Jason Chen: @Jason Chen: So do I! Why do people always pick on Coldplay? This song is horrible. Why even compare them unless you're just trying to pick on them?

Jasoco

comparing The Trons to Coldplay is setting the bar pretty low, but I guess everybody has to start somewhere.

skiterr

@Kramen loves her MBP:
@ballashoes:

ok you kids, cant we just agree that both coldplay and deathcab arent all that great, but not all that bad either?

daversW

@michaelleung: An rss feed

John Herrman

Wow, this is almost like the Mac/PC debate but there's actually no debate.
They're old stuff is uninspired. Their new stuff is pretty different.

Its music. Its subjective. Get over it.

homerjay

Thats fine and dandy, but can it play rock band?

supershavin

@saltmine: Hell yeah dude, Captured! By Robots is ridiculous. These "guys" are like their rock contemporaries.

XM8500

COLDPLAY IS FAR BEYOND ALL YOU HATERS
YOUR INABILITY TO APPRECIATE IT IS A REFLECTION ON YOU
YOUR INTELLECT IS IN THE SEWER

pardyhardy

@The Magnificen7

"if Apple likes Coldplay, I like Coldplay. But The Trons will be my new favorite band if they score an iPod ad."

Bah! Seriously? Admit it, you are trolling :)

DaveExile

I was sort of indifferent to Coldplay for the most part...I could listen to them if they came on the radio but I'd never bother to buy an album. Then, this weekend, Sirius 21 started playing Coldplay like every other song. I got to where I just couldn't stand it and switched away for most of the weekend, and every time I checked back in they were playing more Coldplay. It was so annoying that I now don't like Coldplay, but it has nothing to do with their music.

Atrahasis

Holy Jeebus, people.

Did it ever occur to anyone that a big reason people make fun of Coldplay is to see their fans get all bent out of shape about it?

I'm certainly no Coldplay fan, and you're entitled to like whatever music you like (as someone said, it's all subjective). But I'm just so tired of seeing you fans all WHINE about it when someone tosses a Coldplay joke around.

Sheesh. Can we get back to arguing about Macs vs. PCs, please?

SuppleMonkey

Is it bad they will end up getting a record deal before me?

Quicksilver4648

The only thing cooler than hating Coldplay is hating the Coldplay haters!

dnzperson

@pardyhardy: I LOLED
Next line: LEAVE COLDPLAY ALOOONNEE BAWWWW

Great stuff! The Trons I mean. Next song they could use weird electronic voices as lyrics.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

ok, i hate to get in on band smashing but lets be honest - i haven't listened to much coldplay except on the radio, and what I could bear of the newest album. Since I don't want re-listen to find the song, perhaps its a general theme, but it is evident they are just doing a real bad radiohead impression. First of all, the way the coldplay album is named, mimics radiohead's hail to the thief track titles. Like i said i forget which track but i found a lot of their percussion to be very much like some found in rainbows...just saying o ya and coldplay sux

dwilljo

Why is that americans always hate the europeans? look at Gorillaz or Daft Punk, most americans know them as music from apple ads and I seen people call them "Kanye West's robots", while the rest of the world already is waiting for their next album, what the problem? don't want another british invasion?...

VakeroRokero

@ramman345: Besides the fact that they suck?

allstarecho

@dwilljo:

But radiohead sucks too.

ballashoes

This is so funny, I think you get a more adverse reaction from people when you insult music they like than if you would insult their religious affiliation, heh. That was a cool video, but I kept waiting for them to smash their instruments.

maven2k

They'd do well to cover this:

+ Watch video

The beat of their song sounds awfully close to this song:

+ Watch video

The Kraftwerk link "Kevin Bacon's" us to Coldplay:

+ Watch video

Good stuff ;-)

-Scott

Netscott

Hmmm, that first video doesn't appear to want to cooperate so here's an alternative:

+ Watch video

-Scott

Netscott

I like Coldplay too. Even if they are a blatant Radiohead ripoff. Or U2 ripoff, for that matter.

There's only one British pop/rock band.

bsoft

@VakeroRokero:

What are you talking about Gorillaz was huge over here, and so was Daft punk Pre Human after all.

juriko

What got me was the camera angle on the keyboard.

The artist has a speaker supported by a black pole, but when seen with the white sheet behind it and with the YouTube compression, it can almost be mistaken for a large man with (small head and a) a skinny tie.

With the minimalist anthropomorphisms applied to the other "players" it adds up to being really cool visually as well as a decent jam.

I give this very high marks for technical implementation as well as artistic merit.

Great stuff!
Where do I get my "Trons" T-Shirt?

strider_mt2k

@Netscott: Kraftwerk reference FTW!

(those guys are oddly prophetic)

strider_mt2k

Eh, the robots shouldn't quit their day job, which is serving human kind! MAWAHAHA! People still listen to the radio without pause/next track features? O.o Tsk tsk.

bbfreak

That's awesome. I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but pity the tiny thing in charge of whacking the cymbal. Tss tss tss tss tss tss tss tss!

MastaFalse

Damn.. I had this idea years ago. If only I were a real computer engineer.

DMF

@strider_mt2k:
prophetic ? Good one.

ANoel

This entire thread reminds me of my favorite indietits comic ever. [indietits.com]

"Coldplay is the kind of music computers will make when they get smart enough to make fun of humans."

bhp

This reminds me too much of Chuch-E-Cheese!!!

Joseph

Coldplay ain't got nothin' on The Doves. Now, if they'd just get their asses in gear and drop the new album already... And tour. Touring would be nice, since I just missed the last US show around these parts.

NightElfMohawk

The band Captured By Robots! does this same thing (though there is one human in the band). [www.capturedbyrobots.com] I saw them live (I suppose technically the singer was the only one who was really "live"), it was pretty impressive.

DorkRawk

I watched the video and was hoping for a lot more, the robots are not advanced at all and are just simple linkages moving. I was expecting the keyboard robot to at least be able to roll down the length of the piano and play more than 5-6 keys, both the guitar robots were pretty sad as well, they can only do chords that use all the strings, why not coordinate one plucking finger for each string, and then you could do a lot more with it. Again, I was expecting the 'middle' guitar robot to slide the 'hand' along the neck, but it just sat there, limiting it to about 5 frets and a strum hand that just blindly twangs at all the strings at once.

Pretty pathetic really. I had a friend in highschool who had a better guitar playing robot. This would have been in the early 90s. (one solenoid for each of the 6 strings so they could be plucked separately or together at will, and little servo motors connected to rollers on about 12 frets so the roller could slide and hold down any string or no string by moving between the strings). He was going to put rollers on all the strings so he could play anything except hammerons (he could do pulloffs) or bends.

Programming it was a bitch though, definately could have used better software so he could send it notes, instead he just had to put timing cues on each of the separate controlls. Would take him a few days to a week to program a song. He won the science projet with it, playing some ozzy song. I think it was crazy train, but I don't recall for sure now.

Anyway, the hardware on display here is pretty poor, and sub circa 1990. Heck, the drumming bear at Showbiz pizza in the 1980s was way more impressive.

Alluvian

you guys have it ALL wrong. system of a down is were its at. but ive got to say, robots making music is pretty damn cool... if they were actually good at it. these ones kind of suck. someone needs to put them in a blender or something

VENAT0R

So this is what having no girlfriend, a lot of time and an infatuation with Animusic gets you?

gizmodohomepage

After the Flight of the Concords I have to take every music act out of NZ seriously

@ballashoes: I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I like Radiohead, so I am going to have to say that your opinion is wrong.

TOWken22

@Alluvian: The drumming bear at Showbiz only mimics playing the drums, and doesn't make the sound himself. All of the Showbiz "players" are the Ashleigh Simpson of animatronic bands.

@VakeroRokero: There's more Americans than your realize that will snap up new releases from either band.

And Coldplay? BWHAHAHAHA I'd be be more willing to associate myself with the moronic ICP fans the juggalos than admit that I was a Coldplay fan. And ICP can suck a ****.

Enochrewt

Substitute "Microsoft" for "Coldplay" and it's just another day at "the Giz." Not enough people are liking anything in particular yet to substitute for "Apple." It'd have to be something like "oral sex," to even approximate.
----------------------------------------------------------------

@DaveExile: "Bah! Seriously? Admit it, you are trolling"

On any other site that might be "trolling," here it's sucking up.

@VakeroRokero: "don't want another british invasion?..."

How many have there been? I really liked the first one.

gadgetplay

@VENAT0R: Hahaha! Love the Blender part.

Guilherme

I guess what we have learned from this is that Gizmodo shouldn't put a band name in the topic line.

ballashoes

I'm assuming all this Coldplay hate from Gawker sites comes from a childish jealousy of lead singer Chris Martin. I mean, for all I know, none of the Gizmodo staff is 1) obscenely rich and/or 2) having sex with Gwenyth Paltrow.

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