Captured! By Robots

Grindcore…

By Robots.

It is very simple to describe Captured! By Robots:

Grindcore, by Robots.

This, however, doesn’t encapsulate the amazing work that is itself, Captured! By Robots. This is art in its highest form.

A combination of Music, Technology, Skill, Talent and what must be a sort of anti-social, manically focused effort on the part of J-Bot, the flesh and blood behind the project.

Programmed by JBot and running on a pneumatic system of triggers, chain and pully systems, it is a complexity that also sits within familiar territory to anyone that has worked on such systems or seen a behind-the-scenes video of animatronics.

Once a much more manual system, it is currently programmed to computers and midi. To see it put together in such a way, to create such a dynamic of music and stage show is something to behold. Truly.

The earlier incarnation of the band played a sort of rock and roll set, sometimes covers, and had more members as well as a bit less focused mania. Big ideas with less focused precsion in the execution. Something that comes with time, I am sure. JBot has been doing this for 25 years, as he told me after the show, and undoubtedly has put major work and soul into his art.

There is an excellent Nardwuar video with the band from 2007 if you care to see an early version of the band. It will give you some insight into the project at the time, but doesn’t compare to what the band is now. (link at end of article)

The humor and non-grind side of JBots art seems to have focused on The TeddyBear Orchestra while Captured! By Robots has focused on more of the Grindcore and seemingly his own current frustrations.

Vice did an excellent video about The Teddybear Orchestra where JBot, gives an excellent breakdown of how the robots work and how he was programming things. (link at end of article)

“We’re a 3 piece

and play

grindcore now.”

– Jbot Youtube comments on the Nardwuar Video

Stage presence.

You gotta have stage presence.

Imagine you went to Hell and found a burned-out Chuck-E-Cheese as your only means of shelter. Once inside, you discover the metallic remains of one Charles Entertainment Cheese and Company.

Their plastics and faux fur long charred away, this is the hellish type landscape set. Fire (ish) kissing human skeletons, like a roast that was long forgotten, complete with a human coffin as the centerpiece.

It is then that you see their eyes glow in a piercing and unnatural blue light, before the shrieky and digitally jagged voice of GTRBOT666 rips through the air-

“FUCK YOU.”

The, at that moment, you realize that J-5 IS ALIVE. Only now it is pissy and plays grindcore. This isn’t Chuck-E-Cheese and this isn’t for your shitty kid.

Guitars shred from the claws of GTRBOT666 while DRMBOT 0110 and its many arms with sticks, will grind your human drummer into the pavement like shit on your shoe.

The show begins with a good New-Orleans style walk of a Coffin through the audience where it is set center stage. The body inside is wrapped in a cloth that reads “Hugh Manity”.

Dry humor and misanthropy are the theme here.

The rail and stage is decorated with skeletons, fire and balloons with insults and offensive slogans on them. As JBot fiddles with a couple of things on his machines he greets the audience and as he explains his servitude, both robots begin to hurl insults from behind the piercing glow of their eyes.

Wrapped in a tunic and shackled to chains, JBot is clearly a slave to these machines, but still wears his grindcore appropriate shorts and footwear.

Jokes aside, once the music starts, it kicks you right in the fucking face. The drums blast at the obvious inhuman speed while the guitars rip with a very unique tone. Between songs, JBot banters with the Robotic Duo while also hurling general misanthropic comments about society, politics, religion and humanity in general.

There is a decent variety in the set as well. Not every song is a barrage of blast beats and many songs pass the standard 40 second songs.

It is excellent Grindcore on top of being a fun, unusual and entertaining show. At some point during the show, JBot began to hug and compliment the audience… sometimes the compliments coming directly from the back of his hand.

Every single person needs to see this at least once, and *definitely* bring your small children.

“Abort Hugh Manity!” JBot cries before preceding to do so.

Grindcore. By Robots. It is very simple to describe Captured! By Robots: Grindcore, by Robots. This, however, doesn’t encapsulate the amazing work that is itself, Captured! By Robots. This is art in its highest form. A combination of Music, Technology, Skill, Talent and what must be a sort of anti-social, manically focused effort on the part of J-Bot, the flesh and blood behind the project. Programmed by JBot and running on a pneumatic system of triggers, chain and pully systems, it is a complexity that also sits within familiar territory to anyone that has worked on such systems or seen a behind-the-scenes video of animatronics. Once a much more manual system, is currently programmed to computers and midi. To see it put together in such a way, to create such a dynamic of music and stage show is something to behold. Truly. The earlier incarnation of the band played a sort of rock it would seem, had more members and a bit less focused mania. There is an excellent Nardwuar video with the band from 2007 if you care to see an early version of the band. It will give you some insight into the project at the time, but doesn’t compare to what the band is now. (link at end of article) The humor and non-grind side of JBots art seems to have focused on The TeddyBear Orchestra while Captured! By Robots has focused on more of the Grindcore and seemingly his own current frustrations. Vice did an excellent video about The Teddybear Orchestra where JBot, gives an excellent breakdown of how the robots work and how he was programming things. (link at end of article) “We’re a 3 piece and play grindcore now.” – Jbot Youtube comments on the Nardwuar Video Stage presence. You gotta have stage presence. Imagine you went to Hell and found a burned-out Chuck-E-Cheese as your only means of shelter. Once inside, you discover the metallic remains of one Charles Entertainment Cheese and Company. Their plastics and faux fur long charred away, this is the hellish type landscape set. Fire (ish) kissing human skeletons, like a roast that was long forgotten, complete with a human coffin as the centerpiece. It is then that you see their eyes glow in a piercing and unnatural blue light, before the shrieky and digitally jagged voice of GTRBOT666 rips through the air- “Fuck you” And at that moment you realize that J-5 IS ALIVE, only pissy and playing grindcore. This isn’t Chuck-E-Cheese and this isn’t for your shitty kid. (maybe the cool kid) Guitars shred from the claws of GTRBOT666 while DRMBOT 0110 and its many arms with sticks, will grind your human drummer into the pavement like shit on your shoe. The show begins with a good New-Orleans style walk of a Coffin through the audience where it is set center stage. The body inside is wrapped in a cloth that reads “Hugh Manity”. Dry humor and misanthropy are the theme here. JBot, wrapped in a worn tunic, shackled to chains, is a slave to these machines, but still wears his grindcore appropriate shorts and footwear. Jokes aside, once the music starts, it kicks you right in the fucking face. The drums blast at the obvious inhuman speed while the guitars rip with a very unique tone. Between songs, JBot banters with the Robotic Duo while also hurling general misanthropic comments about society, politics, religion and humanity in general. It is excellent Grindcore on top of being a fun, unusual and entertaining show. Every single person needs to see this at least once, and definitely bring your small children. “Abort Hugh Manity!” JBot cries before preceding to do so.

2007 Nardwuar Interview on Youtube

2018 Vice Story on The Teddy Bear Orchestra

Captured! By Robots Website

Bandcamp

Instagram

Mop Buckets

So Happy.

“I just wanna be happy, don’t you wanna be happy too?!”

Screams Vocalist Ryan McGuffin between the shadows of the lights. Guitarist Michael Crain hammers down on his guitar, in an almost screaming duet with Ryan. In the meantime, Bassist Mathew Cronk fills the heavy spaces between this as Drummer Kevin Avery holds it all together.

Backlit by white lights and not much else, Mop Buckets have a darker presence. Happy to let you gaze at their silhouettes instead of some wild stage antics or showmanship, you are forced to ingest the music with little to no distractions. Dipping in and out of the few, scattered lights, they have presence and this presence is more ominous than inviting although not off putting or stand-offish.

No. It is more like you are invited to bask in their emotions with them. Share their frustrations and anxieties in the shadows while being reminded that there IS light… somewhere.

The band, as a whole, feels as though it is on edge the entire time. Perhaps about to explode in a fit of fury,

perhaps in a trainwreck of notes and timing… but it never happens. Not as frantic as some other post-hardcore bands like Drive Like Jehu, but they would fit in this space just as well as they would with the Crass Records bands of the 80’s.

Michael Crains guitar tone and style is somewhat distinct and recognizable, yet this work doesn’t feel like his other projects, in style, sound or emotion – although still aggressive. His guitarwork as always reminded me of the darker, activist cousin of East Bay Ray. Rhythmic and leading with his strings and not afraid of letting things echo and sustain.

Meanwhile Mathew not only keeps the low end heavy on bass, but actively acts as the Yang to Michaels Yin. Sometimes almost deflecting from this to highlight Ryans vocalization patterns and weaving through Kevin’s’ drumbeats in an appropriate dance.

I was happy that Mathew’s work is ever-present, but in step with the band throughout the set (and album).

I find, too often, basswork in the post-punk scene is either lost or gets so caught up with itself that it no longer compliments the work as a whole. This is not the case here.

With Mop Buckets, the strings flirt with one another more than they walk lock-step, but Ryan lays down the road for them to cross and Ryan almost dances around them vocally. They weave in and out of one another in a way that can feel much more frantic than it is.

Aggressive but put-together.

Noisy but harmonious.

Mop Buckets dances and slams across the lines of punk, post-hardcore and noise in the best of ways. While they may not be genre-breaking or defining, they do what they do VERY well.

You can find Mop Buckets online at:

Bandcamp – https://order05records.bandcamp.com/album/s-t-4

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mop.buckets/

This Place Is A Zoo

Waiting for light,

Begging to see the Sun.

An Orgy of Heavy Genre’s is the best way I can describe This Place Is A Zoo. While probably closest to “Deathcore” over anything else, TPIAZ manages to combine this with a Groove found more in the vein of White Zombie or Lamb of God- then topped with keyboards/synth almost straight from both with 1990’s Industrial Clube Scene and the chaos of Mindless Self Indulgence.

This smorgasbord of heavy and alternative goth club sensibilities leaves the band in a place where they would fit more bills than most. This frantic but heavy nature is very fitting for this desert in which they hail.

A lesser band would be lazy with it, but This Place Is A Zoo seems to just get heavier and more brutal with time.

Forming in 2007 as a group of highschoolers, TPIAZ has been somewhat of a High Desert/Antelope Valley staple since. Popping up here and there over the years, they have re-focused in this post-covid lockdown world as heavy and on point as ever. After a little bit of a lineup change, they have been more active in recent times and are always a pleasant addition to the bill.

This is where their genre-bending/mixing sound really helps them out. As long as it is heavy or fast, they pretty much fit right in. It is an impressive trait, especially given their quality of musicianship.

Obviously with any heavy and technical band, you always take note of the drums. David Hodrick is on duty and delivers in the best of ways. He simply delivers everything one would want in a Heavy Metal Drummer, even if TPIAZ isn’t your specific sub-genre meal. He is fast. He is precise, and most importantly; he maintains his groove. This is such a big deal for two main reasons. First, too often with bands of speed and precision, the drummer looses his groove in search for perfection to the point it could just be programmed.

Second, and probably most importantly, groove is something that keeps This Place Is A Zoo afloat. Without that groove, they could easily fall into a pit that so many other bands do.

Helping maintain this groove is Brandon Stambook on Bass guitar. Much like everyone else in the band, he balances precision in a dance with the guitarwork of Justin Stambook. Brandon locks in with David’s drum groove to really hold things down while Justin shreads his guitar around this. The frantic nature of their music is more apparent in the guitarwork, which jumps from a tease with the keys to lockstep with the low end.

Together the strings and drums seem to chant at times, arm-in-arm, step-by-step. This is a major part of what holds TPIAZ together over many other “core” bands. They know how to get a STRONG footing in their groove and run with it. Just before it plays out however, there is always a reprieve from this.

Sometimes it is the shriek of guitars, other times it is the bass wondering off into a field of possibilities, before they return to their Lock-Step heavy anthem riffage. Dancing around all of this at times is Charles Warr, with both keys/synth and a microphone.

Charles, usually clad in an almost trademark Hawaiian shirt, is clad in black and camo. He is seemingly on the verge of destroying his keys, is bellowing into the microphone with the bravado of an Opera singer. The difference of course, is that what comes out is a heavy death growl in the most ideal form for such a project.

Hunched over much like a Universal Movie Monster about to reveal themselves, he clutches his board tightly, staring up from the silver bridge piercing. Moments later, he raises the keys like an ax, seemingly ready to pounce on the crowd. But he doesn’t. Instead, he drops it haphazardly onto the stand where it falls between the legs before he turns his back to the crowd and stretches out his arms.

Like an angry tiger dressed for vacation in Miami, he is ready to pounce and maintains this energy for the entire set.

That is the sense you get from the band.

This place really is a Zoo and you can be torn apart at any time, but until that happens, enjoy the show.

This Place Is A Zoo can be found online here:

Bandcamp

Instagram

Cel Damage

Apologies to Cel Damage, as I had missed the set coming back to the Desert from a Job in los Angeles.

Cel Damage is legit one of my favorite bands and I will post a review of a previous show instead.

I urge you all to check them out.

Bandcamp

Instagram

Linktree

DRMBOT 0110 / Captured! By Robots

GTRBOT 666 / Captured! By Robots