Prolly the best artist demo I’ve heard at Frankfurt (partly because it has no goddamned soloing).
This is real. They were playing out in the plaza at Musikmesse. I tried to shoot my own footage, but it was just too crowded. (Though I did score a thrilling video of the back of Craig Anderton’s head.)
Gibson Guitars sponsored Compressorhead’s performance. There’s more on the band website.
Woah! This is cool and creepy at the same time, haha
I hear they have day jobs at Audi, welding body parts together.
Hey, ho! Let’s Go!
It’s not quite the same without torn denim. Awesome head banging though!
It sounds just like I expected it to. Robotic. Chilly. Honestly, the worst drumming ever. Makes me nostalgic for the old Kent drum machine on the old JJ Cale albums. Spazzes like me aren’t going out of style any time soon, methinks…
Well, he’s way better than SOME drummers I’ve played with.
You have a point there…Still, somehow I can hang with people’s inaccuracies easier than, uh, robotic performances.
Are we sure its a ‘he’?
And he has an incredible headbanging
Doesn’t he? I love the characterization!
Interesting ? We have an issue with solos?
Yeah, nothing will put you off solos like working at a guitar mag. 😉
Or attending Musikmesse. 😉
I’m down with the down on solos.
I’ve seen vids of Compressorhead before but didn’t realize it was a Gibson-sponsored scheme despite the fender bass.
Is the band using off the shelf instruments or robot optimized?
I love Lil High-Hat Boy (he’s kinda subliminal in some of the vids).
Actually, I believe it was just a Gibson-sponsored performance, and I updated the post accordingly. From what I could tell, the instruments were all stock.
It seems to me that you could build some swing into this by slightly tweaking tolerances a bit, ie. making the snare hand shorter and the high-hat hand slightly longer to create a more loping, human feel. Probl’y break everything…
Oh, I’m sure you could. But you know, I just went back and listened to the Ramones original, I don’t hear a whole lot more “swing” or “lope” there, though the guitar tones are definitely less metal-sounding.
So none of these bots sing?
No! Total slackers!