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ROBOTS, THE BAND PAGE
 ROBOTS, THE
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CURRENT NAME
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Robots, The | |
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FORMER NAMES
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- | |
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ORIGIN
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Sweden | |
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STATUS
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Active | |
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FORMED IN
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- | |
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LABEL
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Idle Hands Records | |
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GENRE
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Punk rock | |
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STYLE
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LYRICAL THEME
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| BAND ADDED | 2004-07-18, 00:00 | |
| LAST UPDATE | 2007-04-23, 10:23 | |
Biography | Band members | Discography | Shows | Forum
| Band biography |
This story has been told many-a-times before. It has never been interesting, but here it goes:
The Robots started out in 1990 and have been going since. The founders were Frank Lång, Peter Klemensberger, Roger Crossler (now in Speedfreaks), Piotr Wawrzeniuk and Lars Rosenberg. This was a time when wine was cheap and blood ran thicker than water. They would meet and get drunk and try to play punk rock. The evening usually ended when Roger cracked a bottle over somebody´s head or when Lars drew his long knife. This couldn´t go on. It was too good a time. Piotr was a sensitive Polish boy who would write poetry about the horrors of his homeland. Peter and Lars would argue in Finnish and Frank would sit by himself and laugh at his haschish induced orange tentacles. The golden days had to come to and end. And they did. The end had a name too; Odd Ahlgren. A singer Piotr remembered from his school days. Some kind of tall, blue eyed joker who loved comics and records. Piotr forced him to join the band. Then they all forced the boy to drink and drink for days. They filled his head with cynicisms and violence until he was ready. Roger left the band, but not before he had the chance of kicking in several of Odds ribs. Lars found love trouble and moved to Argentina where he became a gaucho and a famous knife fighter.
Surfin'
When both Roger and Lars had left the band, Piotr made a record deal with a polish label called Carnage. Apparently somebody in the old country owed Piotr a few solid favours. The Robots went down to Poland in `92 to record their first ever album. Due to political differences and Interpol poking their noses where it didn´t belong the record was delayed. And when it was released it had been transformed into a cassette only release. This cassette only found it´s way into the hands of some hardcore punk collectors outside of Poland (but sold several thousands to the culturally starved Poles who still have many hardcore Robots fan clubs and even a biker gang called Robotas.)
Music You Will Listen To Over And Over Again
After this the band hooked up with second guitarist Johan Lundell who came into the band about the time they recorded their first ever full length release. This was the popular “Music You Will Listen To Over And Over Again”. It was recorded for Step One Records in Sunlight Studio and made The Robots popular in their hometown. This their first record to reach a larger audience was chock full of bona fide chewing gum punk with twenty seven cuts including the evergreens “Undead Surf Freaks” and “Victims of Society”.
Songs That Satan Whispered In Our Ears
The Robots´ next release was “Songs That Satan Whispered In Our Ears” where The Robots showed a darker and more malignant side. The bands stage act got more and more dangerous and the gigs usually ended in bloody mayhem where Peter and Frank had to slip around onstage in the passed out Odds blood. But the music had found a direction and for the first time The Robots knew were they were heading. This record was also recorded for Step One Records. Johan left the band during the recording of this album. He had found god he claimed and never wanted to play the “devil´s music” again.
Crisis
But the world worked bad juju on the band anyway. It was a time of economical and psychological crisis for the band. Alcohol and unemployment were finally getting the best of poor Piotr (who more frequently travelled back and forth to Poland on “business”). The unemployed Odd indulged deeper in cynisism and esotheric litterature while Peter worked on his pet project “automobile existensialism” which had to do with Hot rodding, yoga and Sartre. Frank became so down and out he had to get married. Things were looking so bad they even seemed good at times. All these factors led to the dawning of an old new age for The Robots.
The Third Difficult Album
The times were hard and Step One records had gone awol with whatever was left of the company´s funds. The Robots could find no worthy successor for Step One and decided to record their next album on their own. They played a set of hard gigs to raise the money for the recording and went back into Sunlight Studio. This was their strangest recording yet. It was recorded during two fevery days and nobody knows what it is on about. The record is impossible to understand. This piece of wax was simply called “The Robots” and it was indeed their third difficult album. After a long search for a record company who would release it they stumbled upon the alcoholized and burly Larsa Gustavssons label Feedback boogie. Larsa claimed he liked the music but he feared the iron cross design on the CD tray would attract attention from aggressive vegetarians. Larsa always did have ideas of his own. This record was a real ordeal and after they had passed this last threshold into the darkness they found they could breath easier again.
Day Of The Robots
The Man´s Ruin-connection started in Stockholm when Frank Kozik visited for an art show. Odd stumbled upon him and gave him The Robots-album. He never really said anything but soon Odd got a contract in the mail from Man´s Ruin and that was that. They recorded the album “Day Of The Robots” for Man´s Ruin in Acetone Studios in December 1998. It was released in the year 2000 and it is their best recording yet. Finally The Robots had captured the essence of everything that was them on one single recording; a tender mix of suave punk smoothness and beerguzzling surly manliness with a dash of conspiration theories, de-evolutionism, primitivism and sheer rock´n´roll. The Robots are currently hard at work on material for their next album.
It has been a pleasure to write this and I am proud to day that I have been a good friend of The Robots all these years.
/ Carl G. Jung
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