Bragg Jam 2010 Blurb #7: Q&A with Roly-Bots

roly-bots

Brandon Bish (TBI): Can you tell us a bit about the band? Who you are, where you’re from, and what you do in the band?

Roly Bots: We are Roly-Bots from the planet Tralfamadore, located 1.63 light years away from the planet Earth. Our species sent us to your planet to investigate your culture and return the results to our home planet. Our spaceship was fitted with various earthly objects and electronic instruments from Tralfamadore to help us prepare for our arrival and to help us deal with our loneliness on the long space journey. During the journey, we bagan extracting sounds and rhythms from these devices, hoping to be welcomed and accepted on the strange planet as a “band.”

TBI: How long has the band been playing together?

RB: 1.63 light years.

TBI: What are you looking forward to the most about this year’s Bragg Jam, aside from playing the festival?

RB: In our studies of the planet earth, we have tasted the jams of many cultures and peoples, but we have yet to encounter this jam made from the fruit of the Bragg plant. We look forward to sampling it and forwarding the results to the people of our home planet.

TBI: Having played Macon before, what can you say your favorite part about being back in a city with rich musical heritage and a rapidly growing downtown scene?

RB: We come in peace. We hope people will not poke fun at the size of our robot heads and steel bodies. They must remember that Little Richard had a head the size of our robot heads and Otis Redding was as tall and wide as our robot frames. The Allman Brothers Band enjoyed a primitive form of Robot-Cocaine. We’re not so different after all.

TBI: What are three bands you would you would love to see on the bill for next years festival?

RB: Love is a very strong word on the planet Tralfamodore, usually reserved for our Mother-Bots. I have also begun applying it to my earthly pet dog – he reminds me of my Mother-Bot, and he’s just so damn cute when he tilts his head to the side in hopes that I’ll throw his ball across the apartment. In that case, I would LOVE to see Hall and Oates backed by the Commodores without that idiot, Lionel Ritchie.

TBI: When you’re not at your respective venues, where will you be spending your time at Bragg Jam?

RB: Judging by the band photographs on the Bragg Jam website, the city of Macon is a endless labyrinth of alleys where bands are chased by lecherous photographers who seek to pin them against a brick wall and capture pieces of their souls with these strange “camera” contraptions. I expect we’ll spend most of our time lost in this labyrinth trying to avoid the evil grips of these photographers. We may not even be able to find the venue. We may not make it out alive.

TBI: What do you consider to be the band’s biggest source of inspiration for writing, playing, and working as a whole?

RB: Robot-Cocaine.

TBI: Which of the songs you’ve written means the most to you?

RB: Definitely. The song, “Epistle.” It’s about my earthly pet dog and my Mother-Bot. One mundane morning, I had just woken up and brewed a pot of Robot-Cocaine when I observed my dog scampering across the lawn with something small, white, and rectangular protruding from the corners of his mouth. Elatedly, I rushed to the calendar to check the Earth-date. Yes! – how could I have forgotten – the mail from Tralfamadore arrives today! I threw down my Robot-Cocaine, spilling it wildly across the kitchen, and dashed to greet my little puppy at the door. He wagged his tail and doggy-smiled as I grasped the letter from his mouth and tore into it the way a man just released from prison tears into a Whopper. I unfolded the letter and read the first line: Congratulations, you have been pre-approved for a CitiBank credit card with no interest for the first year! My oil pressure dropped; my loneliness meter went into the red; I realized that my dear Mother-Bot had forgotten me on mail day! Terrified, I turned to my puppy for some sort of consolation just to see him hunchbacked and pinching off a breakfast sausage sized turd on my new rug. The song, “Epistle” is about that feeling.

TBI: What can we expect from Roly-Bots this year? New releases? Tours?

RB: We will release our findings on the customs and habits of the people of planet Earth in the form of a four song EP, transmitted back to Tralfamadore via the earthly internet. We also plan to tour the other planets of your solar system in the near future, observing them the way we have observed your planet.

TBI: Three adjectives to describe your music as you see it?

RB: Bip. Bip. Beep.