Rockabye Baby! » Chuck E. Cheese http://www.rockabyebabymusic.com/blog dispatches from lullaby headquarters Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:40:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Rock-afire Poplock: When Animatronic Bands Go Rogue http://www.rockabyebabymusic.com/blog/2009/07/07/rockafire-poplock-when-animatronic-bands-go-bad/ http://www.rockabyebabymusic.com/blog/2009/07/07/rockafire-poplock-when-animatronic-bands-go-bad/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:19:28 +0000 K. Thor Jensen http://www.rockabyebabymusic.com/blog/?p=1477  
I’m not sure how to categorize this, but it occupies the delicious nexus of childhood, music, and total weirdness that I love. Do you remember those low-rent animatronic bands from places like Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E Cheese? Fur-covered robots that would “perform” a half-dozen annoying songs to a bored audience of jaded kids hopped up on soda pop and arcade games in between slices of the worst pizza known to man, these bands may have seemed high-tech when they were built but are now musty relics.

So what happens when those restaurants shut down? Why, enterprising individuals like Chris Thrash purchase the robot bands and use them to perform songs they weren’t intended to ever know – here is an incredible video of his hacked Rock-afire Explosion playing “Pop Lock & Drop It” by Huey.

Your life will be forever changed.

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