Line-up

Headliner
The Automatic Last time in SF Bay Area: 3 weeks ago

Venue

The Independent

628 Divisadero St., 94117, San Francisco, CA, US

www.theindependentsf.com

Capacity: 500

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Additional details

Doors open: 20:00

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The Automatic biography

Electro-punk quartet the Automatic formed in Cardiff, Wales, in the fall of 2003. Originally dubbed "White Rabbit," the founding lineup comprised singer/bassist Robin Hawkins, guitarist James Frost, keyboardist Alex Pennie, and drummer Iwan Griffiths.

Rechristened the Automatic in early 2005, the band cut a demo that earned the attention of Probation Management, a subsidiary of Cardiff label FF Vinyl. Probation in turn mailed the demo to the B-Unique imprint, which immediately signed the band to a reputed 500,000-quid publishing deal. By year's end the Automatic was a major favorite of the famously excitable British press, with the single "Raoul" penetrating the U.K. Top 40 in the spring of 2006. The follow-up,

"Monster," not only cracked the Top Five weeks later, but entered the chart solely on the strength of pre-retail downloads. The Automatic's debut LP, Not Accepted Anywhere, reached number three following its June 2006 release. The album was re-released the following year in the U.S., inexplixably under the name The Automatic Automatic. In 2007, Alex Pennie left the group and was replaced by Yourcodenameis:Milo's Paul Mullen. The band flew to Los Angeles to record their second album This Is A Fix with producer Butch Walker, it was released in 2008 but received poor distribution and promotion by the band's label B-Unique, resulting in poor sales. The band regrouped and released their third album Tear The Signs Down in 2010.

The first single to be released from it was "Interstate". The group decided to take a brief hiatus to concentrate on other projects. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Live reviews

There are plenty of bands that serve as good examples of just how much tastes have changed within mainstream indie over the past decade or so, and The Automatic are among them. Admittedly, it’d be easy to level accusations at the Welsh outfit that they were one hit wonders, with their single ‘Monster’ being far and away what they’re best known for, and perhaps no wonder; after all, it reached as high as number four on the UK charts in 2006. In retrospect, though, their debut album, Not Accepted Anywhere, was a huge success with the critics around the time of its release, too, but perhaps the plight of the band since is simply reflective of the fact that that brand of guitar-driven, boisterous indie rock has gone out of fashion in the years since. Follow-ups This Is a Fix and Tear the Signs Down failed to meet with the same degree of success, critically or commercially, but the band ploughed ahead anyway, with enough of a cult fanbase to ensure that their usually chaotic live shows still saw them pack rooms across the UK. Since 2010, the individual members have been focused on other projects, although there’s nothing official as fas a hiatus is concerned.

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