Not sure what’s up with the overuse of exclamation points (Thunderbirds Are Now! are also guilty) but that’s beside the point. Because Tampa’s Auto!Automatic!! are pretty! fucking! solid!! Long time readers are well aware that Scissorkick is a sucker for tight instrumental chops and this power trio deliver — channeling the old school (read Don Caballero, Breadwinner) through the new school (think Volta do Mar, The Six Parts Seven) — and surfacing clean, filtered and ready to funnel. Although I haven’t been exposed to their entire catalog, the little I’ve heard is pristine and more importantly, interesting, which can often be the shortcoming of instrumental rock music. Fans of niche rock are often guilty of hyperbole but it can also be said that instrumental music is undeservedly ignored because of its lack of vocals. Fuck that. Most singers have shit to say anyway. In the case of Auto!Automatic!! it’s the success of an old truism — “It’s not what you say, it’s what you do” — that should warrant an open ear. A well balanced delivery of chop-tastic indie instrumentalism.
RIYL: Don Caballero, The Six Parts Seven, Maserati, Dysrhythmia, From Monument to Masses
Rock!On!! The CD comes out next week and is chocked full of instrumental goodness.
Left by Jon Gales on September 1st, 2006