Still Automatic, a power punk trio hailing from Seattle, WA, is a band that should be judged on their own merits. 2/3rds of the band, Tony and Bryan Lash, played in Hat Trick (a band I’d never heard of). Despite my ignorance, Hat Trick managed to have a 9-year career; playing on Warped Tour, opening for bands you’ve heard of and independently releasing records. I don’t care about any of that. I’ve been sent 3 songs: the band’s debut, Hatred of Release; a 10-minute EP packed full of influence-worn-on-sleeve soaked punk rock.
The first song, and title track, begins with a rockin’ opening riff that’s backed by a persistent snare roll which drops into a solid back beat when the intro fully kicks in. It’s a little reminiscent of a Foo Fighter’s song but, once the verse starts, I get a distinct feel of No Use for a Name, especially in Tony Lash’s vocals, and also plenty of Green Day thrown in for good measure. It’s a defiant opening salvo decrying the state of society that’s ready to be played loudly through an open window. It’s got a huge chorus and the whole song is layered in solid vocal harmonies and moves nimbly from section to section.
Drummer Bryan Lash holds the producer credit on this record and the polished jams keep on coming with the second track “Lost Homes”. Starting with a rollicking pentatonic rock solo, this song quickly moves into pure Green Day territory as if the verses and snotty attitude were a b-side to Warning. The bass playing of Adam Tabor really shines through on this one. The low-end practically drives the song, along with the drums, despite the great guitar licks prominent throughout.
The final song in this trio, “8 Years, 2 Days”, takes Tony Lash’s NUFAN-dom to near worship. With his vocals a dead ringer for Tony Sly, I actually had to get through the first verse and confirm that the same person sang throughout and that the first part wasn’t a featured guest vocal. Also, this song could fit right in on No Use’s most recent album, The Feel Good Record of the Year; sitting snugly next to songs like “Yours to Destroy” or “Pacific Standard Time”. That being said, this is the standout track of this EP and I really, REALLY, enjoy it. It begins with a subdued, palm-muted guitar backed by bass and kick keeping 4 on the floor. This builds to a large pop-punk chorus that quickly moves to the fast skatepunk beat that NUFAN practically perfected. In this song, the studio production reaches its zenith as extra instrumentation (mainly a nice use of xylophone), lots of layered guitar tracks and epic backing harmonies are purposefully and skillfully added into the mix. The EP says farewell with a drawn out keyboard progression interspersed with explosions of noise (possibly a guitar being hit near the pick-ups?) that draws to it’s resolved conclusion on a pleasing major chord.
Hatred of Release is an extremely solid, introduction to Still Automatic; a band of obviously seasoned and practiced musicians. They recorded it themselves and it sounds awesome with added help from Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room, who mixed and mastered the EP. The pointillist album artwork was even created by singer Tony Lash. All around, this is a band truly doing it themselves in conjunction with a little help from their friends. When’s Lunch? Records are releasing the album digitally but I haven’t been able to find word if there’s a physical release in the works. Download the EP on August 16th, check ‘em out and then go see Still Automatic because I’m really curious as to how these well-layered, excellently studio-produced songs sound live.
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onTheWeb: Still Automatic Official | When’s Lunch Records
Follow: @stillautomatic @wlrecords
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