Automatic 7 – At Funeral Speed

Despite being around since 1993 and having released albums on BYO Records and Vagrant Records, Automatic 7 have passed under most people’s radars; and that’s really quite a shame becauseAutomatic 7 are a unique old fashioned punk rock band – something which seems to be missing all to often in today’s scene.

With a mix of cow-punk and early nineties punk rock madness, At Funeral Speed is a new yet strangely familiar release. The entire album sees the band leaning heavily on underground influences like Social Distortion (Start Over, Ghost-Like and Greasy [Revisited]) and Jawbreaker (the whole album has that Blake Schwarzenbach guitar and vocal vibe to it).40 Blocks and Bad Tattoo sees a slight similarity to The Snowdogs and the feeling of The Hold Steady is threaded throughout every track (particularly on the phenomenal Bruce Springsteen cover of Atlantic City). It all adds up for a rough album that is cohesive and complete with a sense that this band actually knows what they are doing and what they want to do.

While the album isn’t anything you haven’t heard before, it is something you haven’t heard in a while. It’s raw and fresh, sincere and honest, catchy and melodic. It’s a breath of fresh air as it gets you singing along and reliving the good old punk rock days. With a vocalist that combines Schwarzenbach with Mike Ness, crisp drumming and slightly distorted guitars, At Funeral Speed is well crafted, hard hitting punk rock with a wild throw back to the emerging Southern California punk scene from back in the day and it’s an album you want to blast out loud as you drive down the street on a warm summer’s day.

With three albums under their belts, I’m very surprised that Automatic 7 have been flying around under everybody’s radar for so long. Hopefully At Funeral Speed, a decisively edgy album laced with pop sensibilities, will change all that and bring Automatic 7 to the forefront of the punk rock underground.