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Artist
Automatic Pilot
12+ albums
about
Automatic Pilot was a San Francisco, California band. Created in 1980 by members of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, they were described by The Advocate as "a non-official offshoot" of SFGMC along with three official subgroups. Automatic Pilot soon came into their own as an independent force, creating a niche at the fringe of the nascent gay musical movement and a new musical style. They achieved notoriety early on with songs such as "Sit On My Face" and "Killer Purses" performed at benefits for the SFGMC, Theatre Rhinoceros, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. They derived their name from psychiatric testimony at Dan White's trial for killing Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. The ensemble consisted of up to four part vocals led by Matthew McQueen, backed by pianist Karl Brown, with violin, flute/sax, and a string bassist and drummer from the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band. With an acoustic parody of punk rock as a starting point, writers Brown and McQueen incorporated elements of jazz, classical, theater and the avant-garde into somewhat twisted song structures that are both interesting and accessible. Their sound, dubbed "erotic jazz wave" has been compared to cartoon music, klezmer, and Frank Zappa. Automatic Pilot anticipated the queercore bands by a decade. The post-punk genre fits best due to the time period, punk influence and experimental bent. Automatic Pilot continued to perform in San Francisco at various venues including the Cast
top songs
1
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - Composed Or Made Famous By: The Smiths
2202Sit On My Face
1333There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Smiths Cover)
1234Say Mongoose
765Dream A Lot
756Killer Purses
717Are You In Love?
618What Jail Is Like - Composed Or Made Famous By: Afghan Whigs
539Safe Livin' in Dangerous Times
5210Clone Butt
52
