Automatic was a melodic hardcore band that emerged from the Louisville, Kentucky scene in the 1990s. The group was fronted by Matt Weider, the former guitarist for New Jersey straight edge band Mouthpiece. Although their discography included several EPs, Automatic never released a proper album before disbanding.
Tomorrow (August 30th) Indecision Records will release The limits of controla discography that includes all of Automatic’s original material as well as some tracks that never made it onto other releases.
“I think the idea for what became Automatic actually came about in 1994,” Matt Weider tells No Echo a few days before the new collection’s release. “When I was living on the east coast and playing in Mouthpiece, I met (drummer) Thommy (Browne) on an early internet hardcore bulletin board or something. I ended up visiting and we discovered that we shared a mutual love for pretty much anything melodic that was even remotely related to hardcore.
The Louisville resident continues, “When I moved here in 1996, we decided to record a demo of some of my ideas. Those are the songs that ended up being the first 7” on Capsule Records. A lot of Automatic just happened and we worked out the details later.
“I remember Vince from Capsule agreeing to do the record before he’d even heard the songs, and if you look at that first record, Ryan and Evan Patterson are listed as band members, even though I gave them those records when we first rehearsed with them. Ryan has been a permanent member since that day, and it’s great because he’s one of the few people I’ve met who can naturally play this kind of stuff in a way that sounds ‘right’ to my ears.”
The self-titled debut EP was released on Capsule in 1997, so No Echo was curious about the state of the punk community in Louisville at the time. “The scene was pretty strong back then,” Matt says today. “I mean, Louisville always had (and still has) a strong and diverse scene, but I think we were a bit of an odd band back then.”
“We played a DC/Southern California inspired kind of melodic hardcore and a lot of what was happening here had either a Midwestern emo vibe or more Hatebreed, Earth Crisis, etc. Plus the At the Drive-In thing was just starting. Other than that, I never had much to complain about when it came to Louisville hardcore. It’s a pretty special place.”
With The limits of control is out tomorrow on Indecision Records. Dave Mandel from the label sent us a stream of the track “Paradise Cafe” which our readers can browse below:
“‘Paradise Cafe’ is one of those songs from the lost 2014 LP sessions. Our bassist Will Allard actually found a hard drive of files in a box in his attic when we were discussing this release with Indecision. The music was recorded in 2014, but I did the vocals recently. As for the song itself, it’s me writing in 2024 from the perspective of my 2006 self about mistakes I made in 1998,” laughs the singer.
If you look behind the scenes, you’ll notice that there were large gaps between the recording dates of some of the tracks on the new anthology. “Automatic has always been a side project for everyone in the band, so it just happens when there’s time and motivation,” explains Matt.
“In 2010/11 we met and played a few shows and decided to record a new song. A few years later we recorded the music for a full album, but I never contributed vocals to it. Basically it just comes down to the fact that it’s fun to play this kind of music.”
With so many other hardcore bands playing reunion shows these days, can we expect Automatic to follow suit?
“Well, there are more songs recorded that need to be finished and we’ve talked about possibly doing another 7″ of them. Honestly, with the way Automatic works, pretty much anything is possible. If anyone wants us to play a show or make a record, they should just ask.”
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The limits of control will be limited to a single edition of only 250 copies on vinyl and is can now be ordered via Indecision Records. All vinyl copies purchased on this website include a free download. The album will also be available in all streaming stores tomorrow.
Tagged with: automatically, by the grace of God, mouthpiece
