Autogramm

Autogramm, synth-driven power-poppers from Seattle, Chicago and Vancouver, have just announced their latest LP Music That Humans Can Play with an advance single and video for the track “Plastic Punx”. Their first album in over two years will be released on vinyl and digital formats world-wide on November 17th via Stomp Records (and Beluga Records EU). They continue the band’s tradition of crafting new wave gems with a power pop twist. Drawing on influences from the likes of The Cars, The Go-Go's, Gary Numan, 20/20, and Devo, Autogramm have delivered an album a decisively cohesive album that will fit in easily to the 80’s section of your record collection, with songs so well-crafted they probably deserve to be on the soundtrack of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Music That Humans Can Play explores a myriad of lyrical themes ranging from hilarious to tragic. 

The new album, Music That Humans Can Play, was written while Autogramm ultimately reconsidered their future as a band in the time of the global pandemic. Tours were thwarted a second and third time, and being separated between Vancouver and Chicago left the band feeling deflated and on the brink of disbanding indefinitely. It wasn’t until Jiffy Marx decided he no longer wanted to hold down the multiple roles of singer, keyboardist, and guitarist that they found the spark which reignited their engines. Enter Lars Von Seattle, legendary guitarist of Sub Pop’s late 90s-early 00s teenage heartthrobs, The Catheters. Lars rekindled his long-standing friendship with the members of Autogramm during a 2018 co-headlining tour with his other band, Seattle’s Bread & Butter. The idea to bring Lars on board as their dedicated guitarist meant adding another city to the band’s long distance relationship, but it defines the sound of their new album. Keyboardist/Singer Jiffy Marx reflected on the situation at the time by saying, “It seemed like right up to the day we started recording this album it might never happen, but not even being divided by an international border (during a global pandemic!) could get in our way, and I think we can all say we are glad it didn’t. Like the song says, we’re all Plastic Punx. Not hardcore punks, anarcho punks, gutter punks, or squeegee punks, but Plastic Punx. The kinda punks that don’t give a fuck, especially about how much money we’re getting at the show–  as long as the venue isn’t too far from the hotel, and the hotel is close to the skatepark and/or the beach.”

Autogramm has a long standing connection to the art, punk, and skateboarding communities world-wide. Since their inception, Autogramm has performed throughout Canada, Mexico, the US, the UK, and Europe in notable venues such as London’s Lexington, Berlin’s Wild At Heart, and San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill. Autogramm has graced the pages of international press like Under the Radar, Louder Than War and Exclaim! Their last album No Rules climbed to #3 on CBC Radio 3, and charted for five months at college radio in both the US and Canada. The single “Mantra” also saw rotation on SXM’s The Verge, Rodney on the Rock, and Little Steven’s Underground Garage. The band members are: Jiffy Marx of Brooklyn’s Hard Drugs, Vancouver’s Night Court, and Blood Meridian; CC Voltage of Berlin’s Dysnea Boys, London’s Loyalties, and Vancouver’s Black Halos and Spitfires; Lars Von Seattle of Bread & Butter and The Catheters; The Silo of Vancouver’s Black Mountain, Lightning Dust, Destroyer and more recently, Chicago’s Spun Out. Music That Humans Can Play was recorded in Vancouver BC during the heatwave of August 2022. Somehow, between visits to the beach, barbecues, and a newborn baby, the band laid down ten tracks at two sweaty studios on Vancouver’s Eastside. The result is a blissfully cool album with music that will appeal to all listeners, from record store snobs, garage rock slobs, and even synth-pop heartthrobs!