The Automatix - Night Rider

The Automatix Night Rider. The kids got this for me (along with a box full of other treasures) because:

A. It looked cool
B. It was sealed
C. I wanted it

All good reasons.

I recently succumbed to peer pressure and subscribed to a streaming service. Yeah, I know. It's an adjustment, especially for me as I'm a tactile Luddite, and although I digitized my CD library a while back (just under a terabyte, and took a while, and I do find I have to re-rip the occasional album, but it's rare), I still have a wall of shame in the basement, coupled with my regenerating album collection - it's sort of a space problem. One my wife reminds me constantly has limitations ... the box is this big, and only this big. Well there's still room.

Although I have had to curb my visits to the store as I found over the last year in particular my funnel was getting to be ridiculously big, and I want to be able to really listen to the stuff I buy. A lesson I never learned in the '80s through the mid '90s when I couldn't keep up, and I was also getting sent stuff to review, which while fun was an obligation. It's a weird thing and the height of personal hubris to think my opinion means anything. I'm just a guy who loves music, and my tastes are just that - my tastes.

If you're still reading, thanks. If you've been here before you know this is just how it goes. I will try and get to the point.

Streaming.

See, back on track. Streaming still feels weird. I mean seriously it's really weird. However, it is the new paradigm and frankly having the world at your fingertips is kind of trippy. The issue is of course, how to curate.

Anyway, to being all the bits back home the reason I even mentioned streaming in the first place is because there are so many artists who are not on the major platforms. Either as a way to resisting the turning tide, protesting how their art is monetized, or there are licensing and publishing restrictions, or more often the label who originally released the album couldn't be bothered, or no longer exists.

In the case of Automatix, they were on MCA right around the time the Irving Azoff purge happened to try and save MCA from bankruptcy. Considering I'd never heard of the band before I found the record, I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb when I say the album probably had no support and disappeared as quickly as it came out, and the band was dropped. The copy I found wasn't remaindered, it was in the same condition it was when it left the pressing plant. 

It really is a shame this hasn't been digitized, as it really does deserve a little love. Unless you manage to find a copy, you'll just have to take my word on this.

I'm putting the horse a bit in front of the cart. The Automatix were a Detroit band. Musically the album was pretty standard for the time, I mean it was 1983, and the smooth rock of a lot of '70s oriented acts moving into more album oriented rock (AOR) and there was more edge, bigger guitars, and louder drums. 

I love that the back cover attributes the guitar solos, as this was always a big draw for me. I still love the mini songs within a song, and this often makes or breaks the whole shebang. 

The Automatix were:

• Bruce Nazarian - Guitar, Lead Vocals, and Solos
• Jerry Q. Jones - Drums, Vocals, and Lead Vocals
• Nolan Mendenhall - Bass and Vocals
• James A. Noel - keyboards
  
• Randall K. Jacobs - Guitar, Vocals and Solos

The songs were a band effort, and vocals were primarily provided by Bruce. There's not a lot of information out there and this would be the band's lone release.

The music is really good, and while it's sort of hard to distinguish their sound from a lot of the other AOR out there, a good song is a good song, and frankly I really like this stuff. The band would blend harder rock within their songs, and then unload a solo. The guitar work was really tasty and wasn't shedding, nor was the tone as overly processed as things were going to get through the '80s. This was just straight rock and roll. I can't say this isn't dated, but to me most of this has a timeless rock quality to it - aside from the occasional keyboard choice that at the time was probably as cool as it got, and now is borderline irritating.

I've gone through this now a few times, and every time a little more stands out. Heck the band was able to seamlessly incorporate new wave elements into their sound. Not to mention the cow bell  on the closing track on side one. It's a lot of fun. I'm on the fence as to whether Night Rider is a lost '80s classic, but it is a buried treasure.

I'm trying to imagine this would have fit for me if I'd found it back in the day. Yeah, this would have been slotted right in there with my Kansas, Foreigner, Toto, April Wine and .38 Special records (I had to stop with the list as it was getting really long).

It is a real shame this isn't available on any of the platforms as I'd love to play this in the car. There's no point in me making a mix take either as I the only cassette player is in the basement with the record player.

I love it when you take a chance on something, and it doesn't disappoint.