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.^[1] 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. Nickname: Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California Coordinates: , Country United States of America State California City-County San Francisco Founded 1776 Government  - Mayor Gavin Newsom Area  - City  47 sq mi (122 km²)  - Land  46. ... www. ... The Advocate (ISSN 0001-8996) is a US-based LGBT-related biweekly news magazine. ...

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^[2] at Dan White's trial for killing Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. The Golden Years Theatre Rhinoceros was founded in the spring of 1977 by Lanny Baugniet (who became the theater’s General Manager) and his partner Allan B. Estes, Jr. ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... In jurisprudence, Twinkie defense is a derogatory label for a criminal defendants claims that some unusual biological factor entered into the causes or motives of the alleged crime, and that due to this biological factor, either they should not be held criminally liable for actions which broke the law... Dan White during his 1977 campaign for Supervisor. ... Mayor Moscone George Richard Moscone (November 24, 1929 – November 27, 1978) was the mayor of San Francisco, California from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. ... For Harvey Milk High School Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978), an American politician and gay rights activist, was the first openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California. ...

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. There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

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. Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... Klezmer (from Yiddish כּלי־זמיר, etymologically from Hebrew kli zemer כלי זמר, musical instrument) is a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism. ... Frank Vincent Zappa[1] (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, musician, and film director. ... Queercore is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid 1980s as an offshoot of punk. ... Post punk generally refers to the particularly fertile and creative period following the initial punk rock explosion. During the first wave of punk, roughly spanning 1976-1983, bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Ramones and The Damned began to challenge the current styles and conventions of rock...

Automatic Pilot continued to perform in San Francisco at various venues including the Castro Street Fair, the On Broadway Theater and the Valencia Rose gay performance space, venturing as far as the Chute II Bar in Reno.

Automatic Pilot was covered regularly by local media including the San Francisco Chronicle.^[3][4] The Bay Area Reporter published four full length articles on the band between 1982 and 1985.^[5][6][7][8] Their music was featured on regional radio shows including KPFA's Fruit Punch. Nationally, they appeared in the New York Native^[9] and The Advocate, which singled them out along with the band Orquestra Sabrosita as vibrant independent artists in contrast to "the financial concerns and artistic reserve of the larger gay cultural institutions" of San Francisco in 1982.^[10] They were played on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento radio show. Todays San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. ... Bay Area Reporter is a weekly newspaper which has the San Francisco LGBT community as its primary audience. ... KPFA KPFA (94. ... Dr. Demento (born April 2, 1941 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is the stage name of Barret Eugene Hansen [1], who has made a successful career as a radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs and pop music parodies. ...

In 1983, vocalist Tony Kramedas set out to produce an album for major label release. These recordings, done over time as budget permitted, had a more electric 80's sound with guitars, synthesizers and drum machines. The project came to a halt when Kramedas became ill; he died in 1985, as have several other band members. During Automatic Pilot's final months, Brown and McQueen became involved in writing and performing music for the original 1984 Theatre Rhinoceros production of The AIDS Show. The AIDS Show is a collaboratively written theater piece about AIDS, and a documentary video about the making of the stage show. ...

The master tapes sat on a shelf until 2002 when the Automatic Pilot website was launched, with many complete recordings in mp3 and ogg format of live performances and studio works, and a detailed history. The site also features music from The AIDS Show and newly rediscovered video (in both H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and MPEG-1 format) from Automatic Pilot's December 1982 performance at the Valencia Rose. The CDs were released in 2005. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is an audio encoding format. ... Ogg is an open standard for a free container format for digital multimedia, unrestricted by software patents and designed for efficient streaming and manipulation. ... H.264 is a standard for video compression. ... MPEG-1 defines a group of Audio and Video (AV) coding and compression standards agreed upon by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). ...

Discography

• Back from the Dead (Studio works from 1981 to 1985 )
• Live On Broadway (Recorded at San Francisco's On Broadway Theater, Sept. 1, 1982)

See also

• Autopilot

An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. ...

External links

• Automatic Pilot website

References

1. ^ Guthman, Edward: "Merry Musicmakers from Coast to Coast". The Advocate, March 5, 1981
2. ^ San Francisco Chronicle, May 10, 1979
3. ^ "Satiric-Erotic New-Wave Band", page 61. San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 1982. (Blurb presented as a short article, not a calendar listing)
4. ^ Guthman, Edward: "AIDS and the Arts: How the Bay Area Has Been Hit", page 22. San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 1986 (On the death of Automatic Pilot singer Tony Kramedas)
5. ^ De Gracia, Jerry:"Automatic Pilot Soars Into Uncharted Territory" page 32. Bay Area Reporter, April 1, 1982
6. ^ "Which Wave?" page 19. Bay Area Reporter, September 30, 1982
7. ^ Keane, Peter: "Automatic Pilot Slips Into Cruise Control" page 28. Bay Area Reporter, February 17, 1983
8. ^ Sugar, Jon: "Karl Brown: A Crackling Thunderbolt in the Darkest of Skies " page 22-30. Bay Area Reporter, November 14, 1985 (Interview is mainly about Automatic Pilot)
9. ^ "San Francisco," page 57. New York Native, April 11-24, 1983 (uncredited performance photo; correction published page 55, April 25 - May 8, 1983)
10. ^ Thompson, Mark: "1982 Reviewed: The Promise and Problems of Gay Culture Spotlighted in San Francisco", pages 51-58. The Advocate, January 20, 1983