Venus Hour is the second single lifted from Automatic’s upcoming album ‘Excess’. Automatic’s Izzy Glaudini originally wrote “Venus Hour as an ode to “psycho-feminine energy”. The song is “about whatever it is inside you that makes you want to do that thing that isn’t logical, or safe.”
Venus Hour imagines desire as a double-edged sword, an impulse that can result in addiction. Excess rides the imaginary edge where the 1970s underground met the corporate culture of the 1980s – or, as the band puts it, “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream, all for the sake of consumerism.” Though the album grapples with contemporary concerns – the exodus of the super rich from an uninhabitable Earth, the precarity of the art life, Gen Z inheriting the planet at the eleventh hour – the album’s final message is one of solidarity rather than despair.
The Venus Hour video directed by Sylvie Lake also slips between the decades, with each member of the band representing a female character from a different era: 1930s (Izzy), 1960s (Lola) and 1990s (Halle) – all seen through distortion and mirror images. Inspiration came from Thoroughly Modern Millie (Lola), Peewee’s Playhouse on VHS (Halle), and The Tales of Hoffmann (Izzy). The video was shot in iconic Californian locations: Izzy dances with two sculptures at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Lola is shown at Frank Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall in L.A., and Halle walks through the Niki De Saint Phalle sculpture garden. Watch the video clip via YouTube below.
You can also stream Venus Hour here: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp
Automatic will open for IDLES, Parquet Courts and Tame Impala this Spring and play at Cruel World Festival, then will head to Europe for a run of shows including Wide Awake (UK), Primavera Sound (Spain), and Best Kept Secret (NL), before returning to open for Osees in September.
See below for a full list of dates.
Automatic tour dates
US (with IDLES)
Apr 14 CA San Diego SOMA
Apr 19 CO Denver The Mission Ballroom
Apr 20 UT Salt Lake City The Complex
US (with Parquet Courts)
Apr 22 WA Seattle Showbox
Apr 23 BC Vancouver Imperial
Apr 25 OR Portland Crystal Ballroom
Apr 27 CA Oakland Fox
Apr 28 CA Los Angeles Wiltern
US
May 14-15 CA Los Angeles Cruel World Festival
US (with Tame Impala)
May 24 NC Wilmington Live Oak Bank Pavilion
May 26 OH Columbus KEMBA Live! Festival Stage
UK & EUROPE
May 28 UK London Wide Awake
May 29 UK Manchester YES
May 30 UK Leeds Headrow House
May 31 UK Brighton Green Door Store
June 1 FR Lille L’Aéronef
June 2 FR Paris L’international
June 3 FR Angers Levitation
June 4 ES Barcelona Primavera
June 5 ES Barcelona Primavera
June 8 IT Ravenna Beaches Brew
June 9 CH Neuchatel Festineuch
June 10 CH Aarau Kiff
June 11 DE Mannheim Maifeld Derbi
June 12 NL Hilvarenbeek Best Kept Secret
June 13 NL Amsterdam Bitterzoet
June 14 NL Nijmegen Merleyn
June 15 DE Berlin UFO Sound Studios
June 16 DE Koln Bumann & Sohn
June 17 BE Charleroi Fete De La Musique
June 18 NL Den Haag Grauzone
US (with Osees)
Sept 5 San Francisco Chapel
Sept 6 San Francisco Chapel
Sept 7 San Francisco Chapel
Sept 9 Portland Roseland
Sept 10 Seattle Neumos
Sept 11 Seattle Neumos
‘Excess’ track listing
1. New Beginning
2. On The Edge
3. Skyscraper
4. Realms
5. Venus Hour
6. Automation
7. Teen Beat
8. NRG
9. Lucy
10. Turn Away
Pre-order ‘Excess’ on vinyl and deluxe eco-mix vinyl: https://www.stonesthrow.com/store/excess
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