Automatic pilot

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. 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.

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 at Dan White's trial for killing Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

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.

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.

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.

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