Controlling the Famous
Automatic City
The Militia Group 

The boys down at The Militia Group were kind enough to send me a copy of Controlling the Famous’ new album Automatic City, and I must say, it’s been tough figuring out how I am going to review it. My first instinct is always to let someone else on the writing staff take care of it, but sometimes those guys go MIA and I am forced to do some writing of my own. That isn’t really too big of a big deal, the real difficulty of reviewing this record is its dual and contradicting nature.

On one hand you have this Militia Group band who is doing something different, mixing a Minus the Bear sound with an almost experimental 90’s alternative rock feel (Long Day), and on the other hand you have a middling record that never quite pushes itself past above average on the music listening meter. I’ve convinced myself that Controlling the Famous deserve praise for thinking outside the emo/melodic rock box, however, whether they have earned more than that depends on how you view Automatic City.

Is it just fun listening or is there a deeper meaning to be extracted from the record? If you take the former stance than Automatic City does it’s job well. The music is diverse enough to allow for multiple listens and a few tracks like Two Sides and Maybe We’re Dead anchor the second half of the record in place. If you are a listener that demands more than entertainment from your music than Controlling the Famous are most likely not your band. They hold too stead fast to their alternative rock sound and if you aren’t up for it, I can see you getting tired of the album by song three.

If anything Automatic City is a good segue out of the generic emo crud and into more diverse and open forms of music- I would have no problem giving this album to a younger cousin or relative in the hopes of helping them expand their tastes. Controlling the Famous utilize their instruments much more than most bands that share the same music scene and I can see the band continuing to improve over the next couple of years; that is if they don’t break up and go the way of most young bands.