Kick The Robot

In the music of Kick the Robot, hook-heavy alt-rock gets shot through with bright harmonies, blistering guitar riffs, and a fantastically bold sensibility. On their upcoming album Black Magic Radio Static, the Lawrenceville, Georgia-based trio back that flash and swagger with razor-sharp songcraft that gives new depth to the band’s self-described breed of “arena garage rock.” And as shown on songs like the stomping lead single “Supermassive Automatic,” Kick the Robot’s triple-vocal attack and powerful melodies make for some truly transcendent rock & roll.

Black Magic Radio Static arrives as the follow-up to Kick the Robot’s full-length debut Music to Fight the Future, a 2013 release praised by Backstage Beat for offering “a fine, organic sound that harkens back to the genre’s bright days in the ‘90s.” Building off that sound with a heightened emotional intensity, Black Magic Radio Static fully harnesses the energy of Kick the Robot’s frenetic live show (recently revealed on their tour with Collective Soul).

Forming Kick the Robot in their teens, drummer Dylan Hansen, bassist Dan Remel, and guitarist Jesse Scarpone founded the band with a vision of returning raw passion to rock music. After putting out their debut EP in 2009, the trio began playing locally, eventually triumphing at Atlanta’s Hard Rock Rising batte-of-the-bands contest in 2012 and—in 2015—winning Best Local Rock Act in Creative Loafing’s “Best of Atlanta” issue.

With their name signifying a revolt against soullessness in modern music, Kick the Robot are driven by a shared desire to make music that defies expectation. “What we love about rock & roll is that it can be so loud and brash and trashy, but still have these great melodies and so much substance,” notes Remel. “It goes against every idea of what music’s supposed to be like—but it still just feels so good.”