To get a true handle on one band’s slavish attention to detail, start with the sign. It would have been easy for the members of Autogramm to check into the Cecil, Balmoral, or Cobalt and then start filming “No Rules”. Except, that is, for the small fact that none of those landmarks have a giant glowing red “Hotel” sign, which in any event would be nitpicking.

And considering that we live in an era where smoking is supposed to be as bad as driving drunk, shopping maskless at No Frills, and eating six pounds of red meat in a single serving, no one would have passed judgment on Autogramm for using candy Stallions in the video. But the band instead went old school by channelling John Bender’s dad at Christmas.

Who in the hell, meanwhile, phones anyone on a landline in the year 2021?

But when paying tribute, one has to pay attention to the source material, which is exactly what Autogramm does in “No Rules”. So if that means getting creative with the cardboard and red tape and investing in a white suit jacket which will possibly only be worn once, so be it.

The first single and title track off the band’s upcoming sophomore album, “No Rules” finds Autogramm sounding more dirtied up, claustrophobic, and distorted than 2018’s What R U Waiting 4? And who can blame the trio of Jiffy Marx, C.C. Voltage, and the Silo, given the past year has at times seemed like an endlessly looped nightmare on almost every front?

Speaking of nightmares from the past, who likes getting phone calls from guys lounging about in sleazy-looking motels in the middle of the night? And what kind of creeps makes those calls? Don’t they have keyboards to smash the shit out of in Mother Russia? Or Italian restaurants to hang out in?

Those are the only hints you’ll get here as to where Autogramm took their inspiration from for the “No Rules” video. That not enough to go on? Sorry big shot, figure it out for yourself—right after you pass the candy Stallions.