Ghiță left the band, and was later replaced by Paul Ballo (Go to Berlin). Automatic (2008-2009) On May 28, in Fire Club, the band released their first studio material, an EP called Automatic with four songs. They also released their first video, for the song "Petrolize All Mice". Following this release, The Amsterdams played at the Europa Vox Festival, in France and then went to London for a gig in the Dublin Castle Club. The EP was promoted in the United Kingdom, gaining some favorable reviews. "Suffering And Surfing" and "Petrolize All Mice" were played on several minor radio stations, like Cambridge University Radio and at BBC6 Music. In summer 2008, the band was invited to several festivals, such as Peninsula, B'Estfest and Stufstock, this time on the main stage, with Apocalyptica and Air Traffic. Meanwhile, Stoica rejoined the band, replacing Ballo. At the end of February 2009, the band opened the series of live concerts broadcast on MTV Romania's official website, a project destined to promote local alternative music. In April, The Amsterdams performed an unplugged gig at the local radio station ProFM, including some songs from their first album. The radio station subsequently invited them to play during its sixteenth anniversary. Adolessons (2009-2010) On May 22, 2009, The Amsterdams released their first studio album, called Adolessons. The release gig took place at The Silver Church Club in Bucharest, with Doru Trăscău (AB4, The Mono Jacks), Dan Olaru and Alex Ghiță (Rain District) as guests. The band performed the new songs from the album and some old songs. The album was produced, distributed and edited by the band, under their own label, Post Pop Records. It was recorded at the Studio ISV, mixed by Alex Dragomir at Raza Studio and mastered by Christian Mike Sugar at CSM-Lab Bucharest. Andrei Hațegan explained the title in an interview: The band also filmed and released a video for the first single, "Chased by the Housewives". It was directed by Anamaria Lazarovici and first shown on MTV Romania's official website. The singer, Hațegan, explained this choice by stating "We chose to make a video for this song because we like it a lot, it has less than four minutes, so it can be aired on TV without any problems, and, least but not last, because we were forced to do so." while bassist Augustin Nicolae specified "We thought that it's the kind of