Ghostbusters(?) Live!
August 29th, 2010|10:51pm.

At our most recent show at Ronny's (which was totally rad!) Chris's main squeeze, Eileen, got a video of us doing some of our new songs.  Being the industrious technophile I am, I posted one of them tonight.  The song is called Death Is But A Door, Time Is But A Window (which, as you may or may not know, is a quote from Ghostbusters).  Check it out here:

Dave
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Do You Like Me? Yes/No/Maybe Reviewed On Absolute Punk
August 19th, 2010|10:51am.

So after submitting to a number of websites and magazines shortly after releasing the record, we finally got a review from a larger publication.  A review for our recent record was posted on Absolute Punk yesterday and it was pretty cool to hear some legitimate feedback about our music.

While the reviewer did has some critiques, I thought the review was well thought out and he seemed to see a lot of potential in our music.  We want to keep making better and better music and it's feedback like this that really helps us.  Our newer songs feel like and excellent step forward and it's feedback like this that makes me confident that we're on the right track as a band.

Wanna hear some of these new songs?  Come see us at some of our upcoming shows!  We're playing at Ronny's in Chicago tomorrow night.  It should be a blast!

Dave
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Updates To The Website and MySpace
August 5th, 2010|10:29am.

Sam and Brandon have been in the band long enough, it seems that our web presence should reflect that, I suppose, so last night I made a few updates to parts of the website to make sure that they were included, as well as updating the music section to reflect our currently available records.

Despite my continued abhorrence of it, I guess it's important that we keep our MySpace page up to date, so I finally swapped out some pictures, updated the "members" section, and slyly added a banner link to my new webcomic.

So, check out the updated stuff.  All this web work means these guys are here to stay (because it sucks changing graphics all the time!). ALSO!  We've been working on some new designs for merch, which we should have ready for some of our upcoming shows! Check it!

Dave
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We Are Lifeguards Show
July 27th, 2010|12:14pm.

So last weekend we played a benefit show for We Are Lifeguards (which also raised money for Matthew Leone ).  It was a fun show, for a great cause, and we met a bunch of cool people there.  This was the first show we played, introducing keyboards to our set.  I've added some piano/keys parts to a few of our old songs and we debuted a new song that I play entirely on piano.  It was really fun to introduce some new stuff, though I now have to carry A LOT of gear for both my guitar and keyboard setups.

Things are really feeling good with the new lineup and we can't wait to play more shows this summer.  Don't forget, we're still trying to give away Pass It On (in whatever form you want it) and, if you don't own it already, you should probably buy Do You Like Me? Yes/No/Maybe!

Dave
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Hey, A Video Blog! Remember These?
July 20th, 2010|12:24am.

We finally got around to doing another video blog.  Here you can meet Sam and Brandon and hear all about our show this Friday, July 23rd in Tinley Park to support We Are Lifeguards.  Check it out:

Dave
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First Show Back
June 22nd, 2010|11:06am.

So this weekend we had our first show with the new lineup and it went great!  It was a fun little show at a community center.   The other bands were pretty cool and Ex Oh Productions seems to run a tight ship.  It felt really good to be playing live again (it had been about 6 months for us).  Sam and Brandon were great.  Everything just felt natural.  It's just really good to be back playing in front of people again.  We've got a few more shows confirmed, one in July and another in August, and we're starting to try to book up a few more dates in between those, as well.

We still have a few more old songs to learn, but we're going to be writing some new material pretty soon, which is always fun.  I'm excited to see where everything is going with the band.  Fun times ahead, fun times.

Also, if you don't already follow us on Twitter, you probably should.  We've been doing a lot better at posting and talking to people there! Check us out @americanautumn.

Dave
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Practice of Champions
May 24th, 2010|10:50pm.

So last week we weren't able to have practice, but I was already in town, so Chris, Josh, and I went to Buffalo Wild Wing. For wings.  After we had finished eating a woman from the restaurant came around asking if any of us would like to join in a wing eating contest. 5 wings, fastest to finish.  After some halfhearted protesting, I agreed to compete (despite already being pretty full).   I always seem to get caught up in these things.

It turns out that the only other competitors they could find were 4 high school girls.  I was a little worried that it would be pretty emasculating to get beaten in a wing eating contest by high school girls so when I stepped up to the table to compete (beer in one hand, tub of ranch in the other) I brought my "A game".

I didn't so much compete in a wing eating contest as I put on a clinic for these young women on how to eat wings like a champion.  I won.  By a large margin.  There was ranch everywhere.  All in all, it was a pretty successful band practice.  Chris filmed it.  Enjoy:

Dave
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Tweeting Your FaceSpace
May 13th, 2010|4:40pm.

When we first started this band we used MySpace a lot to start getting our name out there.  It was just a given that MySpace was the means of promoting your band on the web.  I think that we were/are in the minority of bands by hosting our own "real" website (because I'm a huge nerd and I insist on it!).  I really don't like MySpace, I think it's a filthy wasteland of the internet, but it really has helped us out a lot in terms of connecting with fans, so I can't be too mad at it.

Recently, with the resurgence of the band, I've been back in the mood to promote and reconnect with fans who may have forgotten about us in our absence.  I've noticed that MySpace seems a little more barren than usual and I get the impression that a lot of people have moved on to things like Twitter and Facebook.  Obviously this has been the case for a long time in terms of social networks, but in a lot of ways MySpace was still clinging on as a means of promoting music.  I'm really happy to see more bands and fans moving away from MySpace to better platforms.  The American Autumn will always have a "real" website (and will probably always have a MySpace... I did spend a LONG time redesigning ours a when the record came out), but I'm more than happy to connect with fans (new and old) on things like Facebook and Twitter.  I'm also a big fan of last.fm and I would like to see more people use that, it's a great tool/site/community.

If MySpace is your poison, so be be it.  Come visit us and we'll be happy to talk to you there.  But, personally, I really hope to see more people connecting with us (and other bands) through different means.  I would love to see MySpace drift off the way of Friendster.

So am I right in feeling that people are trying to move away from MySpace more, even for their music?  Are there any means of connecting with people that you wish we were using?  Let us know and we'll see you 'round the interwebs.

Dave
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The American Autumn II: Secret of the Ooze
May 6th, 2010|5:15pm.

So, we've gotten back into a steady practice habit with the new line up and I'm happy to say that everything is going really well!  Sam and Brandon are fitting in perfectly while helping us grow our sound.  We are still mainly focusing on learning songs off of Do You Like Me? Yes/No/Maybe but we will be starting to write new material VERY soon.  I'm having a lot of fun expanding our current songs with the new instrumentation.  There's really some parts that work so well on piano/keyboards.

At this rate we should be starting to play shows again by mid June.  I'm really excited to get back on stage again, playing in front of people.  I've just really missed it so much over the last few months.

Shameless promotion: We update our Twitter account more than we update this blog so be sure to follow us @americanautum on Twitter!

Dave
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Back In The Saddle
April 20th, 2010|11:00am.

So, it's been about 2 months since our last update.  Disheartening? Yes.  But, I have good news!  We are making real headway in getting back on our feet!  Unfortunately, things just didn't come together with Brian and James due to busy schedules, so we've been looking for new members over the past few months.  Things finally came together recently with a blast from the past.

A few years ago Josh, Chris, and I started a short lived and ill-conceived project/band called Semiself.  It never really went anywhere but for a while we had a friend of ours named Sam (who I'm convinced should be named Luke, but that's neither here nor there) playing bass.  Semiself faded quietly into the night and Sam went off to play in other bands.  While talking to Sam recently about our shortage of members we cooked up a scheme to fill out the band and still keep the musical and instrumental growth we were so excited about with James and Brian.

So here's the deal; Sam and a rhythmically inclined friend of his, Brandon are joining The American Autumn.  Brandon is taking over on drums and Sam is moving in on bass.  This pushes Josh over to guitar giving us the guitar, guitar, guitar/keys line up we had been talking about before.  We had our first practice with this setup last night and things just felt great.  It was amazing to get back to playing again and everybody seemed to click right away.  I have a really good feeling about this set up and playing keys along with these songs is really adding a new dynamic for me.

Here is the current state of The American Autumn:

Chris - vocals/guitar
Dave - guitar/keys (vocals)
Josh - guitar/vocals
Sam - bass (vocals)
Brandon - drums

Look for big things from us soon!  We're still looking to really push Do You Like Me? Yes/No/Maybe really hard as well as getting started on some new material.  This is really a great opportunity to rework some of our old material that we really love and to push our sound forward.  I'm excited about where we're at right now and it feels really good to be playing again after a painfully long hiatus.

Dave
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next show

recent blog posts

• Ghostbusters(?) Live! by Dave
• Do You Like Me? Yes/No/Maybe Reviewed On Absolute Punk by Dave
• Updates To The Website and MySpace by Dave
• We Are Lifeguards Show by Dave
• Hey, A Video Blog! Remember These? by Dave