Recording At Atlas
August 25th, 2008|10:11am.

So we've finally locked down dates for our next recording.  We'll be going into Atlas Studios the 3rd weekend of September and  we're really excited about this.  We get to work with an amazing producer/engineer at a fantastic studio that has put out albums by some of our favorite bands.  The last project out of Atlas was Less Than Jake's most recent record GNV FLA.  Matt Allison (our producer/engineer) has worked on a ton of amazing records (like Alkaline Trio's Goddamnit & From Here To Infirmary & the aforementioned LTJ album, just to name a few).

This is going to be an amazing experience for us and a chance to put out a great product.  We're working really hard to get our songs ready for this session.  We'll keep you up to date on all the fun studio details as they unfold.  We're really hoping to get these songs out and available by the end of September/begining of October.

Dave
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To Second Dave...
August 20th, 2008|2:01pm.

I mean sure we steal stuff. But it's only little funny things like half a cone that we found or the face plate from a light off a Bakers Square that wasn't open when it SHOULD have been. Little things that don't matter and are more funny to tell about later. To think about someone reaching into our merch mox with the intent of stealing money is aggravating to say the least.

Again it's out our stupid faults for just leaving it unattended. Money is probably the most enticing thing for the local criminal to take. But we're just some local band who makes next to nothing at each show and we were going to use what little we had saved to take a little chunk out of the recording bill next month. Sigh.

I'm done whining now, we just need to learn from this mistake to make sure it doesn't happen again. We decided it wasn't the worst thing that can get stolen. Off the top of my head, just throwing out an idea, my bass could be taken and then I'd be out something much worse then money.

DAMN KIDS! I mean.... come out and support us!

Josh
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It's Only Money
August 18th, 2008|1:55pm.

So, last night we played a show at North Beach in Downers Grove.  It was a fine little Sunday night show, we played well and met some cool kids in other bands.  All was going well until we checked on our merch bin (which we had foolishly left unattended during our set).  At some point while we were on stage somebody went through our stuff and stole all of the money in our band fund.

Yes. This sucks.  Who would steal cash from local bands who hardly make anything from the door at shows?

It's our own damn fault for leaving it unattended and for even bringing it all to every show.  We just weren't thinking when we left to set up on stage.  I guess all we have to do now is learn from our mistake and work on building up our band fund again.  If you want to help out, come to our shows, come say "hi" to us and pick up some merch or go to our online store and pick something up.

Dave
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The Shirts Are Here!
August 12th, 2008|4:59pm.

Wooo!  Our shirts just came in today and they look great!  We'll be selling them for $10 at shows and I'll get them listed up on our store tonight.

Dave
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The Local Show
August 9th, 2008|10:12am.

Last night we played a show at Xtreme Wheels in Crystal Lake (formerly Crystal Wheels, a place that my twin brother used to work when he was in high school). We agreed to the play the show pretty late in the week and are grateful for everyone who did come out.

It turned out to be such a local show. We expected it would be, which is why we agreed to play it. It's close to home, with some bands we respected, might meet some new kids that live in the same town as us that might like our band--we figured it would be an easy, fun show. And it was.

The problem with local shows (by which I mean shows that aren't at a real venue, but are slapped together by the local kids) is that they sometimes have bad luck. As it turned out, the guys running the show (who had their shit together), had ran into some difficulties. They lost one sound board (I think it literally started smoking?) and their back up didn't have enough channels to mic the drums. Our set was pretty sloppy for lots of reasons, but I think one was because we couldn't hear each other. But we walked into the show expecting such and still found a way to have a good time.

I think this was the American Autumn's first "local show." It was the first show we didn't play at a bar or venue (I think...), which is weird because each of us growing up were part of the local music scene in a big way it was important to us and, playing a show at a roller rink last night reminded me how much I missed local shows.

See, in high school, we used to find whatever show was happening nearby and attend, regardless of the bands. It might have been at the Warp Skatepark or the Just For Fun Roller Rink...there were even a few weeks we attended Bacci's, a pizzaria in McHenry that housed shows at the time. It didn't really matter who was playing. We were there having fun.

The same kids were there every weekend...the crowd from Marian, the crowd from Crystal Lake, the crowd from McHenry and Island Lake, the skinheads (from wherever they were from...Woodstock I think...), and us kids from Cary and FRG. And the same bands played almost every night: Caboose, I Know Mike Neumann, Preston, Lockjaw, Delusive, Campsite 20, A Single Teardrop, Meghan Wants Moore, Hello Bert (and later Autobomb), bands that never became anything and were never even that good, really. Eventually, there was even a message board set up so we could all chat with each other throughout the week, when we were in different towns at different schools.

Being part of the local scene was fun...there was no pressure to do anything but dance and enjoy the bands and maybe hit up Around the Clock afterwards. We also sort of became friends and fans of one another. To say it was magical would be a stretch, but it certainly felt like we were part of something that no one else could lay claim to.

Now that I'm almost ten years past that part of my life (seriously...that's fucked up), it's funny that I still sometimes run into kids I'd hang out with at the Warp, usually at shows in the city (the Fireside when it was there, the old Bottom Lounge when it was there, more often than not at the Metro). It doesn't happen that often anymore, but every once in a while, when it does, we chat like we were old friends, like we went through something special together.

Even though in my mind it seemed to have lasted the duration of my whole childhood, that scene really only existed for a couple of years until we all left for college or the city. I'm not sure if scenes like this exist anymore, at least in McHenry County, you know? But last night, it felt like we were there again, kind of, if only because there was barely a PA, we were playing at a roller rink, and there were kids that seemed to have shown up not because they were fans of the band, but because there was a show going on and nothing else to do.

Dane
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Shirts!
August 1st, 2008|9:53am.

Ok! So, we've finalized the design for our shirts and I'm getting them ordered right now.  Dane did a great job with this! Here's the design we decided on...



(For those of you who don't know, that handsome devil is Dane's pug, Bug.  He's awesome!)

We should have these shirts for sale on our store and at shows very soon.

Also! We just put a demo version of North and Damen on our MySpace and on the player on this site.  You should probably check it out.

Dave
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Making Headway On Shirts & Recording
July 29th, 2008|10:52pm.

So I just talked with Gravity Studios today.  It sounds like we're going to be able to get in there early September.  I'm really excited to be working with these guys.  They have a great client list and their engineers have worked with some great artists.  We still need to work out the details but things are coming together with this.

As for shirts... we've found a printer, Brunetto Shirts.  They do the shirts for a few webcomics I read.  Dane has been doing some great designs, and I've been a big pain in his ass by being a total perfectionist about the them.  We'll post the design as soon we get it finalized.  Hopefully we'll have them soon.

Dave
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Thoughts on Design
July 19th, 2008|10:47am.

We played a show on Tuesday...a "big" show in our minds because it was at a venue we wanted to impress and with bands that we respect as musicians and individuals. It was sort of a hectic day all in all and it didn't slow down until after we had all of our gear set up on stage and we had sound checked. 

It was around that time that I was able to pause and look at the little merch corner the Clearwater had...Now, I don't go to the Clearwater on a regular basis, so perhaps its not surprising that it was the most merch I had ever seen offered at that venue. Shirts and bags and CDs and everything that could be printed on, hanging from racks adorned with Christmas lights... it made our little pile of stickers and pins look pathetic. 

(Sidebar: We've been working on getting new merch... No band I've ever been in has gotten past the sticker/pin/CD in a sleeve phase of merch, so this is an exciting process.) 

Something I noticed about this impressive array of merch, though, was that (not all but) some of the bands had uncomfortably similar design sense. Lots of neon colors. Some "distressed" text. Victorian imagry. Scribbles. Silly cartoon animals. Stuff like that.

I've thought a lot lately about how bands present themselves visually (especially bands that fit into the same genre we wit into). My conclusion is that it sort of bugs me.

Now, of course my problem isn't with these bands (of course, of course), but go into a store that sells band tee-shirts...you won't be surprised to see that all of the shirts, album artwork, wristbands, whatever, are extremely similar in design. There's a handful of trends: the "old, weird things" look (example), the "hey remember the 80's/90's?" kitschy look (example and example),  the "dark but not goth" look (example), the "it came from a high school girl's notebook" (example and example), and, my least favorite, the "we lifted this from Napoleon Dynamite" look (example).

Actually, it's sort of like a game; go to Hot Topic and count how many shirts fit in each category (bonus points for shirts that fit two categories!).  

Now, guys, I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a snob about a lot of things. Also, I'm not going to pretend that my own graphic design skillz are still developing. But merch design has gotten predictable (or maybe fashion has gotten predictable and bands are just catering to that...) and, at least to me, a little obnoxious.

I've always been a bit OCD about the visual image of things with which I'm involved, and the American Autumn is no exception. As a band, we've talked a lot about not fitting into the "punk-influenced alterna-rock" cliche neither musically nor visually.  And I'm glad I'm in a band where everyone is on the same page--we don't really want our shirts to look like every other shirt. Pretty punk-rock, huh?

I'll stop rambling, I guess. I don't think that, by resisting these cliches, the American Autumn is going to revolutionize the world with their hot jams and novel image (in fact, I think not subscribing to the cliches might hinder us a bit...). I guess it would just make me uncomfortable to put out a tee-shirt with a phonograph spewing all sorts of neon scribbles and skulls saying, in some very Napoleon Dynamite-esque font, "More American Autumn Plz!!1!1".

Hopefully, this comes through when we are able to stack some tee-shirts on the merch table next to our pathetic, but deliberately designed stack of stickers and pins.

Dane
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Great Show Last Night!
July 16th, 2008|10:49am.

Well, after much anticipation this Clearwater show managed to exceed expectations!  We had a blast, met some cool new people, and got to play with some great bands. What more could you ask for?!

I told Lexi and Laura that I'd say hi, so... hi!  Thanks for bringing all your friends!

I want to thank EVERYBODY that came out to this show!  I know we pushed it pretty hard and it really paid off!  You have no idea how much it means to us to see everybody in the crowd when we're playing!  We had a great time talking to everybody after the set.  If anybody has any pictures from the show (either of us playing or pictures we took with you after the set) send them to us and we'll post them somewhere.

Also, Dear Chris's Eileen,  I was unable to wash the permanent marker off my arm before work this morning, so it still reads "Hamms the squirrel".  Good work!

Now, moving forward!  The recording we were doing just didn't all turn out the way we were hoping so what we're going to do is mix down a few songs (North and Damen & Ghost Town) and put them up on our MySpace and the player on this site, just so we can get some new music out to you guys.  I'm not sure if they'll be available for download or not... we'll see.   Then we're going to go into the studio and record songs for a 3 track EP (probably still called Stereoscopic) and we'll be selling that digitally.  We're still in the process of looking for the right studio, but I want to get this recorded as soon as we can!

Dave
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Back In The Saddle
July 8th, 2008|10:37am.

Well, Dane got back from his honeymoon this week so we finally get to go back to practicing!  W00t!  I'm really looking forward to these shows we've got coming up.  Obviously, July 15th is going to be a blast and we're starting too book up the rest of the summer, too.

We've hit some snags with Stereoscopic and I'm not sure if we'll have it ready to sell by our first few upcoming shows.  More on that when we've got things figured out.  I'm really looking forward to selling an EP through a digital only medium.  I think it just makes a lot of sense and will be a fun way to get our music out to you guys.  I promise we'll get some new music up (even if it's not for sale/download) some time VERY soon!

If I were to start writing blog posts sort of explaing what some of the songs we have are really about (at least the ones I wrote lyrics for), would that interest anybody?  Maybe?  I might do it anyways...  We'll see...

Dave
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