To Chicago! To North Carolina! To Chicago! The path between locales has been a well traveled one for Dave Laney, the creative force behind Chicago's Challenger and Chicago/NC-based Milemarker. Building on both towns' penchant for driving, emotionally-propelled indie rock, Laney returns with Auxes' debut: Sunshine (Laney's first official release since Milemarker's 2005 Ominosity).
Never mind the time gap, Laney has been busy. In 2006, family-related issues prompted his relocation fr... (more)
To Chicago! To North Carolina! To Chicago! The path between locales has been a well traveled one for Dave Laney, the creative force behind Chicago's Challenger and Chicago/NC-based Milemarker. Building on both towns' penchant for driving, emotionally-propelled indie rock, Laney returns with Auxes' debut: Sunshine (Laney's first official release since Milemarker's 2005 Ominosity).
Never mind the time gap, Laney has been busy. In 2006, family-related issues prompted his relocation from the windy city back to NC where he set up a recording studio and began playing with a cross-section of Chapel Hill's most creative musicians (including members of Fin Fang Foom, Bellafea, Eagle Bravo & Sleepytime Trio). When sharing members from other touring bands began to create a musical impasse, Dave began pursuing another angle: Sunshine features Laney playing virtually all of the instruments himself.
Says Laney: "Sunshine wasn't consciously solo-or rather, I didn't set out to make a solo record. The album is the end result of having left an amazing pool of people I'd been playing music with for years (in Chicago) combined with a personal incapacity to not play music while simultaneously having the means and gear to actually record a record. 'Solo' has strange connotations to me. This is a rock record, not a solo record. I just happened to play all the music on this one."
Recorded by Laney and mixed by Brian Paulson (Slint, Archers of Loaf, Wilco, Beck, Dinosaur Jr.) in early 2008. A new all-star line-up is ready to hit the road in support. Though admittedly the climate has shifted dramatically since Laney first hit the road 13 years ago.
He laments, "We used to tour constantly [combined, Milemarker and Challenger played over 1500 shows], and one of the byproducts of that is that you become very cognizant of the resources involved in touring. You're driving around in a very inefficient van, gobbling gas day after day. Then you're selling shirts that were probably made in sweatshops or in other factories that are equally as disenfranchising on a political level. It becomes a sour meal to stomach and leads to internal strife. For me, tour used to be a vehicle of freedom and travel, to be utilized in order to transport what you hope are new ideas, or at least new interpretations of old ones, to people in towns you do not live in. And there is reciprocation in this exchange-you trade ideas and share experiences with these people in hope that we can all grow to become more understanding and better people. Now the luggage that goes along with touring is increasingly more and more on the table, and I think it's irresponsible to dismiss it. That said, Auxes will be touring a lot. It's just that I think it's important to recognize the impact ones life makes on the world, and to think about ways to minimize this impact, or rather to maximize the good elements of the impact."
