I happened to meet Jim DeRogatis the other day and happened to have a demo on me (same songs as our profile), so I did the natural thing for a self-promoting musician.  The result was a really nice review, which you can see at
http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2009/05/demo2dero_tautologic.html

or read the highlights below...

"... an impressively ambitious example of virtuosic musicianship and deft arrangements navigating myriad sounds and styles without ever loosing that essential melodic thread or propulsive rock drive."

"... Tautologic is all the more relevant for lyrics that deal not with lamia, slippermen, tales from topographic oceans and the other stuff or progressive-rock lore, but with Ray Davies-style sociological skewerings of "burnout roommates and their psychotic crack-whore girlfriends, tube socks, crazy homeless people, indie hipsters, quasi-terroristic rants against totalitarian utility companies and anything else that entertains and/or irritates."

Demo2Dero: Tautologic

"Hey, Fearless fans, there's a new hip and happenin' place in Chicago for live musical entertainment! Reggie's Music Club is the place to go for good eats and cool music. It was a packed house Saturday night. This evening Southside came out to hear her favorite ambient folk rock band, otherwise known as Tautologic. This band rocked the audience with their unique blend of music genres and their electric violin accompaniment. For this performance they added something new to enhance their opening set. On a backdrop screen behind the band, movie shorts played throughout the set in order to give the audience a deeper feel for the tone of the songs.

Tautologic kicked off their set with The Admiral. SouthSide enjoyed how both the song and video images helped create a very haunting feel. She liked the idea of using video shorts to accompany the songs to convey the songwriter's imagination and mood. For example, during the performance of Loud Shoes the audience was presented with a video of a woman shopping in a store. Other video shorts included images of churches and a cyclist along the bike path for Bike Lock ["On Your Left" is the song title - ed.]. The movie shorts were rather quirky and at times made the audience wonder at the connection between the images and the lyrics of the songs. Some of Tautologic's songs did have its funny moments that made SouthSide laugh or dance along while the band jammed on stage.

What SouthSide liked best about Tautologic's show was their experimentation with different genres. The band kept Reggie's alive with an interesting mix of Irish folk, Island rhythms, and rock music. During Choirboy, this fast paced song was rich with guitar sounds and keyboard melodies. This song included extended guitar solos at the end. While performing On Your Left, Ethan really got into the funky island beat by dancing a little.

It was Tautologic's newest addition that added the right amount of edge and intensity to their music. Emily on the electric violin was an excellent newcomer to the band. She gave their closing song The Whistler a wee bit of Irish folk sound with her electric violin accompaniment. During this particular song as the three guitars performed a video about the whistler was played on the screen. This combination between visuals and sounds added more dimension to their performance for it completely engaged the audience's senses. For more information about Tautologic, visit them at www.tautologic.com or www.myspace.com/tautologic. Until next time, Fearless fans, support your local indie artists."
-SouthSide from Fearless Radio

Southside's photos of the gig are at http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h172/Southside_Chicago/Reggies_17Nov07/

Thanks, SouthSide!

I recently finished mixing our album "Psychle" at Rax Trax, with Rick Barnes at the board and Pat for sanity checking and moral support. The mp3s posted here were given a rough-sketch mastering job at my home studio and aren't the very final versions, but I was excited about how things sounded, so I posted them up for you to hear. Once I pay off the studio bill and get my credit card balance back down, I'll get the whole schmear mastered.

Pat re-recorded the drums to "Loud Shoes" and "The Whistler" at Rax Trax. They were started on my old ProTools set-up, when I had fewer inputs, so there wasn't as much detail on the "top kit." The new versions substantially improve on this. Aaron recorded a new guitar solo for the second half of the outro to "Loud Shoes," to better complement the keyboard solo I composed after his original take.

"On Your Left" is Tautologic's first recording with horns, and features new sax recruit Chris Greene on alto sax, plus Micah Frazier (trumpet), Johnny Showtime (trombone), and Eric Koppa (bari sax). The original version had a Dixieland horn jam over a drum solo, but the track ran a little long. Someday, when the box set comes out, you can hear the extended version.

"Not If But When" is in its 3rd version, having made its debut at the Metro in 2000/2001 for the NeoFuturist benefit "30 Bands in 60 Minutes."

Credits:

The band:

Nathan Britsch - bass
Pat Buzby - drums
Chris Greene - saxes
Ethan Sellers - lead/backing vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar, songs, production
Aaron Weistrop - electric guitars
Jeff Yang - violin, viola

The Tautologic auxiliaries:

Micah Frazier - trumpet
Lillie Jernigan - spoken word
Eric Koppa - baritone saxophone
Nick Photinos - cello
Jen Reddick - flute
Johnny Showtime - trombone
Diana Lawrence - vocals
Jennifer Justice - vocals
Aron Topielski - bass
Michael Maccaferri - clarinets

Thanks to all who helped/worked on these and the other tracks. I'll keep you posted as things progress!

-Ethan

Videos from Psychle are now posted on our MySpace.com page and YouTube.com/tautologic

I wrote, shot, and edited these videos as part of Psychle, a multi-media event staged in 2005 - but was unable to complete the edits until recently. Long story short, I had to do additional recording and mixing for the music audio and shoot additional video footage. There are still a few incomplete videos in the editing and re-shooting phase now, which I plan to complete as soon as time allows.

The actors involved - Gary Dorst (The Whistler), Natasha Jules (Loud Shoes), Dan Garien (On Your Left), Steve Balady (Choirboy), Erika Barbee (Gospel Lady - awaiting additional footage), and Brittany Davis (Loud Shoes, Choirboy) - all turned in fantastic performances for the show, the musical segments, and the interview segments. The interview segments were created via "coached improvisation" in response to questions drawn from the SCID (a standard psych diagnostic questionnaire), and edited for length and impact.

This project could not have been done without the University of Chicago Festival of the Arts 2005 committee for funding; Campbell Reddick, Cre Walls, and Jeff Yang for loaning me their video cameras; the other guys in Tautologic for playing so well in the show and on the recordings; all of the actors (see above); the audience for the original stage performance; and my wonderful girlfriend, Lillie Jernigan for her camera work and support.

I hope you enjoy the videos and pass them on to your friends! I hope to do more projects, so let me know if you're interested in helping out.

-Ethan Sellers

Terrific review of our Subterranean show by Fearless Radio's SouthSide at

http://www.fearlessradio.com/fearless/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1600&Itemid=160

"The first band to kick off this caravan show instantly won this reviewer's heart, Fearless fans.  It was sweet heavenly acoustic music with a wee bit of rock that you could dance an Irish jig to.  Tautologic impressed SouthSide with their mesh of unique sounds that really didn't seem to belong together, but Tautologic proved they could.  Their amazing music had her rockin'.  Violin and acoustic guitar offset the bass and electric to create one incredible sound that would certainly liven up any pub around town especially an Irish one).  This Fearless reviewer totally fell in love with their acoustic/folk rock which has recently exploded once again in the music scene around Chicago.  Tautologic's instrumental songs, as well as their lyrical ones, had some in the audience dancing a silly jig while rocking along with the band.  Though the sax member of the band wasn't in attendance, this band was scheduled to perform again the night following at the House of Blues, this time with their full ensemble.  It was a definitely a welcome change of pace for SouthSide's ears and she enjoyed every minute of their set.  During the middle of a couple of songs, there was a taste of the Emerald Isle from the acoustic and violin.  Then combine the electric and bass, the audience's ears were blown away by this lively folk performance.  Tautologic's music rocked Subterranean down and SouthSide highly recommends that Fearless fans catch their next show.  Check out more info about Tautologic and their music at www.tautologic.com
or www.myspace.com/tautologic."

Thanks, SouthSide!

"Loud Shoes" is Song of the Day on GarageBand.com after only one day of Tautologic's membership and uploading the song.
Go figure.
Thanks for the great reviews that got us there!