Augustana (band)

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Augustana
Background information
Origin	San Diego, California, USA
Genre(s)	Rock Piano rock
Years active	2003-present
Label(s)	Epic Records
Members
Dan Layus Chris Sachtleben Jared Palomar Justin South

Augustana is a rock band that was originally formed when its first members met at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois. Dan Layus and Josiah Rosen had found some success with their music, so they decided to quit school and move to Los Angeles with the hope of becoming a professional band. Then-bassist Simeon Lorhmann decided to stay and finish school, after which he joined the band Pennington.

The new group was officially formed in California in 2004. Their first major-label album, All the Stars and Boulevards, was produced by Epic Records and catapulted them into the spotlight. The band is perhaps best known for their single, Boston, the music video for which features the lead singer on a beach full of pianos. As of March 2007 the album has sold approximately 204,000 copies in the United States ^[1]

Augustana's contemplative, melodic sound is characterized by numerous piano lines and the breathy vocals of frontman Layus. Josiah Rosen left the band in April of 2006 and is currently awaiting the release of his first solo record, "A Memoir," under the name The Last Almanac.

They have been featured on numerous tours with artists such as Switchfoot, The Fray, Counting Crows, Snow Patrol, The Damnwells, Goo Goo Dolls, Acceptance, and Cartel. They are also renowned for their headlining shows which have seen them play to sold out club audiences nationwide.

At the beginning of 2007 the band embarked on their second headlining theatre tour, supported by Vega 4. Recently their debut major label album has shot to the top of the Billboards Heatseekers Chart due to the surging success of the single "Boston" which was also used on the 5th season Scrubs episode "His Story III". The band is planning to release a new album before 2008. They had been working on the material and sampling it at live shows.

1 Band members
2 Former Members
3 Discography
4 External links

[edit] Band members

Dan Layus: vocals, guitar, piano
Jared Palomar: bass guitar, vocals
Justin South: drums, percussion
Chris Sachtleben: guitar, mandolin
John Vincent: keyboards, vocals

[edit] Former Members

Kyle Baker: drums, percussion
Simeon Lohrmann: bass guitar
Josiah Rosen: guitar, mandolin, vocals
David Lamoureaux: keyboards, vocals

[edit] Discography

Album Information
Midwest Skies and Sleepless Mondays Released: early 2003 First full-length Augustana album distributed at shows in the Midwest and Southern California. Produced & Engineered by Jon King Only 1000 copies were produced.
Mayfield EP Released: Fall 2003 This was a CD that Augustana produced themselves and distributed at shows in the Midwest. Only 25 copies were produced.
All the Stars and Boulevards Released: September 6, 2005 Chart positions: #1 Billboard Top Heatseekers, #96 Billboard Top 200, reached #6 on KROQ's most requested list. Singles: Stars and Boulevards, Boston
All the Stars and Boulevards (re-release) Released: September 12, 2006 This re-release of "All the Stars and Boulevards" was announced through the band's MySpace page and made available exclusively at Best Buy stores. It was also available on the Best Buy website, where it was sold out by the following day. The new features on this re-release are: a re-mixed version of "Wasteland", a new track named "Marie", acoustic versions of "Boston" and "Stars and Boulevards", and music videos for "Boston" and "Stars and Boulevards".

Year	Title	Chart positions
Year	Title	Billboard Hot 100	Billboard Pop 100	Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks	Hot Digital Songs	Top 40 Mainstream
2006	"Boston"	#34	#31	#10	#22	#30	All the Stars and Boulevards
2007	"Stars and Boulevards"	-	-	-	-	-	All the Stars and Boulevards