Augustana met at Greenville College in Illinois, but dropped out and moved west to San Diego in order to focus on their music full-time. With a Britpop-infused alternative rock sound, Augustana have been compared to Train and the Wallflowers.
That makes sense, given that the producer for their debut album, All the Stars and Boulevards, was Brendan O'Brien. O'Brien has produced albums by those two bands, as well as Bruce Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine.
All the Stars and Boulevards features many songs with place-names in the titles, reflecting the amount of time Augustana had spent on the road prior to recording their album for Epic Records. Many of these songs carry emotional weight, and touch on the themes of transition, searching and travel. When recording the album, Augustana created a distinctly organic sound that isn't super-polished; they eschewed perfection for something more real.
Copyright 2006 XPN
