Resurgent Autolux Shreds Sonic Envelope

My new favorite band is back at last. Which is stellar, considering its criminally underrated debut Future Perfect dropped in 2004 and tied Sleater-Kinney’s deafening The Woods for album of the year. At least in my book. The rest of the world is still sadly sleeping on Autolux. But all that will change in January, when the Los Angeles power trio drops its sophomore stunner Transit Transit. Keep those eardrums open, and read my interview on Wired while you wait.

After six years retooling its sublime noise and handling its tortured business, Los Angeles art-rock trio Autolux is releasing its highly anticipated Transit Transit in January. Now it just has to settle on who’s going to release the full-length, which is finished.

“We’re not signed right now, and all the labels we’re talking to don’t want to put it out in the fourth quarter,” explained titanium-enhanced drummer Carla Azar. Wired.com caught the band on the road to the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, the first stop on Autolux’s national tour. “Decision on a label has been tough for us, because we’ve maintained ownership of our music, and we’ll be giving that up.”

Azar and her wall-of-sound compatriots — guitarist Greg Edwards and bassist Eugene Goreshter, who all share vocal duties, depending on the tune — considered going it alone and creating an independent online label to distribute its flawless 2004 debut Future Perfect and future work. But the time and tech just isn’t right yet.

“We considered it,” Azar admitted, “but that world is still being developed. We’re open to everything, but right now we don’t want to be a record label. It’s just too much work.”

That’s good news for what labels remain after the music industry, already wobbling on creaky knees thanks to the digital age, was severely downsized in the economic meltdown. Although it has only one full-length release to its name, Autolux is still one of the few bands that challenges listeners in accessible, riveting ways. It could be one of the few bands that considers music art at all, interested as it is in shredding sonic envelopes rather than pushing product. Not that it’s easy.

“That envelope gets heavier the older you get,” Azar confessed. “You try to outdo yourself, and at some point you realize that you’ve pushed quite a bit. But then it gets heavier again.”

This article appeared at WIRED