01. Burning Brighter
02. The Things Lovers Do
03. Sunshine
04. Instrumental
05. Radio! Radio!
06. Long Way From Home
07. Cold Day in Hell
08. Greeting Card Perfume
09. A Man And A Sheep And A Cat
10. Happy Days
11. Lookalive
12. Brother
13. Hometowns

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.”

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