Augie March

Augie March originated during 1996 in Melbourne, Australia, among three college classmates: guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Glenn Richards, guitarist Adam Donovan, and drummer David Williams. Though the trio had spent their earlier years together in Shepparton, Victoria, Australia, it was only after reconnecting as students that Richards, who was majoring in English, started composing songs and asked his friends to join him. Donovan and Williams, both enrolled in music studies, brought in bassist Edmond Ammendola, a school acquaintance, to round out the initial four-piece. They promptly began shaping arrangements and adopted the group name from Saul Bellow’s 1954 novel The Adventures of Augie March, whose intricate, lyrical prose aligned with Richards’ own vivid and inventive approach to words.

The quartet soon drew attention from Ra Records, which issued the EP Thanks for the Memes in early 1998. They followed with a second EP, Waltz; the single “Asleep in Perfection” generated enough notice that BMG Australia offered a contract. After signing, the band started work on a debut album and expanded to five members by adding keyboardist Rob Dawson. Sunset Studies appeared in mid-2000, earning strong critical and audience response while remaining on the Australian charts well into 2001 amid continuous live performances.

Dawson died in a car accident on January 2, 2001, barely a year after joining. The surviving members withdrew to process the loss inside an empty telephone-company building, where they began composing material for the next record. Keyboardist Kiernan Box was enlisted, and the sessions produced Strange Bird, issued in Australia in 2002 and released stateside by SpinArt in 2004. Following extensive touring, the group turned to its third album, Moo, You Bloody Choir. When the planned 2005 release was postponed, Richards assembled several lo-fi tracks issued independently as G.A. Richards & the Satanic Mills Bros. under the title Closed Off, Cold & Bitter: Life as a Can of Beer. Moo, You Bloody Choir finally reached Australian stores in 2006; Jive/Zomba brought the album to the United States in summer 2007.