Biography
Jon Auer co-founded the Posies in Bellingham, Washington alongside Ken Stringfellow. The pair assembled a demo in Auer’s parents’ basement and forwarded it to PopLlama Records in Seattle, where the label embraced the recording and issued it as the band’s debut album, Failure. Soon afterward the Posies moved to David Geffen’s DGC imprint and delivered three albums that earned widespread critical praise yet failed to reach mainstream listeners. Frustrated that the group had not matched the commercial performance of DGC’s other Seattle acts, the label ended the contract following the 1996 release of Amazing Disgrace. The Posies then returned to PopLlama for one more album, Success, before disbanding in 1998.
Meanwhile Auer and Stringfellow had joined Alex Chilton’s reconstituted Big Star in 1993, contributing to the group’s recordings throughout the nineties and the following decade. After the Posies split, Auer issued his debut solo EP, The Perfect Size, in 1999 and joined two Seattle outfits—Lucky Me, which had already opened for the Posies, and Jeanjacket Shotgun, assembled with former Posies bassist Joe Skyward. In March 2001 Auer and Stringfellow issued the post-Posies EP Nice Cheekbones and a Ph.D., then reunited for a partly acoustic Posies tour later that year; Auer also released the covers collection 6 1/2 as his second solo EP, while Jeanjacket Shotgun delivered their first full-length album, Collides Again.
The Posies reconvened for the 2005 studio album Every Kind of Light, their first proper long-player since the late-nineties breakup. That same year Chilton issued In Space, the initial Big Star album under the group’s name since the lineup with Auer and Stringfellow had formed. Auer followed with his first solo full-length, Songs from the Year of Our Demise, in 2006, after which the Posies recorded Blood/Candy for a 2010 release. Throughout the 2010s he continued collaborating, appearing on two Brendan Benson albums and launching the project Dynamo Royale with his wife.
Meanwhile Auer and Stringfellow had joined Alex Chilton’s reconstituted Big Star in 1993, contributing to the group’s recordings throughout the nineties and the following decade. After the Posies split, Auer issued his debut solo EP, The Perfect Size, in 1999 and joined two Seattle outfits—Lucky Me, which had already opened for the Posies, and Jeanjacket Shotgun, assembled with former Posies bassist Joe Skyward. In March 2001 Auer and Stringfellow issued the post-Posies EP Nice Cheekbones and a Ph.D., then reunited for a partly acoustic Posies tour later that year; Auer also released the covers collection 6 1/2 as his second solo EP, while Jeanjacket Shotgun delivered their first full-length album, Collides Again.
The Posies reconvened for the 2005 studio album Every Kind of Light, their first proper long-player since the late-nineties breakup. That same year Chilton issued In Space, the initial Big Star album under the group’s name since the lineup with Auer and Stringfellow had formed. Auer followed with his first solo full-length, Songs from the Year of Our Demise, in 2006, after which the Posies recorded Blood/Candy for a 2010 release. Throughout the 2010s he continued collaborating, appearing on two Brendan Benson albums and launching the project Dynamo Royale with his wife.
Albums
Live
