November 17, 2021

Autumn(US) Indie Goth Rock/Darkwave

The Hating Tree

Darkwave/Goth Rock from Autumn (US) formed in Minneapolis US in 1994. The US bit in the name I guess to distinguish themselves from a Dutch heavy rock band also called Autumn. Anyway, this track is from the Album 'The Hating Tree' released in 1997 on the Tess Record Label based in California and specializing in darkwave/indie sounds.

Similar To?

The start of the above reminding me a little of The Mission with 'Severina', changing to a dreamy sounding The Cure style (Disintegration era) with Julie Plante's vocals soaring and swooping dramatically above it. A really good track.

They actually remind me a little of a UK based band from the mid-eighties called Fatal Charm who started out as a post-punk band and changed direction to a more alt rock feel catch the song 'Summer Spies' from the album Endangered Species at the link. I know, I know, it is not exactly the same perhaps it is the soaring and dramatic type female vocals idk? Vocalist for Fatal Charm Sarah Simmonds went on to become a singing teacher and also provided backing vocals for Star Wars III, Troy, Shrek 2 as well as backing vocals for Bjork at the 2004 Olympic Games. Anyway caught this band on Radio 1 'In Concert' back in the 80s supporting The Cult. It was the first time I had heard either of them and I was blown away with both bands to be honest. The Cult obviously going onto greater things, but for Fatal Charm although they gained interest from major label RCA they perhaps never quite hit the highs they were capable of, perhaps due to lack of record company support, who knows?

Autumn (US) The Band & Early Releases

They were/are:

Vocals/Piano - Julie Plante
Guitar/Keyboards/Programming - Neil McKay
Bass/Cello - Jeff Leyda

They released their first demo cassette simply entitled 'Autumn' on their own self financed label in 1992 in the US.

Tracklisting is:

Summer's Moss Toss Guilt
Done Willing
A Story Within
Face And Trees
...And Deep Inside

Vocal duties at the time of this release belonged to Renee Perrone.

Seconds...

In 1994 they released a second self-financed cassette, by this time Julie Plante had taken over vocal duties. Catch the really very good dark, brooding and somewhat ethereal track 'Seconds' ,sounding like, if you can imagine a cross between Siouxsie & The Banshess 'Juju' album meets the Cure's 'Pornography' album. Anyway you can have a listen here at the youtube video:

How It Came To Be

Also have a listen to 'How It Came To Be' from the 'Hating Tree' album at the youtube link. The album also contained three of the tracks from their 1994 self-financed cassette release, the tracks being: 'Oceans', 'Seconds' and 'A Waiting Time'.

They seemed to take a break before releasing album 'Return To The Breath' in 2000 and again went on a hiatus before producing their last release which was the album 'Chandelier' on Sett records in 2018. In the same year. I suspect, to promote the album they toured the U.S. and Canada with 4AD goth rock band Clan Of Xymox.