Jon Auer

by Laurel GreenidgeJon Auer is co-founder of one of the most critically acclaimed power pop bands of the '90s, the Posies, formed in Bellingham, WA, with Ken Stringfellow. The two created a demo tape in Auer's parents' basement and sent it to PopLlama Records in Seattle; the tape was well received and they released it as their first album, Failure. They signed with David Geffen's DGC label and released three albums that were revered by music critics but went unnoticed by the general public. Upset that the Posies weren't selling as well as DGC's other Seattle-based bands, the label dropped them after the release of their third album, Amazing Disgrace. The Posies went on to release a final LP, Success, on PopLlama Records, before they broke up in 1998. Both Auer and Stringfellow joined Alex Chilton's Big Star in the early '90s and have toured off and on with them as well.
Auer moved on to several different projects after the end of the Posies. He released his first solo EP, The Perfect Size, and began to play in two Seattle bands, Lucky Me (who toured with the Posies before they broke up) and Jeanjacket Shotgun (formed with Posies bassist Joe Skyward). Auer and Stringfellow released a post-Posies EP, Nice Cheekbones and a Ph.D., in March 2001, and joined up for a sometimes acoustic re-formed Posies tour the same year. Auer released his second solo EP, a collection of cover songs called 6 1/2, in 2001. Jeanjacket Shotgun released their first album the same year.
In 2005, The Posies released Every Kind of Light, the band's first full-length studio album since disbanding in the late '90s. Interestingly, that same year Chilton released In Space his first album under the Big Star name since reforming the group with Auer and Stringfellow. A year later, Auer also released his first full-length solo studio effort Songs From the Year Of Our Demise.