Turtle Down Music

09/01/2026

Tautologic’s debut album, _West Is North, East Is South_, turned 25 in June. We are working on a new album, so we’re a little short on time for retrospective projects - but I (Ethan) did want to share a few thoughts on each track.

Jim’s Home Brew:

The band on the WINEIS version of “Jim’s Home Brew” is fine in a gentle folk-rock-y sort of way. Cellist Ken Arai sounds great on the bridge, with electric guitarist Vince Canter weaving some tasty lines in support. Dan Veidlinger does some great walking stuff on Rickenbacker.

With no shade on my bandmates, I prefer a recording that Tautologic did with a more recent line-up of the band at https://www.reverbnation.com/tautologic/song/3820694-jims-home-brew - mostly because I’d figured out a far better vocal approach by the time of that re-recording. We might even have a better version in us than this one, even. I believe that the trend line is still heading upward for Tautologic as a recording/live unit.

Ethan Sellers

09/01/2026

"We must question power and see through lies
Or watch as we’ve become what we despise
Let's teach this lesson to our daughters and sons
An eye for an eye blinds everyone."

from the album Acoustic Mixes (10-Track Acoustic Re-Mix)

09/01/2026

"We must question power and see through lies
Or watch as we’ve become what we despise
Let's teach this lesson to our daughters and sons
An eye for an eye blinds everyone."

https://logicalfleadh.bandcamp.com/track/the-pile

[Logical Fleadh was a collaboration Tautologic did with Irish/Scottish folk band Character Fleadh. Album is on Turtle Down Music.]

from the album Logical Fleadh (17-Track Album)

07/31/2026

Tautologic's on the move... mark your calendars for these gigs:

Saturday, August 1st 9pm-midnight
Mackey’s Hideout
2601 S River Rd McHenry IL 60051
3-hour gig. No cover. Quartet.

Saturday, September 5th 4-6pm
Lombard Historical Society
23 W Maple, Lombard, IL 60148
Food trucks, all-ages. 2-hour gig. Sextet.
Ticket info to come.

Plus anniversary looks back at West Is North, East Is South (2000) and Wheels Fall Off (2021).

See comments for links....

07/01/2026

Turtle Down Music co-found Ethan Sellers's June 2026 newsletter has a track retrospective for Tautologic's "Rocket Surgery" from their 2021 release, _Wheels Fall Off_.

July 2026 Newsletter - Summer gigs with all my bands and more!

06/30/2026

TAUTOLOGIC’S WHEELS FALL OFF TURNS FIVE!

Tautologic’s Wheels Fall Off was released 5 years ago, this April.

We continue our look back at Wheels Fall Off with the fourth track, "Rocket Surgery."

"Rocket Surgery" was composed in two parts. The faster first section was originally called "Character Fleadh," but got re-titled when I decided to use that as the name for my Celtic band. The second section had a less auspicious name, if any, and originated as a "jam subject" for my former free-improv jazz-rock band Soul Calculus.

As is usually the case, both sections percolated and evolved for a while, getting some early fragmentary, somewhat improvisational, and working versions performed at gigs before settling on the tightly-arranged version on the album.

My intent with "Rocket Surgery" was for the first section to be sort of a synth/violin fanfare cross between Genesis, ELP, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and maybe a bit of Weather Report. I spent a lot of time re-writing and woodshedding those unison (with violinist Emily Albright) and solo synth lines to try to emulate some of my keyboard heroes.

The slow-burn second section calls more on those fusion influences and adds a bit of Pink Floyd influence in terms of what I asked Jay Montana to do on guitar.

06/03/2026

Tautologic June 2026 Newsletter:
- Wheels Fall Off 5th anniversary track review: "Memo to Yourself"
- Gigs at Mackey's Hideout on August 1, Lombard Historical Society on September 5th
[See comments]

06/02/2026

I played early versions of “Memo to Yourself” with the Ethan Sellers Band that had a mellow late 90s alternative feel. When it came time to revisit the song for Tautologic, I decided to reconfigure it with a driving Caribbean groove and ska chorus. I recall telling Chris Greene - saxophonist to make up a solo that sounds like Benny Hill, and he was kind enough to oblige.

“Memo to Yourself” is a reminder to not take it all too seriously. I have to work on that last part, often.

The lyrics have multiple sources of inspiration, including post-gig drives home through Lincoln Park. I learned to drive carefully, as there would often be drunken 20-somethings heedlessly stumbling out into the street after last call.

The other inspiration that stands out to me was an evening in my college dorm bedroom in my junior year at University of Chicago, back in the early 90s. I overheard my neighbor through the wall, sobbing into the phone about how lonely she was. I found this strange since she often seemed somewhat standoffish and unreceptive to conversation. I suppose that I should’ve known at the time that Maroons were long on book smarts and short on social skills. That moment stuck with me long enough to write the song a few years later.

from the album Wheels Fall Off

05/01/2026

Tautologic’s Wheels Fall Off was released 5 years ago, this April.

We continue our look back at Wheels Fall Off with the second track, "That's What I Hear."

I began writing "That's What I Hear" by noodling around on a chord progression that used open/drone strings on an acoustic guitar. I might've started the song during a television commercial break (remember those, before streaming?). I'm pretty sure that I was sitting on the couch in the living room of a house in Hyde Park that several members of Tautologic rented from 1997-2003.

I played guitar on early versions with the Ethan Sellers Band, a folk-rock Tautologic spin-off. When I brought it to Tautologic, I switched to keyboards and the song transformed into something like a more frenetic and funk-rock take on a Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield vibe.

The lyrics always had a protest vibe, but the subject matter changed from version to version, eventually landing on themes of government corruption and declining empire that seem pretty prescient to the present moment in US/world history, if I do say so myself.

-Ethan Sellers

from the album Wheels Fall Off