11/02/2025
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.
This month's featured track is "Lazy Sundays."
In terms of performances and writing, “Lazy Sundays” has aged better than most of my songs on the album, to my ears.
The lyrics are about that crummy feeling that I tended to have on Sundays - that I just hadn’t done enough to accomplish my life goals and that life was slipping by without progress. I wrote those lyrics in my early twenties. Nearly 30 years later, I still feel that way - even though I’ve ticked-off most of the ambitions listed in the song. The goal post keeps moving, I guess.
Musically, it has a Beatle-y sort of piano feel, with a string section in tow - but the vocal feel owes a lot to Simon and Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound.” I’m proud of the chord progression and the counterpoint on the bridge (Dan Veidlinger on bass, Ken Arai on cello, Kristen Davis Edmundson on viola, Henry Bigelow on violin), in particular.
The production reveals our budget limitations - a real piano would’ve been nice, and I think that some of the gauzy fuzziness is because we had to filter out background noise from our ad hoc recording studio in the basement of Pierce Tower on the University of Chicago campus. I think it was a refrigeration unit for the dining hall upstairs that kicked on periodically without us noticing it.
I remember violist Jen Justice commenting on an early mix that it sounded like Ben Folds. I barely knew who he was, having only heard “Brick” in passing. I came to realize that this was in fact a compliment, having delved into his oeuvre afterwards and become a huge fan.
The chorus sums up a lot for me: “I’m always becoming, never being. Always will be - never am. I want to be something, not just dreaming of Lazy Sundays’ idle plans.”
Still becoming, still dreaming.
Ethan Sellers
from the album West Is North, East Is South
