Augustana

In the winter of 2004, pianist and singer Dan Layus, guitarist/singer Josiah Rosen, and bassist Jared Palomar left their small Christian college in Greenville, Ill., and formed Augustana. A year later, they made their first recordings at the Atlanta studio of producer Brandon O'Brien, whose resume includes work for Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Those sessions yielded the You'll Disappear EP and were later fashioned into a debut LP, All the Stars and Boulevards, which was eventually released by Epic Records. The positive response to the record was helped by a slew of on-line promotion and non-stop touring.