Laura Chu Wiens of AurallaurA described the band’s new record as a musical revue.
“I don’t think we could tell the story of our political moment with just one genre, and I find typical leftist music too dirge-y and didactic,” she said. “So we have jazz, latin, some indie folk, rock, even something like a showtune. In any case, this album is lush, with rich vocal harmonies and interlocking woodwind lines, and we try to approach the fear and the fight with some subtlety.”
The new album, “The Critique of Capital: An Engaging Revue,” will be celebrated with a March 26 show at City of Asylum.
“We’re living in late stage capitalism, with a dangerous, unchecked police state and fully governed by corrupt, amoral clowns,” Wiens said. “It’s hard to avoid thinking about this, so I did what I could to give voice to the uncertainty, the defiance, the escapism, and the nostalgia that it provokes. I wanted the album to be a bit tongue in cheek too — with some of the bawdiness and irreverence of the jazz age — and so that’s there as well.
Wiens also called the album “a love story to ephemeral, analog things.”
“The album cover is of my friends and community mugging in a room together,” she said. “We recorded the LGBTQ+ line dance group 412 Step dancing to ‘Oh No Honey’ for its music video. Local artist Melanie Marshall will debut an original ‘crankie’ (hand-cranked, illustrated scroll) to one of the tunes at the City of Asylum.”
Bandleader Greg Lutz recalled a spicy experience while recording the album.
“In 2024, we laid down some of the tracks for ‘The Critique of Capital: An Engaging Revue’ in Baltimore, in a gorgeous recording studio about a tenth of a mile from the McCormick plant, where they process spices,” Lutz said. “Our bass player — who lived nearby — said that every time he let his dog into the yard, she would come back smelling of cumin.”
The latest single, “Oh No Honey,” was influenced by a workplace experience from Wiens’ past.
“I used to work as the hostess in a buffet in a West Virginia casino, and the casino told us that we had to greet guests with a particular sequence of niceties or we would be disciplined, “she said. “It was so demeaning — the idea that me and my coworkers weren’t naturally warm and gracious — and if you know West Virginians, you know they are so hospitable by nature. That experience became a little vignette in our gospel song that illustrates how capitalism tries to diminish us.
The verse in ‘Oh No Honey’ goes:
‘And these ‘how y’all todays’ you’ve always done before,
they’re trying to tell you what you’ve always been doing it for.
As if your smile were something new
Four stars on your monthly review
Oh no honey, you’re not someone they learned you to do.
And we say no no no
We say no no no
Oh no honey you’re not someone they learned you to do.’”
While the band will be celebrating the new album, Lutz said the release show offers a new experience.
“Studio recordings are about presenting the ‘template’ vision of a song, where every note is exactly as the composer intended it,” he said. “Live performances are spontaneous and unexpected: in fact, you’re hired to play the song a little differently each time. It’s exciting to play with other musicians and collectively reach for ‘the new’ — to color outside the lines — and create something that moments ago didn’t exist.”
Wiens shared her philosophy on live shows as well.
“On stage, at every moment, you are confronted with a choice: You can be a follower, chasing the tail of the song and trying to mimic a good performance, or you can commandeer it,” she said. “We jazz musicians are storytellers, even with the standards. We can caress the lyrics, play coy or be brash, play it straight or navigate an unlikely melody through the changes. With live music, we have the pleasure and the responsibility of making those choices in dialogue with the audience, as well as with one another.”
Wiens and Lutz lauded City of Asylum for its live performances.
“The City of Asylum is a treasure for Pittsburgh,” Wiens said. “It’s a refuge for writers in exile, a bookstore, and they treat jazz and world musicians — and our audiences — with reverence. It’s incredible that they have so much music and literature programming, all of which is free to attend.”
Wiens, with some help from Lutz, filled in TribLive on what else we should know about AurallaurA:
Band: AurallaurA
Band members: Laura Chu Wiens (composer, vocalist); Greg Lutz (bandleader/arranger, keys, woodwinds); Jeffrey Leonhardt (guitar); Justin Brown (bass); Jay Constable (drums)
Founding story: I had quietly written my own music on and off for decades but hadn’t ever planned to play them live. Then sometime in 2021, Greg Lutz subbed as the keys player with the band I’ve sung with for the last decade, RML Jazz.
Greg is the kind of jazz musician that makes you shake your head and laugh, awestruck, when he solos — he’s just an incredible musician, and the piano is something like his fourth-best instrument. It’s pretty rude how much talent the universe has allocated to just one man.
But I was taken by his ear, and I asked him if he’d be willing to collaborate on arranging some of my original tunes — thankfully, he was game. So, since 2022, I’ve entrusted Greg with some wild musical ideas, and he renders them intelligible for some of our friends — luminaries like Justin Brown, Jeff Leonhardt and Jay Constable — to allow us to perform together live.
Origin of band’s name: I’ve had the moniker “AurallaurA” since the early aughts, when all of us had the run of the internet for our personal brands. It’s cool, of course, that it’s almost a palindrome, but the idea of being “aural” — a listener — really spoke to me. At the time, I thought I was going to pursue a career in community radio. I wanted to elevate the stories of everyday people, catching the cadence of their speech, that revelatory moment when they voice aloud something they didn’t know about themselves. Then I moved on to labor organizing and then community organizing, and the nickname still seemed so apt. As an organizer, you’re listening for people’s dreams, drawing out their relationships with their coworkers and their neighbors and finding the common thread that can bring them together.
Now, with music. I’m still AurallaurA. It just took me a longer time to realize that all these years I’ve been listening for my own voice too.
For fans of: If you’re looking for a HUGE landscape of styles and influences, blended with intricately woven lyrics, all to serve up a message that’s powerful, poignant and pertinent to today’s troubles, then AurallaurA is just who you’re seeking. (Lutz)
Influences: Jacob Collier, Lila Downs, Bjork, Joanna Newsom, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Esperanza Spalding, Gilbert and Sullivan
Releases: “Exetastes” album, 2024; “She Goes for Blue” EP, 2024
Next shows: The band will launch the album with a show on March 26 at City of Asylum. Wiens is also out on the regular singing with RML Jazz.
How to find them: The band can be found on their website, Bandcamp and Facebook.
Three other Pittsburgh area bands to check out: ShowPony, The Turpentiners, Pittsburgh Banjo Club
Favorite pizza shop: Pizza Hut, the Book-It program
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