Tautologic Release Benefit Single 'That's What I Hear'

Chicago-based art rockers Tautologic will release the soul and funk-driven protest single "That's What I Hear" on Bandcamp on Friday, December 4th, 2020.

"That's What I Hear" will be featured on Tautologic's spring 2021 album, Wheels Fall Off. Written in 2015, the lyrics to "That's What I Hear" inveigh against political corruption and make references to Roman Emperor Nero that resonate eerily with the precarious situation of the United States in late 2020.

The band will donate half (50%) of the proceeds from paid Bandcamp downloads of "That's What I Hear" to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Among other issues, the ACLU has taken up the cause of preserving US citizens' voting rights. While Tautologic does not endorse or otherwise act on behalf of specific candidates, the band's position is that fair elections should remain sacrosanct as a bulwark against tyranny and corruption.

If the proceeds from this fundraising campaign meet or exceed $751 by 11:59pm on December 30th, 2020, members of the band will collectively chip in an additional $751 of their own personal money as a matching donation. The $751 number might seem small, given the enormity of the issue - but it is one dollar more than billionaire president Donald Trump paid in federal income taxes for 2016 and 2017.

Tautologic songwriter Ethan Taylor Sellers was awarded an Individual Artist Support grant from the Illinois Arts Council, for the recording and mixing of Wheels Fall Off, the follow-up to Tautologic's 2018 album Re:Psychle. Re:Psychle received international critical acclaim and radio airplay on 167 stations throughout the US, Canada, and Europe.

Jim DeRogatis of NPR's Sound Opinions radio show called Tautologic's music "an impressively ambitious example of virtuosic musicianship and deft arrangements navigating myriad sounds and styles without ever losing that essential melodic thread or propulsive rock drive."