California rockers the Ataris are hoping to release the follow-up to their major-label debut So Long, Astoria next fall. The band -- which scored its breakout hit earlier this year with a cover of Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer" -- has written the music to twelve songs so far, and frontman Kris Roe plans to use January and early February to write the lyrics.

"We're really trying hard to get it done by one year from now, maybe October," says bassist Mike Davenport. "We'll probably go in the studio in May."

The Ataris -- Roe, Davenport, guitarist John Collura and drummer Chris Knapp -- are currently touring North America, but they don't have recording gear with them. "They're in our head," Davenport says of the songs, which they've been primarily writing during sound checks. "One sounds really Jimmy Eat World-y and one sounds like Thrice because we were with a lot of heavier bands on Warped Tour this summer."

So Long, Astoria producer/engineer Lou Giordano (Paul Westerberg, Goo Goo Dolls) is expected to be at the board again. Giordano recently recorded the Ataris live at the Metro in Chicago. "It came out so good," says Davenport. "I really hope this is a live record."

Following a late February tour of the U.K., the Ataris will ditch the fancy tour bus and load into a van for gigs in such places as Poland and Russia. "We're going to slog it out and not make money," says Davenport, "because we can."

KAREN BLISS
(November 21, 2003)