Augustine

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Joe Florio/ The Courier - The guy-girl musical duo “Augustine” plays a variety of songs in an acoustic set in Scotland Yard. The two met in St. Augustine, Fla.

“We’re professionals” quips Jordan Meredith, bending to get her dropped pick. “Yeah” says Louis Johnson laughing, “Uh, now she’s going to play a song. Oh, and I’m going to play it with her.” These were the kind of exchanges that introduced the members of the duo “Augustine” to their crowd in Scotland Yard last night.

Johnson and Meredith (best known for their roles on the TV show “My Life as Liz”) added a touch of folk to the Coffeehouse Series run by ASAP. Aside from their folk originals and creative covers, the two managed to keep the crowd highly entertained with their pithy banter and hilarious stories from their lives — one life story on Meredith’s childhood ambition to be a thug even led to a comical rendition of Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” that had the crowd laughing immediately.

What really made the show though were the incredible originals like “Heartbeat”, which show off the powerful vocals of both singers. Oh, and getting to stand between Johnson and Meredith and pretending I was in an episode of “My Life as Liz” didn’t exactly make the night any worse. In short, if you don’t have their music — get it. You’ll enjoy it.

Megan Zaubi
Copy Editor - The Courier May 21, 2012

h - m

On Saturday evening, students flooded front row seats chanting “Second encore!” and filled Marty’s with applause for the visiting musical duo Augustine.

I watched the group laugh and repeatedly thank the audience, promising they would be signing autographs later, and thought to myself, “Wow, Augustine can really connect with an audience.”

Performers Louis Michael Johnson and Jordan Meredith played original music and covers, intermixed with witty banter and comedy. Augustine finally left the stage against audience wishes after an already lengthened set.

A healthy dose of pop culture references, comments on it being member Jordan’s 24th birthday, and sarcasm peppered the stripped-down acoustic set and blurred the line between artist and audience.

As the set ended, I walked over to the duo and saw Louis, age 21, hurriedly put away his guitar while Jordan talked to a group of students, smiling and reiterating how nice everyone at Luther was.

Suddenly, Louis popped in front of me, saying loud and bold, “Hi! I’m Louis! Who are you?” with a lopsided grin crossing his face.

I realized the group’s animated personalities are as much a part of their nature as their act.

As we sat discussing favorite artists, albums and genres, I couldn’t help but notice the two finished each other’s sentences more often than they finished their own.

Getting down to business, I asked them to describe their latest album.

Louis, digging into the birthday cake provided by SAC, paused for a moment and said, “MTV described it as Owl City meets the Postal Service, which is close ...”

“... yeah, close, but definitely doesn’t hit on it. It’s a lot more electronic than our acoustic set tonight, but still has a very mellow, cool vibe to it. Not techno-y by any means ...” Jordan said.

“... yeah, no techno, but it definitely has songs that are fun to dance and move to!” Louis said.

“It’s definitely better than our first album,” Jordan said, and the duo exchanged a laugh.

The conversation moved between their tour and their concept of being singer/songwriters in general.

“Our songwriting shows through more without the bells and whistles,” Louis said. “When you have an acoustic guitar and you’re just playing the song [you’re] able to play one note an entire song and let the lyrics carry the tune instead.”

“We have fun making electronic sounds because it’s easy and people just love it,” Jordan added.

Eventually, the conversation flowed to the band’s history together.

“We’ve been together since the beginning of 2008,” Jordan said. “We just kept on running into each other at parties and ended up playing music together one night. The rest is history.”

“I saw a guitar on the floor and asked the group who played and Jordan was the one who said, ‘I do!’ Later, she invited me to play a show she booked at a local bar, and we’ve been writing and playing ever since,” Louis said.

“Then we decided to move to New York, and that’s when we really started getting serious about playing,” Jordan said.

After chatting about useful properties of Tiger Blood as well as the group’s current favorite artists, which include David Ramirez, Bon Iver and Mumford and Sons, the interview ended on an old but important life question.

What would you eat as your last meal on earth?

“I want to say buffalo chicken sandwich, but I’m afraid I’d get heartburn ...” Louis said.

“... ‘cause heartburn would matter if you’re dead,” Jordan said.

“Oh. Wait. I think I’d have Thanksgiving dinner then. Right?” Louis said.

“Yeah, I’d have a spicy tuna roll. I love sushi,” Jordan said.

“Right,” Louis said, laughing.

After spending time with Augustine, I agreed with my earlier assessment. Not only do Louis Michael Jordan and Jordan Meredith have a lively stage presence and talent, but they are both personable and witty, making Augustine a band to remember.
- Lutherchips (Luther College Newspaper)

http://oldcitylife.com/2011/03/516/ - Old City Life

See link - www.lovetwenty.com

Dreyfoos graduate becomes dreamy MTV reality star
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By Leslie Gray Streeter | Music, TV | April 13, 2011

Attention, viewers of MTV’s reality-esque series My Life as Liz: The role of dreamy singer/songwriter Louis Johnson will be played by dreamy singer/songwriter Louis Johnson.
While it’s hard to describe exactly what “Liz” is – part reality, part sitcom, part documentary – it’s not hard to describe the impact that the show’s exposure has given Johnson, a Wellington native and Dreyfoos School of the Arts graduate.
Since he began appearing on the show’s second season a few months ago, he and singing partner Jordan Meredith, known collectively as Augustine, have had their music showcased on the show.
And now they have a presence on MTV.com, which last week premiered the video of their song, Heartbeats. On YouTube and various websites, Augustine, especially Louis, is garnering plenty of attention from girls.
“Why am I in love with Louis and this song?” one YouTube commenter asked, while another declared “I LOVE LOUIS … and Jordan’s cool too.”
A relatively low-key sort, Johnson is taking this all in stride.
“I haven’t been recognized in person very many times, so it’s just people commenting and Tweeting about me, so it’s not as real,” says the 22-year-old. “I don’t feel like they’re really talking about me, like ‘OK, this kid is so hot, blah blah blah blah.’ … I’m not a Beatle. I can still walk outside and no one knows who I am, although there are probably several little girls across the country who would die if I walked into their house.”
While not the pop culture phenomenon that Teen Mom or Jersey Shore has become, My Life as Liz (Tuesdays, 11 p.m.) has garnered a cult following in its two seasons on MTV. Sort of a hybrid of early ’90s fictional drama My So-Called Life and quasi-reality series like The Hills and Laguna Beach, it follows the adventures of Kool-Aid red-haired alterna-girl Liz Lee, who in the current season has moved from her native Texas to New York City, where she studies art at the Pratt Institute, and goes through typical young-adult hijinks like fitting in and housing trouble.
She also, predictably, has boy troubles, flipping between her trucker hat-wearing high school boyfriend and a new friend, a dreamy singer/songwriter named Louis.
On the show, they meet cute. Liz is looking for something she’s dropped in a Dumpster, and he pulls her out.
This isn’t Johnson’s first taste of the spotlight. Several years ago, he and three friends made a splash as the band Odd Man Out, playing a local show that boasted Bruce Springsteen as an audience member. They also did an episode of Live With Regis and Kelly and a set at New York’s now shuttered club CBGB.
After graduation, he attended St. Augustine’s Flagler College, where he met up with Meredith and formed their band, named after their college’s town. After some success locally, they packed up their guitars and moved to NYC, where they began looking for connections and where Johnson appeared as an extra on television shows.
But it was a chance meeting in New York with the crew from My Life as Liz that really paid off. So far, the cameras have captured him flirting with Liz, having her temporarily move in with him and Jordan (which does not go well), and performing as a singing cowboy as tiny children tackle him.
“It seems like there’s so much drama about ‘Is it real or isn’t it?’ Who really cares,” Johnson says. “I’m really me, Liz is really Liz, we really know each other and it did happen how it happened.”
Johnson says he’s not sure whether the show will be renewed for a third season, but says that he’s enjoyed the experience and the exposure, while staying close to home – he and Jordan are based in St. Augustine while not touring.
“I love every new fan, more for the sake of the music than for personal vanity. I love that all these girls think I’m cute or whatever. I don’t know. I guess it comes with the territory. As long as they like the music.”
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Boys, boys, boys. Here at CollegeCandy, we love them. A lot. And being that we have a lot of time on our hands to search for them on the web, we thought we’d use it to our advantage and yours and bring you a little eye candy that not only makes us drool but also tugs at our heartstrings. So here’s your chance to meet some of the most talented guys in the world…who rock. Like, for real. (They’re musicians, people.)

Name: Louis Johnson
Age: 21
Location: Wellington, FL
Type of Music: Indie/Acoustic
Why He Rocks: Watching Louis on My Life as Liz is pretty great, but getting to talk to him is so much better. He’s hilarious. You can find out for yourself because, lucky for you, he’s on tour right now with his band, Augustine!

How long have you been singing and playing the guitar?
I’ve been singing for my whole life. My dad’s a musician so he got me into it early. I started playing drums when I was 6… I was beating on whatever I could. Then I got a Ludwig kid set and then I kept playing drums until I was about 13 and then I started playing guitar so I could play in this band in high school called Odd Man Out. I really have been doing it my whole life.

Where are you from?
I’m from Wellington, Florida, which is a suburb of West Palm Beach. I definitely can’t complain; the beaches were perfect all the time. I spent a lot of my time there going skin boarding, where you put the little board down on the sand and then surf the waves in.

Was it always a dream of yours to turn your talent into a career?
When I was really young I wanted to be a baseball player, but other than that, I always wanted to be a musician. It has always been my dream. My dad has always supported me kind of doing what he set out to do when he was younger. He ended up becoming a lawyer and had his law degree before he even went into music, but I’m trying to start early and do what I want first and see what happens from there.

How did Augustine come about?
Well, I started going to college in St. Augustine where Jordan is from and I kind of just went up there for freshman year of college and ended up meeting Jordan through friends. I showed up at a taco night at one of her friend’s houses and she was there and had her guitar and all of our friends were doing their thing and we ended up just sitting there the whole night playing guitar together. Then everything just fell into place. We really liked each other’s songs and music, and kind of started writing and playing together around town.

Is there more behind the name of the band besides the city you two started playing in?
We actually didn’t want to name ourselves Augustine. We were like “no, no, no, that’s too obvious,” but we kept coming back to it. We were going through thesauruses and music dictionaries trying to figure out what a good name for us would be, but didn’t get any good ones. Then we were going to be on this show, not My Life as Liz but another one that ended up not happening, and they said we needed a band name. And we were like “crap, crap, crap… Augustine!” We just kept coming back to it and it ended up sticking and we really like it now. It was one of those things where when we were living in St. Augustine, we were, like, thinking everyone was going to be like, “Augustine…cool,” but I mean, if you’re not from St. Augustine you wouldn’t think about it like that.

Now some questions with the ladies of CollegeCandy in mind…

What qualities must a girl have for you to date her?
Individuality. That’s definitely the most important thing. I hate it when a girl is too exactly like all other girls and not doing anything for herself on her own. That’s pretty much the biggest one. I mean as far as looks go, I never date a girl that looks like a girl that I’ve dated before. I guess I don’t really have a type in looks, but I go for someone who’s nice. And honesty is also a big thing… Someone who can be real with you all the time.

Where would you take a girl on a date if cost wasn’t an issue?
Anything I want? Then I’d fly somewhere! If cost isn’t an issue, I’m goin’ to the source! If you like Indian food, we’re going to India. If you like French cuisine, we’re going to France. Paris. You know what I mean? We’re going on a date.

What’s your most embarrassing moment?
Embarrassing moments for me? I’m just so cool… ya know? I just don’t ever embarrass myself. Okay, that’s not true at all. I mean, an embarrassing thing that probably happens to everyone is when you’re posing for a picture and it’s on camera mode. Happens to me all the time.

But one time I was at a show and we were at a Christian school… and I didn’t know it was a Christian school. We were talking about Twitter and Jordan (the other member of Augustine) was like, “Do you tweet or do you twat?” The school just went silent and we were like, “what?” and since it was a Christian school, they were like “not cool…” And then somebody was trying to hit on her from the crowd and she wa - University of IA , College Candy, (Student News Paper)

These wonderful photos by Jack Jeffries/MTV!
- MTV.COM

This review from MTV - MTV

Here are some older reviews...as Augustine is too new for reviews

Here are two reviews from Louis' earlier work. First, from New York City's Village Voice. Second, is the New Times Magazine of Florida.


April 13, 2004 Village Voice

Puberty Rocks, Even Ask Mom

Florida young´uns prove punk-pop isn´t just for old people
Odd Man Out
CB´s Gallery
April 10
No one in Odd Man Out is older than 16, and on Saturday they played 45 minutes of originals with a look and sound that some idiot marketing exec would probably call "Hanson With an Edge!"really, though, it was more like a living, breathing "Green Day: The Early Years," from lead singer Louis Johnson´s sinusy voice to the way Mike Huber attacked his cymbals with sticks as long as his torso (he´s maybe five feet tall). The kid´s got a let´s-call-it-flexible sense of rhythm totally befitting someone who´s currently on the business end of the puberty bat, but with the help of Kyle Krakow (fro´d-out bassist) and Mike´s brother Matthew (taciturn guitar), he pulled off some pretty advanced hooks.
"15 Minutes" was angsty, "Average Guy" merry punk, and that kind of reggae-sounding beat in "Used to Know" is called ska, boys and girls. Plus, the acoustic "Evermore" was an interesting Jackopierce change of pace (sooo high school: "Trying to avoid you/ when walking down the hall"). Their smashup of "Barbara Ann" and Jet´s "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" was freakin´ ambitious?and damn close to perfect.
In town for one night only before returning home to open for Cyndi Lauper, the West Palm Beach teens and South Florida Battle of the Band champions filled CB´s Gallery to the rafters: Sisters pogoed alongside the stage, perma-tanned dads shouted "Rock the house!!" and moms manned video cameras in the balcony. A group of college-age aggro guys started screaming and throwing signs of the devil about two-thirds of the way through the set; they might have been mocking the boys, but what-ever. Odd Man Out just smiled blissfully under their moppy bangs, because this was CBGB, dude, and it was packed, and that´s what rock ´n´ roll is all about. And when Louis yelled, "Thank You New York!!" you had to grin, too, because you know he´s wanted to say that his whole life?all 15 years of it. He gave me a T-shirt after the show and, OMG, can I just tell you? I´m, like, totally crushing right now. WHITNEY PASTOREK


- The Village Voice