Before co-founding the Walkmen, Bauer was one of the founding members of the Recoys, an independent band from Boston that began in 1996. When the Recoys split up in 1999, both Bauer and bandmate Hamilton Leithauser went on to form the Walkmen with some players from the also recently disbanded Jonathan Fire*Eater. Bauer played bass and organ in the Walkmen for 14 years before they went on hiatus in 2014, and he quickly set to work completing solo material under his own name.
Bauer's soul-searching solo debut, Liberation!, was issued in 2014 on the Mexican Summer imprint. He followed it in 2017 with Mount Qaf (Divine Love), a collection of broadly defined love songs released by Fortune Tellers/Kobalt. Bauer continued his solo work with 2022's Flowers, an album marked by densely layered production and the kind of thoughtful introspection that was becoming standard for his songwriting. The album was released in September 2022, again with Fortune Tellers. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi