| swearing at motorists |
BANDLIVESTUDIOWEBSTORE |
from sponic
An evening chat at The Rock & Roll Bed 'n Breakfast.
Dave Doughman calls his Dayton home "The Rock & Roll Bed 'n Breakfast" due to the fact that most any band that passes through this corner of town will crash there after a show. It's a huge yellow house with a wide second-story porch that looks out onto an urban landscape of fences, brick and metal. Your humble editor and his ever-perky colleague, Rob, followed Dave to a second-story room to talk with him about his band, Swearing at Motorists. Swearing at Motorists new lp on Spare Me Records, The Fear of Low Flying Clouds, is a huge step forward for the band in terms of songwriting. Its also another outlet for Dave to release the growing number of songs he pens.
Also slated to show up tonight is Dave's counterpart in the band, Don Thrasher, the rock writer for the Dayton Voice alternative news-weekly and the alumnus of several Dayton bands. Thrasher's s past credits include The New Creatures, Guided By Voices, The Hopefools, and 3 Dream Bag. He is also currently drumming with Dave's roommate's band Johnny Smoke. Busy, busy man.
As the interview begins, Rob and I sit down across from Dave and Tyler Trent, former Brainiac drummer. Don has not yet arrived, but we've all started drinking anyway. Dave holds his drink in the air and eyes it lovingly.
"This is a John Glenn. This was invented by Neil Blender and named by myself. It is Vodka and Tang," he says, "but I'm broke right now so it's Smirnoff." Dave disappears into his room and puts on a Neutral Milk Hotel record. "Who wants a pack of cigarettes?" he yells from his room. He re-enters with several packs of Basics. "These were given to me for free. Swearing at Motorists is sponsored by Basics. I got lights. I wanted full-flavored but they sent lights."
"Are you serious?" Are you serious? I ask incredulously.
"Yeah! Didn't you see, I have a carton. I don't buy cigarettes. We also get Everready batteries, but we get the industrial ones. We don't the bunny ones, we get the black ones."
" And they're in negotiations with Depends undergarments," Tyler adds.
"Yeah, because Don is a little older," Dave says soberly, then cracks into laughter. Someone says something about striking that from the record.
"How did you and Don first meet?" I ask.
"We were doing a recording for this band called The Hopefools and Don was drumming. I got to know him through that. We had seen each other at shows and talked at Bob (Pollard)'s. That was like in '94."
"So that was the genesis of Swearing at Motorists?"
"Well, not really. The whole thing started with me and (Neil) Blender when I first moved here. We were at his house just goofing around, four-tracking stuff everyday, drinking Tang, smoking. Then I moved in here with John (Schmersal) and Tim (Taylor). I had borrowed a four-track and a couple guitars from different people and I started doing my own stuff here. I had the shittiest four track, man. I remember Tim saying 'If you didn't smoke so much pot you could buy a good four-track'."
A short time later, Don enters and takes his rightful place on the couch next to Dave.
Dave leans close to the tape recorder and confidentially states, "Okay, now Tyler is no longer Don. Don is Don. I refresh Don on what he's missed and Dave continues. "Don and I hooked up in spring or early summer of 95. Before then there weren't any Swearing at Motorists songs with drums."
Without warning several people filter upstairs, say hello, and climb out the window onto a porch overlooking the street. I turn back to Dave, a bit dazed.
"It started out as me piecing stuff together in the bedroom, "he explains, exhaling cigarette smoke. " And then Don and I would get together in an afternoon and come up with two or three songs. From there we realized we were putting together a record (Tuesday's Pretzel Night, their first 7".)"
"At that point we thought we should probably play out, but we didn't know how to play the songs. So we had to go back through the tapes and re-learn them. Most of them we couldn't play the way they were on the tape, so we just had to reinvent them. And that's what I think is kinda the cool thing about us live."
"I know the song Bar's Close is different on the 7" than it is live,"I say.
Don leans over the coffee table. "We always want to keep them fresh and make them as good as we can," he remarks, "so we change songs all the time."
More people enter and file onto the porch, saying hello as they pass. "Where did the name come from?" Daves eyes light up. "How 'bout I show you?" He runs to his room and grabs a poster. On the poster is a birds-eye view of highway traffic, with "swearing at motorists" printed on the top of a truck. Dave tells us that he made fake posters and T-shirts before Swearing at Motorists was even a real band.
"The name comes from me and Neil sitting around making up fake band names," Dave says. "And its a great fucking name. I mean, you cannot deny it. . ."
Don nods, "When we started this we had no idea what it was going to evolve into. (Dave) was experimenting on the four-track and then we were experimenting getting together and just having a good time. Then people started being into it."
"Our first (real) show was at Bogart's, and we'd never played out," Dave says.
" There was'nt really that many people there," Don expands.
A sense of perspective seems to overcome Dave. "It was fine, but it was a big lesson. It was weird and I don't remember hardly any of it. I was in space."
"And then our record came out two days later, Don says. We played at Walnut Hills that night for our record release."
"Neil Blender did the cover art for that 7", right?" I ask.
" Yeah, he handed it to me on a DP&L bill," Dave remembers. "It was on the envelope."
Someone on the porch informs us that a cop has pulled over a car right outside Dave's house.
Don says, "The next single will probably have Neil cover art on it too."
"Speaking of the next single, how did you guys get hooked up with Spare Me Records?"
"Actually," Don says, these guys are Guided By Voices fans. They're college guys from Staten Island and they love Ohio music. We had a 3 Dream Bag track (Don's band with Greg Demos) for this compilation and I sent them a tape. And I sent them a tape of the stuff Dave and I had done. They we're just really into it. These guys get really high and make phone calls at weird hours, which coincided with Dave's schedule really well, so they ended up talking on the phone a few times and. . . now were they're second favorite band."
"And we were the first actual band on the label," Dave says.
A few minutes later Dave looks out the window. He practically jumps in his chair. "Are you nuts?!" He turns around in disbelief and leans close to the tape recorder, as if telling a secret. "Okay, the cops stopped some guys in front of our house, and theres guys outside on the porch smoking a joint. This is crazy. . ."
"Were you into the Dayton scene before you lived here?" I wonder of Dave. "I know you've produced or recorded a lot of stuff, like The Amps album Pacer, and Brainiacs Internationale ep and. . ."
. . .and Crying Your Knife Away, Dave continues, and I did O-Matics record, I did a Ten O'Clock Scholar single. There's a lot of weird shit. And GbV, I worked with those guys too. I did sequencing and editing on Alien Lanes. Theres a lot of stuff that kind of threw me into it. I mean, it's a small town, and if you're into the same stuff and you're not a total weirdo you get into the same circles as everyone else. "I might add that Dave also worked at the infamously ill-fated record store Trader Vic's, which also contained the still-functioning record label Simple Solutions.
At this point in the evening the interview goes mobile and were magically whisked away to Bob Pollard's bar, The Monument Club, where there's music, beer and basketball aplenty. On the way back to Dave's house we grow stomachs stop at a Rally's for food. Dave cranes his neck toward the drive-thru speaker and waits.
"Are you guys closed or are you just fucking on crack?!"he yells at the top of his lungs.
The manager of the Rally's angrily tells us to do down the street. His pseudo-authoritative Appalachian drawl is just too funny to keep a straight face. Tyler, Rob and I look at each other and laugh. Dave waits in anticipation. "Now do you wanna order somethin or do you wanna go to McDonalds?" the manager asks.
"No!" Dave laughs, "We're here, were not at McDonalds!"
"Then you need to quit talkin' to my people like that," the manager says.
We decide to go to Taco Bell instead.
Back at The Rock and Roll Bed n Breakfast we somehow find the couch and continue the interview.
" The thing about the Dayton scene is that there's not really a sound, " Dave says.
Don leans forward again, "But Dayton's a good place to be in a band."
"Yeah, when you say you're from Dayton, fortunately right now it's a good thing to say." Dave sips his vodka and water, having run out of Tang. "That's because there are bands that are exceptional. The focus that the three big bands (Brainiac, The Breeders and Guided By Voices) have brought to the town has definitely been a help, not a hindrance. I think that (Brainiac) had something that everybody wanted. It was something that was weird enough for here. Brainiac was just so over the top that they definitely paved the way for a lot of folks."
" What might be some of your more prominent musical influences?" Dave laughs, "This question should be titled "The Truth Comes Out." He pauses thoughtfully and proceeds to cite Neil Young, (Buffalo Springfield era) as one of his primary influences. "I grew up with my parents record collection," he says. "A lot of vocally-driven records."
He also mentions Elvis Costello, early R.E.M., The Minutemen, The Cars, Electric Light Orchestra and 1920's pre-bluegrass. Dave admits his guitar tuning is a mild bastardization of a blue-grass open drop-D tuning. Dave and Don also agree on the Pixies and The Breeders as big influences.
" You can be influenced by different bands in different ways," Don elaborates. "Obviously Brainiac was a huge influence even though we don't sound like them. "
Dave leans back and says, "We used to borrow their equipment laying around whenever they were out on tour. But we don't have any contemporaries that we try to sound like." He says some of current listening faves are Prettymouth, Mink, Neutral Milk Hotel and His Name is Alive. Don cites new albums by Tricky and The Chemical Brothers. When I ask if Dave has any favorite authors, he names several Beats (Kerouac, Bukowski, etc). I ask him if he likes Ginsberg.
" Allen Ginsberg actually hit on me at a book signing in City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco," Dave says, "God rest his soul. . .it was very, very weird. He leans close to the tape recorder and says, For the record, I'm into girls."
In further defining Swearing at Motorists' sound, Dave says something that rings true to the core of the band; "We're definitely minimalists and deconstructionalists," he says. "We dissect our favorite parts of records." Dave explains that while playing along to his favorite songs, he comes up with chord variations that sound different enough from the original to be their own song. And he just takes it from there.
"Were do you see Swearing at Motorists going in the future?" I ask.
Dave fields this one. "What were looking at is trying to make the band self-sufficient. Like being able to go play shows and not lose money. I mean, we dont want to be on Warner Brothers or anything. As long as people are into it were going to try to find outlets to get it to them."
" We've gotten a lot more stuff out than we thought we would at this point," Don says in agreement.
"Thats cool," I say, imagining the hundreds of lp's Swearing at Motorists will have in ten years. "Is there anything you'd like to add or whatever?"
"People should always tape (Swearing at Motorists') records and play them in their car," Dave states instructionally. "It's very important that you drive to them." He looks to Don, "Anything thing else we wanna add?" Don shrugs as Dave suddenly remembers something important. "Bring us squirrel stuff to shows."
"Squirrel memorabilia?" I ask.
"I love squirrels, man," Dave says emotionally. He goes on to tell us that he frequently feeds squirrels from his window, and that he's started a squirrel shrine. "To get on our guest list, contact us before the show and give us squirrel stuff," Dave says, laughing lightly. And he's not joking either.
-- John Wenzel & Rob Sponic
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