2 feb 2006 - washington d.c. - black cat

from washington post

THE HOLD STEADY "Separation Sunday" French Kiss SWEARING AT MOTORISTS "Last Night Becomes This Morning" Secretly Canadian

Relocating from Ohio to Berlin, Swearing at Motorists took a much longer journey of self-discovery than the Hold Steady. But the band travels light: It has only two members, and its songs are usually as fleeting and fragmentary as those of Guided by Voices (in which the group's previous drummer briefly served). "Last Night Becomes This Morning" features a few guest musicians, but the duo's sound remains spare. Accompanied by Joseph Siwinski (or, occasionally, others) on drums, singer-guitarist Dave Doughman dominates the band's keenly structured if lyrically oblique songs. His vocal style ranges from folk-rocker to lounge-lizard as his guitar shifts from gentle finger-picking to hard-rock power chords. Add some multitracked harmony or contrapuntal vocals (also by Doughman), and such tunes as "Time Zones and Area Codes" prove more substantial than their abbreviated running times might suggest.

--Mark Jenkins

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