Dave Doughman is the heart and voice behind Swearing At Motorists. The band, mostly a duo with various drummers, built a cult following with their raw energy, heartfelt songwriting, and relentless DIY ethos. Dubbed “The World’s Local Band,” they've traveled countless miles playing shows worldwide, sharing stages with iconic acts like Guided By Voices, Songs:Ohia, The Breeders, Spoon, Unwound, Brainiac, The Lemonheads, My Morning Jacket, and more.
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Swearing At Motorists has come a long way since it's birth as a poster
for a fake band in 1994. A few months after the posters mysteriously appeared in record stores & music venues around Dayton, Ohio, Dave Doughman jokingly scrawled the name on a cassette of home recordings that he gave to friends, and in 1995 the band was officially born.
The late '90s found S@M releasing a slew of 7" EPs on different labels, and after getting repeated plays from John Peel and favorable press worldwide, the band landed a contract with the then new label Secretly Canadian.
They released 2 EPs & 4 LPs on SC, including 2000's Number Seven Uptown & 2002's This Flag Signals Goodbye, both of which were named MOJO Magazine's "Underground Album of the Year" the years they were released.
Swearing At Motorists relocated to Berlin, Germany in 2005, releasing their last LP for Secretly Canadian, Last Night Becomes This Morning the following year before quietly disappearing into the never-ending Berlin night...
8 years later, the band resurfaced in Hamburg, Germany, with a new album titled While Laughing, The Joker Tells The Truth, released Sept. 29, 2014 on Anton Newcombe's label A Recordings Ltd. Co produced by Dave and Rick McPhail (of the legendary German band Tocotronic), the album tells the tales of those “lost” 8 years in classic Motorists style.
Perhaps another underground figure of the 90s/00s, author Camden Joy describes it best: "Like Iggy Pop’s great lost Nashville record or the legendary demos for the Strokes masterpiece that never was, this recording is full of catchy courage, significant low notes, bedroom rhythms, hooks, and so on, all of which make for an impossible amount of pleasure. This Swearing At effort towers heads and squirrels above whatever that was you were just listening to. I see why Rolling Stone gave it five stars." — Camden Joy
11 years later, the band re-resurfaced in Hamburg Germany, from another hiatus and with another new album, 31. Seasons In The Minor Leagues.
Probably this is the first album to be written and recorded entirely in a Bundesliga soccer stadium, namely the Millerntor Stadium of football team St. Pauli in Hamburg. Don’t worry, it doesn’t sound like stadium rock at all. Quite the opposite in fact…Lo-fi without being brittle and minimal without feeling sparse.
Interestingly, Doughman has a unique connection to St. Pauli, the famed football club from Hamburg. His admiration for the club reflectshis passion for underdog stories and authentic outsider spirit elements that are woven into the fabric of his music. Obviously the album title mirrors this. It’s about holding on to dreams (or illusions) even when success fails to materialize. The “31 Seasons” could allude to a whole life full of attempts, setbacks, and small triumphs. Swearing At Motorists remains a beloved staple of indie rock’s underground now roaring back to the stage with new stories to tell.