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The Motorists, as they're commonly known, reach great depths with the aid of a poignant everyday simplicity. The pair seem to have only two settings - blistering and moping, and nothing in between. Songs are either rollicking and more invigorating than the White Stripes' most accurate stabs or more lumbering and poignant than Elliot Smith's most touching moments. When they rock they are not cocky but self-assured, and when they reach out they are not pathetic but honest. There is no middle ground. There is the American noir classic "Telford to North Main," almost a Springsteen track in nature but with an Anders Parker quality that makes it so current and relevant. Other tracks, such as the brilliant "I'll Only Sleep" which, at less than two and a half minutes, fully illustrates the duo's ability to be noble and gripping while centering the story around an automobile, most likely a Camaro or muscle car of some sort. Swearing At Motorists are that point where the Strokes and Will Oldham meet, the iconographic model for the stark American rocker placed slightly off center and underground. Finding a band like Swearing At Motorists and being engulfed by them is today's equivalent of the Beat Generation discovering obscure French jazz musicians. When the chorus of "Flying Pizza" breaks in you nod to yourself, thinking silently that 'this is it - this is what music is all about'. There are catchy elements within dark, brooding moments such as the song "Bullet" and more orchestrated tracks like "Talking Pictures" painting a mural of Grifters-like lo-fi American pop-noir with a dark and bitter twist. With the touch of the most endearing country singer and the grit of a garage band, Swearing At Motorists hit home at center point for a lot of things, the intersection of the common details of life and the great instances of self discovery and understanding. They represent so many possible combinations of indie rock's greatest moments and the post-Vietnam American experience with a darker half that is both intimate and detached. It's Will Oldham putting Roseanne to a backbeat and melody. The potency of Doughman crooning, asking "How's your mom?" is not easily explained, but rather it is simply experienced and absorbed. So it is that most words in their description fall flat, leaving the Motorists as something that you either get or you don't. I remember thinking that Zac Johnson 'got' it when I read his summary for the Allmusic website. "Like finding a long forgotten crate of Dylan records in your mom's basement," wrote Johnson after being seduced by Swearing At Motorists' sophomore album, Number Seven Uptown. To sit down with Dave Doughman is to sit down with a man square with the world. Doughman has been around the circuit, as an engineer for Brainiac and Kim Deal's Breeders interim band the Amps, as a soundman for Guided By Voices and Unwound, and as the mastermind behind Swearing At Motorists. He has seen the ins and the outs of the music business and he knows what it takes to succeed - hard work and a loyalty to one's self. Doughman has traveled thousands of miles on the dollars of the major label and the sweat of independent music. "I don't want to be famous," Doughman observes. "Wait, let me rephrase that - I don't need to be famous. Why would I want to be making 14 cents on the dollar with a major label when I can be making 50 cents on the dollar where I'm at," he asks when commenting on his experience with agents bidding for the majors. Doughman understands the importance of a personal relationship even when rocking is your business, a relationship that he shares with his label, Secretly Canadian. "I can pick up the phone and I can call the person who is doing publicity and I can get them on the phone. I can call the mail-order guy or the owner or anyone at any time and get them on the phone. Why would I want to leave that?" And so it is that Doughman continues on with Swearing at Motorists, doing what he does best the only way he knows how to do it - honest, straightforward and without hesitation. Doughman's approach is perhaps best exemplified by his most recent tour with 764-Hero. When he found out that his drummer would not be able to do the tour, the duo having just finished up a series of dates with My Morning Jacket, rather than back out of a string of shows with 764-Hero Doughman elected to go it alone, performing new and old songs that had been written, recorded and performed all along with a backing drummer all on his own, only a microphone and an effects pod supporting his gritty, gas-station drawl. Not surprisingly, it worked out, even though the songs were noticeably different without a backbeat. Because that's what Swearing at Motorists is about - playing on, tackling the everyday struggle and playing on. Swearing at Motorists' latest release, the fantastic new full-length album, This Flag Signals Goodbye was released by Secretly Canadian on Tuesday, June 4th. You can check out more Swearing at Motorists on the Secretly Canadian website.  |
