Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and utterly terrible dancer. He is the singer/guitarist for the indie rock/power-pop the Roland High Life, as well as a staff writer for the New York Times’ Wirecutter and a regular contributor at BoingBoing.net. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD ('13) & Emerson College ('08).
It’s hard to stay together once you’ve watched your partner die. Katie never understood this. She thought I was being irrational. “Everyone dies,” she said. Or will say, I’m not sure if she’s actually said it yet. “It’s something that happens. But you and I, we’ll always be together, at least somewhen in time."
Check out my latest piece, Not Dead Yet, at FiveByFiveHundred.com!
Yeah, this is totally the song that Alyssa sang at the lesbian bar in Chasing Amy before Ben Affleck realized she was gay. What of it? It's a good tune! I tried going all Neutral Milk Hotel* on the chorus, which sounded great in the cans, but sounds a little thin on laptop speakers. Oh well. You'll live. Enjoy!
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/9517428"]
*Also? Their first and only concert in 10 years just sold out this morning in under a minute. You can bet I'm pissed.
Thanks to everyone who came out to see The Backyard Committee at Cafe Nine in New Haven last night (especially my Dad, even though he fell asleep before we went on). I felt a lot more comfortable with the songs this time around, so I think it went pretty well (and if the Canadian guy who was dancing is any reliable indication, I'm right). The Fatal Flaw from Boston (literally, around the corner from me) also played, so thanks to them for coming down. Joel Reader is a great guy, and if you asked 16-year-old-Thom if he'd be headlining a show over Joel from the Mr. T Experience, he would totally freak (25-year-old-Thom, meanwhile, has a much more well-adjusted worldview, at least comparatively)
This week at Five By Five Hundred, I wrote a short new poem about living in New England, because with the way the weather changes here, I sometimes feel like I'm in an abusive relationship. Every time it makes me miserable, there's a beautiful sunny day to make me remember why I love it here. And then it snows again. AARGH!
Anyway, enjoy!
A little late — first because my internet access was out, and then because I was trapped on the worst MegaBus ride ever, and then because I was time traveling to 1920s Philadelphia, which caused all sorts of problems.
But I'm back now, and I brought t-shirts for everybody! Well, maybe not t-shirts. But at least this song. Just out of time for Valentine's Day, enjoy an atmospheric Irish wake of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice." And tell my lap steel guitar how sorry you are for the awful things I did to it in order to make those sounds.
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/10580248"]
If you've ever wondered about the connection between the original Biblical murder and issue #1 of SUPERMAN IN ACTION COMICS, then Brad Meltzer's got your ticket in The Book of Lies, a labyrinthine conspiracy thriller that's kind of like The Da Vinci Code for comic book fans, except good. Read my full review over at DailyGenoshan.com!
My fellow Emerson alum are all too aware that the ATM is possibly the greatest invention ever. This week, over at FiveByFiveHundred.com, my newest piece of speculative flash-fiction explores the future of the ATM, and the possible ramifications of artificial intelligence as it spreads to more pedestrian technologies. Also, because sassy robots are just plain funny. And that's what really matters. Enjoy!
52 bottles of delicious homemade beer on the ground, 52 bottles of delicious homemade beer...
Sweet Honey Tangerine IPA is a bitter West Coast-style IPA brewed with Cascade and Citra hops, with the addition of orange, clementine, and honey tangerine peels, plus some honey and more orange flavor added before bottling. My goal is for the citrus sweetness of the orange-flavors to balance out the hops bitterness. But it just entered to bottle, so we'll have to wait a few weeks to let it bottle-age before we see what happens!
Check out "Love On Skates," my newest poem over at FiveByFiveHundred.com!
This (bi-)week, I decided to go in the complete opposite direction of my last installment. Instead of a mellow, ambient cover of a jangly folk-pop song, I decided to cover "Magic" by The Cars, and inevitably spent way too much time on all of the synthesized parts and backing vocals. This one took me a LOT more time than I expected it to, thanks to all the (over) production, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/9746415"]
Every Wednesday, literary blog The Things They Read has a feature called Where We Live that focuses on, "the different places that writers and readers live, in a deeper sense than simply geography — the mental and emotional space they inhabit during their creative lives." This week's article is by yours truly, and explores the Brendan Behan Pub in Jamaica Plain, one of my personal favorite bars in the entire universe, and the lost art (in America) of pub writing. Take a look, have a pint, and enjoy!
Check out my latest piece of flash-fiction over at FiveByFiveHundred.com, titled "The Winning Ticket," based on a true news story. Sometimes when you win, you still lose — even when you win the lottery. Enjoy!
I've posted my reviews of the beers I tasted at the Winter Jubilee Boston Beer Summit at the Park Plaza Castle over on FiveByFiveHundred.com. The twist? I reviewed them all in haiku form. And for some strange reason, my notes/haikus get progressively more interesting and less coherent the more I drank. How peculiar. Haiku Beer Review: for the thinking drinking man.
I've posted a book review of My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, by Robert T. Jeschonek, over on DailyGenoshan.com, where I'm now a regular contributor. You can read the full review here. Recommended if you enjoy fantasy novels, rock bands, the internet, metafiction, and liking bands before they even exist just so you can tell your friends that you liked them first.* *You like all of these things.
I've recently decided to record a cover song every 2 weeks in 2011 and post them here on my website for free as a way to keep me constantly making new music. These won't just be me with an acoustic guitar; they'll be fully interpreted and arranged songs (albeit recorded on my laptop, so not always the best quality). This week, for the first entry in 2011, I recorded "After the Gold Rush," from Neil Young's 1970 album After the Gold Rush. Enjoy!
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/9130918"]
Suggestions/requests for future Songs of the (Bi-)Week are always welcome.
"Whatever ineffable attributes Sembos brings to the Alternate Routes, there's no mistaking what he has done with the Backyard Committee: He's made an inviting album of songs that linger after the last note fades. The guitarist and singer displays a knack for crafting solid pop songs shot through with bits of folk and country, for a warm, pleasingly worn-in sound."
Catch me playing keyboards with the Backyard Committee next Monday, January 17 at Daniel Street in Milford, CT, and don't forget to download the album for free before the show.
It was the first day back from winter break. As the first period bell rang, we begrudgingly sidled into Ms. Nitkin’s 11th grade double-period American Studies class. Nitkin was a feisty old Jewish lesbian from Cheshire, who had long since cemented her reputation as both the hardest and greatest teacher at the school. She didn’t take any bullshit (as she so eloquently told me when she handed back my very first essay with a big fat “D” sprawled across the page), but she made her teaching worthwhile, and always pushed you to your very best. She had given us the week between Christmas and New Years to read Huckleberry Finn, by native Nutmegger Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain. Being assigned an entire novel to read over winter break always seemed cruel and unfair, but we did as we were told, and came to that first period class ready to discuss the book and bear Nitkin’s sardonic, witty wrath.
Once we’d all settled down — a good five minutes after the late bell rang — Ms. Nitkin stood up from her desk, hardly taller than she was when sitting down, and made her first declaration to the class: “Nigger. There, I said. Now that that’s out of the way, I hope you all read Huck Finn,” and proceeded with her usual four-question verbal quiz, just to make sure we actually read the book, instead of skimming SparkNotes.
After the quiz, Ms. Nitkin told us a bit of the history of the book’s censorship, as a means of launching us off into a class discussion. Almost immediately, and with much less arguing and shouting than was typically expected of us, the class came to several unanimous decisions: yes, the book uses the word “Nigger,” no, it’s not a very nice word to use, and yes, it was still historically accurate. This set us off on our debate — was Jim the true hero of the book, despite the fact that he was a “nigger?”
The lone black girl in the class — technically Jamaican-American, not African — raised her hand for the first time. Ms. Nitkin called on her to speak, and with seething vitriol she declared her disgust for that word and the shame it brought upon her people. Once again, the rest of the class agreed, and genuinely sympathized as best we could.
But she carried on, spewing vile about how terrible it was for Jim to be called such a thing. Still we all continued to agree, just as we had at the start of the class. She insulted Mark Twain’s worth as an author, and the educational and historical value of the book because of this. Ms. Nitkin tried several times to change the topic, re-iterating that, although the rest of us were white, we were still on her side.
The girl continued her rant, or argument, or declaration, or whatever else it may have been, well into the middle of the second period of the class, interfering with the instructional time allotted to another teacher. The next day, Ms. Nitkin brought in an entirely new book for us to read — this time with only three days to do it. In her final year as a teacher before retirement, Ms. Nitkin changed her curriculum for the first and only time, in effort to satiate the outraged student.
I can’t remember anything about that book we read next, but I sure as hell remember Huck Finn.
In light of this whole big Huck Finn controversy, I couldn't help but recall my own experience with the book back in my Junior year of high school, which now seems frighteningly poignant and topical. Read the story over at FiveByFiveHundred.com.
My good friend Mike Sembos (of The Alternate Routes) has recently recorded and released a new full-length album under the name The Backyard Committee:
The Backyard Committee is a band based out of New Haven, Connecticut that blends genres ranging from Americana to punk rock into a jam-friendly framework. Singer/guitarist Mike Sembos (The Alternate Routes, superfallingstars, Kennesaw) writes the songs, and they’re played by a rotating cast of his musical friends. Each member of the “committee” is encouraged to bring his or her own unique voice to the project, be it on stage, on tape, in the artwork or in the crowd. The group’s debut self-titled album was released in December 2010, and it’s posted indefinitely for free download on their website below. All music ever released by the band will be made available for free in digital form in an attempt to make the band experience less of a business venture and more of an art collective.
The album is an excellent collection of indie/Americana tunes, and I'm excited to say that I'll be joining him onstage for a few gigs this winter on keyboards. Catch us at Daniel Street in Milford, CT on January 17, and then again at New Haven's own Cafe Nine on February 24.
And download the damn album! I mean, c'mon. It's free. Sheesh.
Yup. That's right. I'm here*. It's kinda like Thom Dunn 2.0, only much better looking. This website is a way for me to consolidate and share the mass of things I do — from writing to brewing to music to film/video, now there's one stop for all your Thom Dunn needs. Some of the sections are still pretty sparse, but I'm working up towards a whole mess of content that I hope you'll enjoy. There will be scripts and plays and stories to read, videos to match, music to listen to, music to download, recipes to steal and use, and much more. So take a look around, check back often, and tell your friends to do the same!