Swearing At Motorists

Hailing from Dayton, Ohio, the lo-fi pop duo Swearing at Motorists united singer and guitarist Dave Doughman with drummer Don Thrasher, who had previously served in Guided by Voices during the peak of their Bee Thousand era. The pair first surfaced in 1995 via a self-released cassette that bore the band's name, then issued the EP Tuesday's Pretzel Night the next year. Their initial full-length, Fear of Low Flying Clouds, surfaced in 1997, followed in 1999 by both More Songs from the Mellow Struggle—their introductory release on the Secretly Canadian imprint—and Number Seven Uptown. Founding drummer Don Thrasher exited in 2000, after which Joseph Siwinski of the Trouble with Sweeney assumed the drum chair. The Along the Incline Plane EP and the album This Flag Signals Goodbye both arrived in 2002. A tour alongside the Hold Steady and a slot at the yearly SXSW conference accompanied the 2006 appearance of Last Night Becomes This Morning. Following an eight-year silence, the band resurfaced in 2014 with the full-length While Laughing, The Joker Tells the Truth.