SONG PREMIERE: David Dondero Shares Self-Deprecating Hurricane Story with Pop Rock Tune “Thought I Was A Hurricane”

In 2006, when NPR’s All Songs Considered called David Dondero one of the “best living songwriters”, you would have thought that everything would have changed for him. But today, Dondero is, at best, uncomfortable with that badge. “That’s just one person’s opinion”, he says. He’s opened tours for Pedro the Lion, Against Me!, The Mountain Goats and Bright Eyes amongst many others. Dondero has been a journeyman to the craft of songwriting for the past 25 years but remains on the fringe of popular acceptance. Sure, it’s his comfort zone, but that fringe has taken him all over the world under the radar. From Serbia to San Diego, Tasmania to Toronto and almost every place in between. He’s made countless trips around America delivering a linear narrative of character-driven songs. You may have seen him at your local dive bar in the corner playing to a handful of people or you might have caught him at the museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania playing to passersby in a dimly lit corridor. He’s taken the long cut approach to the craft. The scenic route if you will. He’s a working class drifter who’s worked every shit job known to mankind, and the songs reflect it. He’s a Woody Guthrie disciple. A proud liberal who grew up on Black Flag and Bruce Springsteen. Not much of a showman but he’s a captivating performer, writer and anti-folk hero in the underground scene.

The Filter Bubble Blues, Dondero’s 10th LP (due out January 17th on Fluff and Gravy Records with help from Koschke Records), is a biting, wary, heartbroken and sometimes hilarious sendup of the dumpster fire that is modern American political theatre and identity politics. Songs of a place hellbent on robbing itself of the last vestiges of what once made it great – or could’ve made it great if there had ever been any truth in it. And rest assured, he’d been looking for the truth in it, and in us.

Dondero challenged himself with the difficult task of writing thought provoking songs during volatile political times in which most people in America appear to be living in increased isolation, modern convenience, information overload, and entrenched political beliefs. People seem to have desensitized themselves to the gravity of the times. Dondero considers how this numbness has created a toxic instability which has overtaken our once polite civil discourse and divided people and families.

With frustration, candor, and humor he lays bare an America at yet another crossroads, and it’s hard to argue with what he sees. A place where investment properties are worth more than human lives, where hypocrisy breeds hysteria, and the emperor truly has no clothes, save an ill-fitting red hat and backwards gun belt. The result is one of the best Dondero albums to date, full of the brilliant wordplay and craft listeners have come to expect from Dave. His voice calmer and steadier, while still full of emotional intensity, and the songs perfectly matched to production.

Today Glide is excited to premiere “Thought I Was A Hurricane”, one of the poppier tracks on the new album. Channeling the eclectic indie pop of Daniel Johnston and the acoustic outsider folk of Vic Chesnutt, the song offers a strangely optimistic take on making the best out of evacuating a hurricane. Based on a true story, Dondero sings about ending up in Tampa, Florida at a hotel filled with fans of the band Scorpions. Naturally, this situation conjures up absurdly humorous visuals of Dondero drifting amongst a group of pumped up heavy metal fans. With the help of his band, Dondero heightens the mood of the song with simple drumming and flourishes of saxophone to complement his own acoustic guitar. Considering their mega-hit “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, Dondero seizes the opportunity to engage in plenty of clever wordplay. 

David Dondero describes the story behind the tune in his own words:

“‘Thought I Was A Hurricane’ is a pop rock song of self deprecation, written after escaping a hurricane in Carolina and going down to Tampa to wait out the storm in the Autumn of 2018. I ended up at a hotel full of Scorpions fans. I didn’t go to the show but i wrote this song instead. The song gives a nod to the late John Hope, one of the greatest meteorologists to ever live – The original weather channel hurricane update man.”

LISTEN:

The Filter Bubble Blues will be released on January 17th via Fluff and Gravy Records with help from Koschke Records. For more music and info visit davedondero.com.

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