Don Lennon
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Don Lennon is an independent musician from Massachusetts.
[edit] Biography
Little personal information is known about Don Lennon. Several interviewers have implied that the musician's name is a pseudonym. [1] His style is often compared to that of Beat Happening, The Magnetic Fields and most notably fellow New Englander Jonathan Richman.
Lennon was the guitarist and singer of the Boston-based band The Umpteens (sometimes incorrectly referred to as "The Endless Upteens" [2]). Shortly after the group's breakup in 1997 during a performance at a local college, Lennon recorded his first solo album, Maniac. Many of the songs were originally played by The Umpteens during their tenure. His website states that some of these songs were written as early as 1993. Two recurring themes throughout the album are parties ("Party Coordinator," "Party In September" and "Party All The Time") and friends ("Best Friends Forever" and "I Need Friends").
Don Lennon, a quasi-autobiographical album, came in 1999. Much of the album's lyrical content spoke about the musician's trials and tribulations in the several previous years while playing concerts promoting Maniac.
Downtown was released in 2002 on the prominent independent label Secretly Canadian. The theme of the record dealt with the music industry, name checking Dave Matthews Band, Lenny Kravitz, The Mekons, Bongwater and John Cale (of The Velvet Underground). Bizarrely, Secretly Canadian soon after began distancing itself from both Don Lennon and the album, eventually not even recognizing it as a release in its catalog (although it was originally SC #62).
2005 saw the release of his fourth full-length album, Routine. The subject matter dealt primarily with stand-up comedy and the construction of a comedian's routine, but also focused on Monster.com, John Ritter and trust funds. NPR's John Brady cited the album as one of the three best records of 2005 [3] while Sweden's prominent Digfi magazine placed it in the number one spot. [4]
[edit] Discography
- Maniac (Martin Philip, 1997)
- Don Lennon (Martin Philip, 1999)
- Downtown (Secretly Canadian/Martin Philip, 2002)
- Routine (Martin Philip, 2005)
- Ich Heisse Don (Popfrenzy, 2005)
- Radical (Martin Philip, 2006)
