Thom & the Tomcats
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Thom & the Tomcats

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"Track of the Day"

Over a year ago we featured a tune called “My Folks” as Track of the Day by local singer-songwriter Thom Coombes. The song was from his upcoming album, which, after twelve months of incubation, is ready to hatch. Thom will be celebrating the long awaited release of his album For Lovers & The Lonely Alike this coming Friday at The Rose & Thistle along with his backing band The Tomcats.
For Lovers & The Lonely Alike is a brilliant twelve track collection of some of Thom’s strongest and fullest sounding songs to date. The record kicks off with the medley “Everything is Temporary/One Year” which begins a gentle acoustic ditty lamenting the passing of time and then launches into a full band Pavement meets Magnolia Electric Co. style vamp which Thom wraps up some cathartic, angst-ridden screaming. After the air clears, the mood lightens with the front-porch banjo stomp “Burning Bridges, Burning Boats”. The mood continues upbeat with folky toe-tappers like “Break Me” and “Finally Behind Me”. Drummer Matt Fudge (Colonel Craze & The Hunch/Wives) provides some polyphonic tom thudding and jazzy timing shifts on “Tarnished & Tainted”. Thom shows off the understated power of his solo performance with the beautiful acoustic picking and melancholy croon of “Folk Song”. “You’ve Been Asleep” calls to mind some late-era Meat Puppets with its chugging bass line, funky backbeat calling to mind and spidery guitar leads.
One my favorite aspects of For Lovers & The Lonely Alike is its cast of female back-up vocalists, including Kate Pike, Laura Babineau, Danielle Bailey and Meghan Harnum. These women provide some lilting, high harmonies and accompaniment that give the same feel of those classic country male-female duets like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers or John Prine and Iris DeMent. The back-up singers also provide a great group sing-a-long feel on tracks like “Under The Weather”. - The Scope


"RPM Challenge 2012 Reviews"

Considering he’s participated every year since 2008, Thom Coombes knows a thing or two about the RPM Challenge. And on Little Jokes and False Alarms, one thing he seems to know very well is that in RPM, there are no rules. In this case, for example, it’s totally OK to have an album that starts with lo-fi, lyrical folk-rock songs, then delves straight into seven instrumental guitar tracks in a row before going back to the wordy stuff. In some ways there really are two albums here. On the instrumentals, Coombes is a skillful picker with a casual style, an ear for a tune and a penchant for winding up to double-time before closing slowly again (the moody “A Trip To The Tablelands” is a great example). But no matter how fast those fingers go, it’s Thom’s lyrics and crackly, comfortable voice that are the standout features here. Take a listen to the killer tune “Having Nowhere Else To Go Is Not A Reason To Stay” or the gentle, beautiful title track to see what I mean. Coombes does it again! - The Scope


Discography

As Thom & the Tomcats:
For Lovers & the Lonely Alike (2012)

As Thom Coombes:
Little Jokes & False Alarms (2012)
Junk Food For Thought (2011)
Rock & Roll Another Joint (2010)
Sex, Drugs, & Easy Listening (2009)
Answering Machine Messages (2008)
The Waiting Game (2007)
Winter Blues EP (2007)
Enjoy Your Flight (2006)
Poetry In Emotion (2005)
Home Recordings (2004)

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Bio

Thom Coombes is a singer/songwriter and recording artist from St. John’s. Enthused by the aesthetic of home recordings, he started recording his own material in 1999 using a boombox with a built-in mike and moved on to a four-track cassette, and has been developing his recording skills ever since. In addition to self-producing 10 albums of his own work, Thom has recorded numerous artists in the St. John’s scene, and been a guest artist on other groups’ albums with his guitar, sitar and harmonium. Thom & the Tomcats is Thom’s band, and “For Lovers & the Lonely Alike” is their first commercial album. They are working on a second, aiming to be released later this summer.