Tony Thomas
From Minnewiki
Tony Thomas has played in Twin Cities bands since he moved to the area in 1988. Originally a drummer, he moved to playing bass in Federal Weights and Measures and eventually became one of the three contributing songwriters and a guitarist in the Minneapolis band Anchorhead. He also occasionally plays solo acoustic shows around Minnesota. He currently plays in the Minneapolis band, Swing, Swang, Swung. He is also producer of the Minneapoliscast podcast.
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History
Born in Austin, MN, February 3, 1970. Tony Thomas grew up in rural Minnesota in the Mower/Dodge county area near Hayfield, MN. In 1988 he moved to St. Paul to go to college. Within a few weeks he joined his first band as a drummer. Eventually he joined the local folk rock band Five Easy Pieces in 1991 as their drummer. By 1994 he was playing bass in the alt-country band Chair and playing drums in the hardcore punk band, Man Afraid.
By 1996, Chair had broken up and Thomas was playing bass in Federal Weights and Measures (or The Feds for short) with former Chair members, Andy Boss and Peter Boss and new drummer Bob Herbers. In the summer of 2000 Federal Weights and Measures released their debut CD, Waiting in Your Backyard on Nashville's GrooveTone Records. By the fall of 2000 neither the band nor the record label existed.
By that time, membership in The Feds had turned over so that Todd Holdman was now on bass, Tony Thomas was on mandolin and banjo, Joshua Hill Lemon was on electric guitar and Joe Labatt was on drums. When the band broke up, Thomas, Holdman and Lemon recruited Nick Holz to play drums. (Labatt had moved to Seattle.) The new band was originally called The High and Mightys, but soon changed to Anchorhead.
Thomas formed Swing, Swang, Swung with Beth Pyper-Holz, Nick Pyper-Holz, Jeff Waldeland and Jon Tranberry in late 2006.
Discography
Tony Thomas appears on the following recordings:
- Anchorhead - Disaster (2004)
- Anchorhead - Love and the Color Blue (2002)
- Federal Weights and Measures - Waiting in Your Backyard (2000)
- Man Afraid - Complete Discography (2000)
Audio
Related Web sites
- Swing, Swang, Swung Myspace Page
- Anchorhead web site
- Man Afraid web site
- Solo Recordings (Mostly demos)
- Web Log
- Minneapoliscast - Minnesota Music Podcast
Related Bands
