Tom Dyer
Tom Dyer (born January 2, 1953) is an American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, music producer, and disc jockey. Dyer was a founding member of the bands The Adults, The Colorplates, The Icons, Beautimus, Gravy, B.L.O.G. 1&2, Me Three, Tom Dyer’s New Pagan Gods, and Tom Dyer and the True Olympians. He is also the founder and owner of the indie label Green Monkey Records, formed during the Seattle post-punk, pre-grunge independent rock scene of the 1980s.
Career
Green Monkey Records Mach One
Dyer was born in Des Moines, Iowa, but moved to Olympia, Washington at age five. [1] His first forays into music began in high school, when he channeled his burgeoning love of music into several cover bands. He graduated from Olympia High School in 1971 and spent the next few years traveling around Alaska, Washington, and Oregon before moving to Seattle in 1975 and getting a job at Everybody’s Records.
In 1979, Dyer formed experimental rock band The Pigments with Harvey and Deanne Tawney, which quickly became The Adults and then the Colorplates. While the band was short-lived, breaking up in 1981, it did introduce Dyer to audio recording, inspiring him to purchase recording gear and set up a small studio. In 1983, Green Monkey Records released its first two cassettes, a compilation called Local Product and Tom Dyer’s Truth or Consequences.[2]
Over the next few years, Dyer upgraded his recording setup from four to eight tracks of analog tape and moved from mostly putting out his own material to releasing other bands’ music. In 1984, he bought a self-released cassette tape by a group called The Green Pajamas. He liked the cassette so much that he wrote a review of it for OP magazine and tracked down the band members. He signed them to his label and rereleased their first cassette, Summer of Lust, with a few additional songs. This represented a major shift for the label; of the label’s remaining 35 releases between 1985 and 1992, 15 of them would be by The Green Pajamas or one of their members.
Dyer also had major career shifts outside of music during this time. He had been working at various jobs to pay the bills and support his growing family, but in 1987 he injured his back and was unable to perform the physical labor needed for his work. In 1989 he began teaching audio recording part time at the Art Institute of Seattle. During this time, he also started going back to school, attending Seattle Central Community College, where he obtained his Associate of Arts, then the University of Washington, where he obtained a Bachelor’s and eventually a Master’s in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies. In 1991, Dyer sold his recording gear and closed his studio.
Higher Education
Dyer continued to work in higher education for many more years. He began teaching additional classes at the Art Institute before becoming head of the audio department, the video department, and the multimedia department. He eventually rose to Assistant Dean of Higher Education. He worked on a number of projects during his time at the Art Institute, including starting 3:23 Records as part of the music business program and traveling to Minsk, Belarus, to film the documentary “Children of Chernobyl: Ten Years Later.” [3] During this time, he also earned his Master’s degree at the University of Washington.
In 2000, Dyer took a position as the Dean of Academic Affairs at the New England Institute of Art, a sister school to the Art Institute of Seattle located in Boston, MA. He also enrolled in a doctoral program at Johnson & Wales University, where he earned his Doctorate in Education. [4] In 2006, Dyer returned to Seattle to accept a position as President of Argosy University, Seattle. [5] He remained at Argosy until the school was sold and closed in 2016.
Green Monkey Records Mach Two
A few years after returning to Seattle, Dyer relaunched Green Monkey Records with a 47-song, 2-CD compilation album entitled ‘It Crawled From The Basement’. Together with former bandmate Howie Wahlen, he began releasing previously recorded material, rereleasing previously cassette-only releases on CD, and putting out new material. Dyer revived his old band The Icons, reissuing his 1986 album ‘Masters of Disaster’ and following it with the 2011 album ‘Appointment With Destiny!’[6]
The label has continued to put out rock music, as well as other genres such as traditional folk music. In addition, it has put out a number of Christmas compilation albums featuring both Green Monkey regulars and artists from around the world. Dyer created a studio band called the New Pagan Gods and recorded an album of covers of influential Pacific Northwest bands and artists entitled ‘History of Northwest Rock Vol. 1.’ It featured songs that spanned from 1959-1968.
In 2016, after retiring from Argosy University, Dyer moved from Seattle to Olympia, WA. He became involved with KAOS, Evergreen University’s independent radio station, where he hosts Freeform Northwest, a show featuring largely Pacific Northwest artists spanning many genres. He also became involved with Olympia Indivisible, a political advocacy organization dedicated to opposing the Trump administration.
Current projects
After settling in Olympia, Dyer put together a new band, The True Olympians. They released the song “Christmas in Olympia” in 2017, followed in August 2018 by the album ‘12 New Recordings’. In 2019, Dyer began writing songs about the history of Olympia, WA, which he considers his hometown, but the band went on hiatus from performing in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but managed to release a single entitled Pandemic Christmas in December 2020. In 2021, Dyer continued his Olympian history album project. This grew to a sprawling 40 songs, which he released as the 3-CD album Olympia – A True Story on October 14, 2022. The album features over 100 Olympia musicians, such as Arrington de Dionysius, K Records’s Calvin Johnson, and the Artesian Rumble Arkestra. [7] [8] The album was positively received by members of the press. [9] The band played a record release show on December 9, 2022, as well as shows in Portland and Seattle.
Personal Life
Dyer was born in Des Moines, IA, and moved to Olympia, WA with his mother Jo Ann, sister Susan, and brother Bruce at age 5. He attended Olympia High School, where he was a champion wrestler and a member of the football team. He attended Western Washington University for a year before dropping out and spending a few years working odd jobs. He met his wife Vicki Dyer in Seattle. They were married in 1980. In 1988, his daughter Katherine Dyer was born, and in 1991, his son Benjamin Dyer was born.
Discography
- ”Truth Or Consequences” (1983, Green Monkey Records)
- ”I Lived Three Lives”, (1984, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Live At The Hall Of Fame” (The Icons, 1986, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Songs From Academia Vol 1: Songs With Singing, 1981-2009” (2009, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Masters Of Disaster” (The Icons, 2010, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Songs From Academia Vol 2: Instrumental and Spoken Word, 1980-2008” (2010, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Appointment With Destiny!” (The Icons, 2011, Green Monkey Records)
- ”I Ain’t Blue Any More” (2012, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Agony & Ecstasy” (The Colorplates, 2013, Green Monkey Records)
- ”History of NW Rock Vol. 1” (Tom Dyer’s New Pagan Gods, 2015, Green Monkey Records)
- ”No Money… No Fun” (Me Three, 2015, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Xmas-30 Years In The Making” (2015, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Meditations on Prince Bowie” (single, 2016, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Songs To Annoy Small Children” (2017, Green Monkey Records)
- ”12 New Recordings” (Tom Dyer & The True Olympians, 2018, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Tom & Kat’s Excellent Christmas Adventure” (Tom & Kat Dyer, 2018, Green Monkey Records)
- ”1+1 = ?” (2019, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Truth or Consequences (Expanded)” (2020, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Beautimus and other sounds of the Nineties” (2020, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Holiday Collection” (The True Olympians, 2021, Green Monkey Records)
- ”Olympia – A True Story” (Tom Dyer & The True Olympians, 2022, Green Monkey Records)
References
- ↑ White, Dennis R. (November 6, 2019). "Everything's Gone Green Part One: Tom Dyer & Green Monkey Records".}
- ↑ Dyer, Tom. "It Crawled From The Basement".}
- ↑ "Connections" (PDF).
- ↑ "Selected correlates of student persistence and institutional factors in for-profit art and design colleges".
- ↑ "New Presidents or Provosts".
- ↑ ""Big Takeover"".
- ↑ "Olympia songwriter releases epic concept album about his hometown".
- ↑ "A musician's love for Olympia inspires a 40-song album".
- ↑ "New album is Tom Dyer's love letter to hometown of Olympia".
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