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Dumptruck (band)

American rock band

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ5313987 ↗
Source-derived summary

Dumptruck is an American band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1983 by composers, guitarists, and singers Seth Tiven and Kirk Swan.

History

The principal songwriter and sole continuous member of Dumptruck is Seth Tiven. Born and raised in Connecticut, Tiven received his Bachelor of Arts in music in 1980 from Wesleyan University in Middletown. In 1981 he moved to Boston, where he performed in several local bands with Swan and drummer Mark Mulcahy.

In 1983, Swan and Tiven formed Dumptruck and began writing songs. The duo recorded six songs with Mulcahy at a local studio. "[They were] demos, really, more than anything else," Swan recalled on the liner notes to the 2004 reissue. "Seth and I played bass on each other's songs... which is how we would tackle the songs live in this incarnation of the band." Pleased with the results, the duo recorded six additional songs with drummer James Clement and released D is for Dumptruck on Incas records in 1983.

The record was well-received "The dozen songs fall somewhere between Joy Division and the dB's", said The New Trouser Press Record Guide.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Dumptruck (band)” is american rock band. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dumptruck, band and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1983, 1980, 1981, 2004—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1983. For this dossier, Dumptruck, band and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american rock band” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5313987. VIAF identifies the subject as 134089111. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1983, 1980, 1981 and 2004.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Locating named sources
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  2. Expand the search: follow Dumptruck (band) primary sources, Dumptruck (band) archive and Dumptruck research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Dumptruck (band)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.