The Thin Man was born in Newcastle, England on a Thursday. He took violin lessons as a child and was advised to give them up.
He was pleased.

The Thin Man began as a solo project of Mr. Kennedy Greenrod. By the ripe old age of 17 he'd left behind his native climes, fleeing a life of dole checks and fried Mars bars. He moved to California, where his guitar-playin' brother-in-law showed him some chords so as to screw the sister in peace (or to a clumsy soundtrack at least). Greenrod spent his 21st birthday in Brighton, vomiting on his thrift store tux, losing his green card. He crossed the Bay Bridge many times and played in Rock Bands, most notably, Erasergun and The Vulvettes. He acquired an accordion and moved to Chicago with different songs in his head. He ate hotdogs and was amazed at how cold it could be and failed to establish credit at any of the city's hostelries. His vision of a one-man-band-on-a-bicycle careening down the Magnificent Mile playing Magnificent Music for the Magnificent met with grave technical difficulties and was scrapped.

The Thin Man assembled a cast of some of the best and brightest players in town to record the debut album: "A Cloud in Trousers." The album featured Tim McConville ( We Ragazzi) on drums, Jessica Billey (Smog) on fiddle and John Stanton (Martian Electric) on double bass. "Cloud" delighted critics and audiences alike and a string of sold-out shows with The Blacks, Firewater, Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire and Jim White established the band as a powerful live act.

The Thin Man recorded a second album, "H.M.S. Mondegreen," in 2003, featuring Stanton, Steve Emmerman (cello), Kenny Dread (drums), Pat Hamilton (lap-steel, keyboards, vocals), Mark Shepherd and Jane Roberts (banjos), Nate Wolcott (trumpets) and Saleem Dhamee (guitar). You can hear "Mondegreen" on this site but it hasn't been released yet.

The new line-up is formidable - we'll be coming to your town soon. Jason LaBrosse plays double bass; he has been playing in various Chicago bands for the past decade and once jumped on stage at the Ritz in New York to sing "Johnny Be Good" with Meatloaf. Mike McGrath plays drums and incites lust. Saleem Dhamee (of Grimble Grumble) plays lead guitar. And Kennedy Greenrod sings, plays accordion and guitar and wears some very stylish suits.