Band History

Singer and guitarist Martin Dunn and original bassist Dirt T. Manning met in Dade City, Florida in 2008.The pair became friends while working together to promote shows around Central Florida. Martin became ingrained in the comic book industry in 2012, and would go on to work on high profile projects such as Transformers and Rick & Morty. During the summer of 2016, Martin began working on music with his wife,

Aly and along with Dirt and his wife Brie Tart, they formed the band "The Kimota Bombs".

In the winter of 2018, when the Kimota Bombs went on hiatus, Martin began working on new material for a solo project that would explore his battles with mental illness and addiction over the years. In February of 2018, Martin moved to Ashtabula, Ohio. During this time, Martin was also performing as a solo artist doing acoustic gigs and playing the songs that would eventually become the framework for LTE. Martin had been jokingly referring to his live solo shows as "Less Than Expected" and adopted the name of the band he was a member of back in high school as a suffix, "Martin Dunn is Less Than Expected".

In late 2018, Martin brought Dirt on-board to play bass for him. Dirt relocated to Akron, Ohio and they recruited Justin Thompson on drums. The band began practicing material from Martin's demos and started writing new material soon after forming. Less Than Expected began playing shows around the North Eastern Ohio area in 2019, opening on a small regional tour for "Stereotype, I" and later that same year with "The Damnsels". During this time, LTE were recording demos and developing more songs out of ideas Martin was pulling from his journals.

In the Summer of that same year, the band began recording its debut album, "The Machine Kills Scenes” with Myyke Goontarr of the band "Drawing of Flies' '. TMKS was heavily influenced by Nirvana "In Utero '', Grunge/Punk acts like "Mudhoney", and "The Melvins", as well as a heavy dose of Proto-Punk and the writings of William S. Burroughs.

In November of 2019, the band announced that Justin had decided to leave the band for personal reasons. Citing "Life" as the biggest reason for his departure. Chris Manley of "Real Fake Doors" filled in for the rest of the band's shows that year and into 2020.

"This Machine Kills Scenes" was released on December 14, 2019. The songs "FauxCD" and "Short-Term Memories" became a regular favorite of college rock radio stations. Martin and Dirt appeared for an interview on 90.5fm WERG out of Erie, PA for the "Fazed Cookies" show on February 18th, 2020. The interview was well received and the band excitedly let it leak they'd be performing at a couple Festivals as well as going on tour with a prominent band.  Martin also explained that the concept behind the record was a "personal journey" . "It's a sonically driven story that is all about my battles, failures and triumphs with mental illness and addiction."

Although the promotion for the album was not largely scaled, it made some waves on streaming services. Physical sales of the album were impressive for it's short reach, and overall the band moved close to 1,000 copies over the course of 2020. The streaming numbers however reached over 50k plays within a couple months of it's release.

In March of 2020, former "Drunk Busey's" drummer, Cody "Jonesy" Jones joined the band.  As LTE were gearing up to announce the upcoming tours and festival dates, the coronavirus pandemic struck, halting all momentum.

Over the course of 2020's lockdown, and during the American election season, Martin began writing a handful of new songs for an as-of-yet unreleased album called "The 4th Principle" that he and Jonesy tracked over the Summer and into the Fall. On November 3rd, (election day) the first single "Animal Farm" was released which was intentionally planned.

The band went on a brief hiatus for the rest of the year and into the next.

In April of 2021, LTE alongside Dirt T. Manning did a livestream from their rehearsal space and played a series of new and old songs before announcing that Dirt was leaving the band. Dirt exited the band officially in May to move back to Florida.

Martin and Jonesy continued to rehearse as a 2-piece until August of 2021 when they announced that Joe Greenfield formerly of "Stereotype, I" would be joining and taking over Drums. Jonesy moved in the interim to playing bass but would be switching to guitar once a new, permanent bassist was found.

In the Fall of 2021, LTE are currently in the studio working on both a new EP, as well as finalizing their delayed, yet equally anticipated sophomore LP, “The 4th Principle”.   

Former members: 

• Dirt T. Manning - Bass
• Tyler Kuhn - Guitar
• Justin Thompson - Drums