The Thorns is the only studio album by rock supergroup The Thorns. Released by Aware Records in 2003, it was produced by Brendan O'Brien following songwriting sessions by the three members before they officially became a band. 　　Aware reissued the album in late 2003 with a bonus disc of the band performing the entirety of the album acoustically. 　　The Thorns was a group that consisted of Matthew Sweet, Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins. Both Matthew and Shawn became big names in Georgia, playing clubs in Athens and Atlanta. Sweet and Mullins even shared the same manager. It was through their manager that Sweet became involved in the Thorns. Recording took place at L.A.’s Sound Factory studio. 　　The band thought about calling themselves, "Horn of Plenty" before settling on the name, "The Thorns" after hearing Sweet play a composition of the same name. The band continued to record the album in Atlanta, with producer, Brendan O'Brien, who had previously worked with Sweet and Droge. 　　The band wrote the album on a ranch in Santa Ynez, California. Sweet wrote five songs for the album, Mullins wrote two, and Droge had four. They also recorded a cover version of the Jayhawks song, "Blue." During their premiere performance they dedicated the song to Jayhawk Gary Louris as he recovered from a recent life-threatening infection of the heart. 　　Legendary drummer Jim Keltner played drums on the album. The group decided to stick with the name, "The Thorns" after Keltner introduced the group to the Rolling Stones as The Thorns. 　　The song "Among the Living" was included in the final episode of the first season of the comedy series After Life.