Rhode Island's Deer Tick doesn't bite
By Kevin W. Smith
KSMITH@AZSTARNET.COM
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.16.2008
When you listen to a Deer Tick song, the voice is the first thing that grabs you.
With his commanding, can-kicking, scratched-up vocal delivery, lead singer and songwriter John McCauley spins lyrically vivid, melancholy tales of a life too ordinary. Think a young Van Morrison or Animals-era Eric Burdon with empty pockets, swigging Coors and sleeping in their pickups.
"I've got to get drunk, I've got to forget about some things," McCauley sings on "Art Isn't Real (City Of Sin)."
It's likely the 22-year-old McCauley wrote those lyrics before he was even old enough to legally buy a shot of his beloved Jack Daniels.
"It's stupid when people look at my age first before just listening to the song," he said.
Deer Tick's sound is somewhere between hitchhiking folk and back-porch acoustic country, which is strange considering McCauley's geographics.
Deer Tick started in 2004 as a solo, bedroom-recording project in McCauley's native Providence, R.I..
For a while, McCauley was the only consistent member of Deer Tick, but he's recently added three — for guitar, bass, and drums— as a permanent lineup.
Deer Tick's excellent 2007 debut album, "War Elephant," received a rerelease this year on Brooklyn indie label Partisan Records.
Deer Tick comes to Tucson to play Dry River Collective Tuesday, and you'll likely hear some new songs off the upcoming record, "Born On Flag Day."
We threw out some topics while McCauley was driving from Providence to Boston, and here's what he had to say.
Boston Red Sox
"I've been kind of a bad Red Sox fan since Manny (Ramirez) left the team. He was really entertaining to watch."
The title of the upcoming 2009 record, "Born On Flag Day."
"That's my birthday, June 14 (Flag Day). I don't know why I wanted to name it that, but we decided on it. We were driving to New York, we were in a van— we just finished it a couple weeks ago— we were trying to give it a listen to make sure we were happy with it. We were blasting it and cruising down I-95, and all of a sudden a car passes us with the license plate 'June 14.' So, we all agreed we could not change the title of the record."
NASCAR
"I guess I got into NASCAR when I got kind of isolated for a while. I watched TV and drank a lot of beer and every Saturday or Sunday on Fox, they'd always show a race. That's kind of how I got into it a couple years ago."
Odd voice comparisons
"Somebody said I sound like the guy from Marcy Playground. That was the weirdest comparison I've ever gotten. I guess I can understand the ones that I get, but I don't really think I sound too much like anybody."
Hard-luck lyrics despite his age
"There's a character in my work. You don't have to be a wizard to write some fantasy novel."
What to expect from next album
"It's not so rigid. … It has much more of a live, energetic feel to it. There's a lot of things different than 'War Elephant.' "
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