Musicbeat

Providence

Deer Tick

Deer Tick, from Providence, R.I., is the songwriting vehicle of John McCauley, whose by distinctive, hoarse voice leads Brad Bynum music that straddles the line bradb@ between scruffy alt-country and newsreview.com raucous barroom rock ’n’roll. The band plays at Cargo in Commrow, 255 Virginia St., on Wednesday, May 9. We talked to McCauley about Nevada, songwriting and drinking.

Let’s All Go to the Bar: Deer Tick is, from left, Ian O’Neil, Dennis Ryan, John McCauley, Chris Ryan and Rob Crowell. Being from Reno, it seems like the first thing to ask about is “Nevada” on War Elephant. What’s that song about? Why’s it called “Nevada”? I drove across the country for a girl who lived in Las Vegas. I was a little stupider and a little more romantic when I was a little younger [laughs]. That whole trip probably shouldn’t have happened. You know, being young, you make mistakes, and you’re stuck with them.

Find a longer version of this interview online at www.newsreview.com/ reno.

Deer Tick plays at Cargo in Commrow, 255 Virginia St., on Wednesday, May 9. For more information, visit www.commrow.com. Have you been to Reno? Only once. We played a house show. We were touring in a school bus at the time, and it broke down a couple of hours away. We were able to find a dealership to fix it, but it was going to take a day, if I remember. It was a little desert town. … I think it was in California, right on the border. … The guy at the dealership was like, “There’s one car rental place in town. They’re closed, but I know the guy. I’ll give him a call.” He calls the guy, and we got to the car rental place, and, “We only have one car left.” It’s a fucking Dodge Charger [laughs]. So we didn’t take any of our gear. We took one guitar. We were just like, let’s see what happens. And we drove like 120 miles [per hour] the whole way. It was pretty awesome actually. … I basically just played solo while my bandmates sat around and got drunk.

A lot of the songs on the most recent fulllength, Divine Providence, are kind of drinking songs. Is that something you wanted to write about specifically? Or just something you gravitate towards naturally? If there’s a bottle around me, I gravitate towards it [laughs]. I don’t know. Like I said, when we put the record together, there were songs that fit together and songs that didn’t. That’s how we got the EPout of it. But as a drinking album or something, aside from that song “Let’s All Go to the Bar” and maybe “Something to Brag About”—the rest of the songs are just peppered here and there with drinking references, it’s not really a frat boy fest or whatever. But, yeah, I love to drink, man. Probably addicted. Probably not going to admit that.

But there’s a unique appeal to a good drinking song. I love getting together with my friends and getting rip-roaring drunk and listening to “Whiskey in a Jar” or something. “Let’s All Go to the Bar,” that song is not supposed to be a smart song or a clever song or anything. It’s just supposed to be a big, dumb anthem. … The song involves this pretty pathetic character who takes underage girls into bars. He’s creepy. We’re not celebrating his behavior, but we’re making an anthem out of it [laughs]. He’s an asshole, and you shouldn’t like this guy, but he’s out there, and he deserves a song just as much as anyone else who gets a song written about them. Ω