MP3: Deer Tick - “Smith Hill”

“The country-rock breakthrough of the year” - Rolling Stone

Bio:

Deer Tick began in December of 2004 in the bedroom of Providence native, John McCauley. With a tape recorder and a nylon string guitar, he did what most anybody would do; he made tapes for his friends.

When McCauley, then 18 years old, got his hands on Hank Williams Sr.’s “Gold” collection and locked himself in his room listening to it on repeat until he finished his bottle of brandy, it all became fairly obvious to him– he was on his first tour just a few months later.

After years of being on the road, fully developing his distinct howl of a voice, anddo honing his guitar skills, McCauley had earned himself a following of devoted fans and supporters. Throughout all of this touring and selling his songs on CD-R, it became apparent that putting out a real album was the natural next step in McCauley’s musical life. McCauley recorded Deer Tick’s debut War Elephant at age 19, performing every instrument on the album. War Elephant was originally released in September of 2007 to much critical acclaim from The New York Times, Brooklyn Vegan, Spin, and many others. But McCauley’s vision from the start was for Deer Tick to be a real band, and a rotating cast of characters simply wouldn’t suffice anymore.

In April of 2007, just weeks before a national tour, McCauley turned to Dennis Ryan, a hard-hitting young drummer who had just decided to cut his college career about 3 years short. The two had played together before and their energy while performing was something unmatched for the both of them. It took no convincing Dennis at all that this was a good idea. He said “yes” before McCauley even finished asking him.

Dennis Ryan grew up in neighboring Pawtucket, RI. His dream had always been to become a famous, and perhaps more importantly, badass drummer. His epiphany occurred at the curious age of 3, while watching Ronnie Tutt play the drums with Elvis Presley in a rerun of the “Aloha From Hawaii” special.

After the national tour it was time for Deer Tick to find a bassist. McCauley had tried to convince Chris Ryan, a bass player in town, to join Deer Tick for quite some time. That August, Chris Ryan returned from a trip driving his VW Van from Providence to Costa Rica and back (though he only made it as far as Guatemala and back). Chris came speeding down Empire Street in downtown Providence, where McCauley was sitting at a table outside enjoying a beer. A swarm of people surrounded the van welcoming Chris and his traveling companions home. Before you knew it McCauley was asking the road weary traveler to join Deer Tick again. The band was completed in August 2008, when Andrew Tobiassen, a funky, young guitarist living in Providence, RI joined up with the band.

Born On Flag Day is Deer Tick’s highly anticipated second full-length album and follow-up to the band’s 2007 internationally acclaimed debut, War Elephant (reissued in 2008 by Partisan Records). This release follows two years of extensive touring in sold out clubs across the country and abroad.

Unlike War Elephant, this album features the three new members of Deer Tick that principal songwriter John J. McCauley III recruited to become the band’s current incarnation - Andy Tobiassen, Dennis Ryan and Chris Ryan. Born On Flag Day reflects a natural evolution from a singular vision of one songwriter to something much greater.

DEER TICK

Sat-Aug-01 Great Barrington, MA Bella Terra Festival
Sun-Aug-02 Newport, RI Geroge Wein’s Folk Festival 50
Fri-Aug-07 Brooklyn, NY Prospect Park Bandshell *
Thu-Sep-03 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun - The Wolf Den
Sun-Sep-06 Ithaca, NY Stewart Park #
Mon-Sep-07 New York, NY Rocks Off Concert Cruise - aboard the Jewel %
Tue-Sep-08 Pittsburgh, PA Club Café %
Wed-Sep-09 Bloomington, IN Video Saloon %
Thu-Sep-10 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge %
Fri-Sep-11 Iowa City, IA The Mill %
Sat-Sep-12 Lincoln, NE Bourbon Theatre %
Sun-Sep-13 Morrison, CO Monolith Festival
Tue-Sep-15 Centralia, WA Olympic Club
Wed-Sep-16 Portland, OR Kennedy School
Thu-Sep-17 Gearhart, OR Sand Trap
Fri-Sep-18 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios / MusicFest NW
Sat-Sep-19 McMinnville, OR Hotel Oregon
Wed-Sep-23 Bend, OR Old St. Francis School
Thu-Sep-24 Seattle, WA High Dive
Fri-Sep-25 Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret
Sat-Sep-26 Forest Grove, OR Grand Lodge
Sun-Sep-27 Troutdale, OR Edgefield
Sat-Oct-03 Austin, TX Austin City Limits Festival
Sat-Oct-10 Joshua Tree, CA Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival
Sun-Oct-11 Joshua Tree, CA Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival
Thu-Nov-05 Wallingford, CT The Space
Sat-Nov-07 Northampton, MA Iron Horse
Sun-Nov-08 Boston, MA Church

* = w/ Grace Potter and The Nocturnals
# = w/ The Hold Steady, The Felice Brothers
% = w/ Jonny Corndawg

Deer Tick
Born on Flag Day
(Partisan)
Street date: June 23, 2009

1. Easy
2. Little White Lies
3. Smith Hill
4. Song About A Man
5. Houston, TX
6. Straight Into A Storm
7. Friday XIII
8. The Ghost
9. Hell On Earth
10. Stung

DEER TICK LINKS:

MySpace: www.myspace.com/deertick

Press Materials: partisanrecords.com/promo/deertick

Wildlife, Headlights’ poignant third album, stems from particularly troubled beginnings. “It was a very difficult record,” relates guitarist and songwriter Tristan Wraight. While Wraight, fellow songwriter and keyboardist Erin Fein, and drummer Brett Sanderson have been touring and recording since 2004, this year found the band as a five piece for the first time with the addition of bassist Nick Sanborn and, temporarily, guitarist John Owen. Group dynamics are a difficult thing to predict, and the recording process proved tumultuous. After a few months, the band scrapped nearly everything. The fallout from the failed sessions eventually led to Owens’ amicable departure from the band.

“We had been so distracted by the issues that were going on internally, that we stopped thinking about what we were writing, what exactly we were doing, what we were saying, and all the questions you should be asking,” Fein explains.

Fein and Wraight felt a specific urgency in consolidating the band’s characteristically strong songwriting into something more nuanced and confidential. “For the first time this is a significantly personal record for us, and for very real reasons like growing up and people dying that you love,” Wraight says. Wildlife is an album haunted by the absence of those left and leaving and the alienation that comes in the wake of loss.

Fittingly, these emotions find expression in Headlights most arresting music yet. Similar to the band’s sophomore album Some Racing, Some Stopping, Wildlife was recording at home and mixed by Sanderson. It is the result of a streamlined process, one in which the band worked out songs before hand - whether in the next room or on the road - and put them to tape live. “On this record we just sang, that’s the take, that’s the part, there’s the vocals, here’s the mic, sing the song, done,” Wraight says. As a result, Wildlife doesn’t sacrifice immediacy while still retaining the production flourishes that lend allure and a heightened emotional depth to each song.

As if the complexity of what the band worked through can’t be confined to standard verse-chorus structures, Wildlife sees Headlights stretching out instrumentally, letting songs breathe and grow in a manner similar to their accomplished live sets. The band allows leadoff track, “Telephones,” to lift into a soaring, guitar-led coda. “Secrets” tight, claustrophobic verses and cyclic keyboards frame a breathless meditation on grief before erupting into wordless catharsis. The album isn’t without upbeat moments. “I Don’t Mind at All” is a blurred, chugging rocker in the vein of classic shoegaze. On “Get Going” acoustic strumming and a buoyant bassline carry the song to a liquid chorus.

Ultimately though, Wildlife is a work far more elegiac than rousing, where the intimacy and elegance of the songs never fail to remind us of what has been left behind. Rather than collapsing under the duress, Headlights have survived to surface with a collection of exquisite paeans to the transience of our friendships, lives, and aspirations. It is an album defined by moments like “Slow Down Town,” a hushed lament for lost youth, where Fein’s delicate vocals embrace all the vulnerability of adulthood, building into the most heartbreaking piece of Headlights’ career.

Headlights
Wildlife
(Polyvinyl)
Street Date: Oct. 6, 2009

1. Telephones
2. Secrets
3. You and Eye
4. Get Going
5. Love Song For Buddy
6. I Don’t Mind At All
7. Dead Ends
8. Wisconsin Beaches
9. We’re All Animals
10. Teenage Wonder
11. Slow Down Town

HEADLIGHTS LINKS:

Band Page: www.headlightsmusic.com

Myspace: www.myspace.com/headlights

Twitter: twitter.com/headlightsmusic

Pre-order link: www.polyvinylrecords.com/store/index.php?search=wildlife

Press Materials: www.polyvinylrecords.com/press