Audio By Carbonatix
It’s hard to say exactly what Brooklyn via Providence based alt-country band Deer Tick’s coolest claim to notoriety is: Hanging on NBC with Brian Williams, the undeniably fantastic cover to their debut album War Elephant (replete with enough girls and guns to make the late great Warren Zevon happy), associations with members of Dirty Projectors, the Castanets, and Jana Hunter, or songwriter/frontman John McCauley’s stunning mustache. Perhaps it’s best to bypass the superficial stuff and acknowledge them for their musical merit. The group cranks out a roughly-hewn hodgepodge of high lonesome twang, taut indie-rock inflected tension and crunchy, overdriven grunge dynamics, casting Richie Valens and Townes Van Zandt as the principal songwriters in Built to Spill, or coming on something like Vetiver with a wild hair and desire to “kick out the jams.” The boys were break out stars at this year’s SxSW, earning Rolling Stone’s David Fricke’s appointment as “Number One Breaking Band.” Deer Tick bring their ramshackle, unhinged, and domestic-beer-fueled stomp to Phoenix’s Modified on July 6th, touring in support of their brand new record, Born on Flag Day.
Mon., July 6, 7:45 p.m., 2009
