The bright yellow 10-year-old GMC schoolbus was used on the band's 2009 tour, which brought the five-piece through the Rhythm Room just about one year back. That time through, Deer Tick was sporting the new album Born on Flag Day; the bus, accordingly, got tagged with the name The Flagship.
"Well, we've had this bus that's kinda taking up space. We couldn't drive it anymore because we got in trouble with the Department of Transportation for, uh, some issues," says frontman and songwriter John McCauley, on the road somewhere in the Carolinas when the New Times caught up with him last week. "We didn't know what to do with the stupid thing, so we wanted to do something to raise money to donate to OxFam. And we just put it up for auction. I was thinking I wanted to do some kind of benefit show for Pakistan, but I don't remember who it was who came up with the idea of that."
The three-week auction wraps up this Sunday. "The buy-it-now price was $3000," says McCauley, "so I hope we can at least raise this much cash." As of this posting, the going price for The Flagship is $1,500. Click on over to http://tinyurl.com/deertickbusauction for what's up right now.
Deer Tick, currently touring as a five-piece with the addition of a keyboard player, checks in at the Sail Inn on Saturday, Oct. 16, with J-Roddy Walston & the Business opening. Info about OxFam is available at oxfamamerica.org, and for more on Deer Tick you'll want to point yourself to www.deertickmusic.com.
