Contact Us Advertising Information Online exclusives Cover Story Buzz Feature In Case You Missed It Vote 2009 Boulderganic Fall 2009 Student Guide 2009 Boulder Weekly Sweet 16 Anniversary Boulderganic 2009 Summer Scene 2009 Email Newsletter Legal Services Best of Boulder 2009 Annual Manual 2009 Newspaper of the Future Kids Camp Guide 2009 Wedding Marketplace 09 Jobs available Student Guide 2008 Best of Boulder 2008 Annual Manual 2008 Join Our Mailing List
|
October 23-29, 2008
buzz@boulderweekly.com
Parasitic arachnids
Indie rockers Deer Tick burrow under Boulder’s skin
by Arjuna Orland
Tea party
Tea Leaf Green brews up a hot new album
by Dave Kirby
Parasitic arachnids
Indie rockers Deer Tick burrow under Boulder’s skin
by Arjuna Orland
In case you’re wondering, Wikipedia has two short definitions for the word “deer tick”: 1) “a parasitic arachnid residing in the Midwestern and Eastern United States; and 2) “a folk rock singer-songwriter.” I believe the latter describes 22-year-old John McCauley III, the young Providence, R.I., indie crooner whose seemingly never-ending tour hits the Fox Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 28. McCauley’s debut album War Elephant, on which he wrote all the songs (besides the classic tear-filled ballad “What Kind of Fool Am I?”) and played all the instruments, is making waves in the American underground.
The haunting textures, tormented poetry and desperate energy of War Elephant (due to be cleaned up and re-released by Partisan Records next month) defy the sometimes over-stretched songwriting and irritating musicianship (especially the inconsistent, childish drumming) that pops up throughout. McCauley’s songs are most effective when consciously short and succinct, like “Art Isn’t Real,” which is probably the highlight of the album with its enticing country hop and pessimistic ruminations. “There’s gotta be some old recipe,” McCauley laments. “’Cause I gotta get drunk / I gotta forget about some things.”
The shoddy bass and cardboard drums that infect War Elephant are triumphed by beautiful steel guitar, playful keys, twangy Wilco-esque electric guitar and (most of all) McCauley’s forlorn country voice, which is equal parts raspy and tender and can somehow make clichés powerful with its Nashville vibe: broken hearts and bottomless drinks à la Hank and Roy. McCauley’s voice and vibe sound like that of a man twice his age and experience, but he told me his vocal style isn’t just a product of an obsession with Tom Waits and Bob Dylan or even booze and cigarettes:
“I screamed in a lot of rock bands in high school and started smoking at 14. It’s the only way I really know how to sing now. But I’ve been learning proper breathing techniques in order to hit higher notes and sing with a bit more clarity. It’s beginning to work for me, and it’s like I’m getting a whole new voice. But don’t worry, it’s still got that rasp.”
There’s also literate angst in Deer Tick’s music that help McCauley lean more toward early ’90s indie-rock than the country-rock of, say, Uncle Tupelo. It’s somewhat due to the attractively simple guitar lines and the basement slop of the rhythm section but also just the in-your-face attitude of McCauley’s lyrics and delivery. “I got nothin’ to look forward to / ’cause I killed all the flowers,” he sings in “Dirty Dishes,” one of the best breakup songs in recent memory. “I can barely see straight to the back of my skull / and I’m shivering all night long…dreaming about you.” But McCauley admits he’s not much of a reader and draws most of his lyrical inspiration from personal experience:
“If I can be honest, I’m really not too well read,” he said. “I read mostly true crime and history books. In a way, there is a bit of a Deer Tick fantasy world. Most of my lyrics are from personal experience or the experiences of people I know. To write a song I sometimes fill things in with situations or characters that I create. But there’s truth in everything.”
McCauley also told me that growing up in Rhode Island, where by preschool he already knew how to record favorite songs off the radio, has shaped his world view in a big way:
“Providence is a gorgeous city with so much to draw inspiration from. Living in some of the more undesirable parts of town has been inspiring. Seeing all the old folks walking around Carroll Tower in Smith Hill; seeing the East Side flood with college students in the fall; seeing people just getting by and seeing people like prostitutes, drug addicts, drug dealers and homeless people. They’ve all affected me in some way. Rhode Island is a beautiful state, too. And those beaches, man...”
Spending so much time in a van crisscrossing these United States doesn’t afford much time for hitting “those beaches, man,” but McCauley has assembled a group of musicians he loves to play and travel with.
“We get along great on the road. Lots of laughs. We’ve been together a bit longer than a year. Before I recruited Dennis, Chris and Andy, Deer Tick was either me playing by myself or a rag-tag group of unrehearsed musicians. The four of us have known each other, played in bands with each other, and lived together for a while. It just kind of happened one by one — I got the idea in my head that I needed a solid lineup and went out and started [finding] people I wanted to play with.”
Legend has it that new Deer Tick lead guitarist Andrew Tobiassen (“Andy T”) was discovered drinking Smirnoff Ice while on break from washing dishes at Margaritaville in Panama City, but perhaps that’s part of the Deer Tick Fantasy World, as well. Another recent John McCauley fantasy involved his beloved Boston Red Sox representing the American League in this year’s World Series. When we talked last week, he told me, “I feel pretty good… I’m keeping the faith. Ran into a Boston native in a bathroom in Nashville last night. We had some Sox urinal talk. Felt right at home.”
Baseball might be getting the singer-songwriter down at this point, as Tampa Bay eventually eliminated Boston in the ALCS, but McCauley no doubt feels right at home on the road, which brings Deer Tick to Boulder on Tuesday.
On the Bill
Deer Tick will open for the Felice Brothers at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder, 303-443-3399.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
back to top
Tea party
Tea Leaf Green brews up a hot new album
by Dave Kirby
Hey… it’s been a weird year for everyone, OK?
Tea Leaf Green marked their 10 year anniversary in 2008 by breaking a three-year drought of fresh studio material and releasing Raise Up The Tent, a poised and mature offering that some are calling the Bay Area quartet’s long-anticipated and ostensibly overdue “breakthrough” album. Coming as it did after the successful Rock ’n’ Roll Band documentary/live-performance DVD shot at the Fox and released in 2006, a lot of folks were watching for this one.
But the album also came at an awkward moment for the band, recorded shortly after the departure of one of their founding members, bassist Ben Chambers, whose released statement suggested that the band’s heavy touring schedule had lost its appeal for him.
Rare that any band can make it a decade without defections, especially with a road ethic as unrelenting as TLG’s… but eventually it happens, and bands with this many miles on the clock usually dig deep and find the mettle to keep it all from unraveling.
Keyboardist/songwriter Trevor Garrod remarked on Chambers’ departure when we caught him on a rare day off in San Francisco recently.
“Y’know, it kind of did come from out of the blue, but after it happened, looking back, a lot of things started to make sense. It was sort like, ‘Ah, so that’s why that happened…’ I mean, it really was a pretty big deal, since he was an original member when we started 10 years ago.
“He told us that he wanted to make it a quick break, and I think we agreed that was the best thing. You don’t want someone up there with you who doesn’t really have his heart in it and doesn’t really want to be there.”
But the band faced down the challenge and recorded Raise Up The Tent anyway. Well received by the press and the band’s burgeoning legion of fans, the CD extends and solidifies their reputation as a solid, tune-worthy franchise, tapping Americana and indie-rock pedigree, even drifting here and there toward bar-band alt-country sensibilities, but only lightly channeling the jamband ethos from which they have nonetheless recruited much of their following. With no instrumentals here, barely a tune or two over five minutes in length, their association with the groove scene is probably as much their lengthy career opening for jamband stalwarts as it is aesthetic.
Chambers’ seat on the CD was filled by Reed Mathis, a founder and regular in Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, with side gigs including Steve Kimock and Marco Benevento.
“We started seeing Reed as far back as, I think, 2001, when we saw him play at the High Sierra Festival. I remember thinking what a badass bassist he was. And we’d cross paths at festivals over the years. So we called him up. At the time, his entire year was open, so he agreed to play with us. Unfortunately, his calendar for other obligations started to fill up, so he won’t be coming along with us for the Colorado dates.”
Longtime jamming partner Steve Adams, most recently of Animal Liberation Orchestra, will be filling in for Mathis when the band comes through for a three-date swing in the Denver area.
“Steve and Reed are totally different players. Reed is kind of a hot shot, where Steve is a very solid rhythm player. I played with Steve back in high school, so we go back a long way.
“Obviously, it’s not a perfect situation. You want to have someone that’s in the group full time, but it’s OK. I would invite any of our fans to come watch us with either guy. The songs are still there, and either of them work perfectly. We’re lucky, compared to the alternative; we have two awesome players right now.”
Raise Up The Tent was recorded last January in Richmond, Va., at David Lowery’s place, and Lowery cops the production credit on the sleeve. His touch is fully in evidence here, balancing a ragged, “garage d’or” immediacy with restraint and a deep appreciation for economy — get in, sing the song, crunch on it a little and get out.
“There were a whole bunch of people in the studio when we did it, so I guess you could say we have like three or four producers,” Garrod says. “David was in charge, but there were a bunch of people helping out.”
A few of the songs stood out for us. The hooky, almost martial stomp of “Don’t Curse at the Night” pivots perfectly around Garrod’s keys. The woozy Pigpen-era Dead trib “Stick To The Shallows,” and Garrod’s bruised redemption anthem, “Slept Through Sunday,” about a guy draining his deity from a bottle on Saturday night and nursing a remorseful hair o’ the dog for missing services the next day, are also standouts.
“Yeah, it’s like, ‘I found God last night, getting wasted in a bar someplace. Did I really find God? Was God really in the church instead? Is it the same God?’ Kind of… the big question.
“When it comes to writing, I guess I just gravitate more toward the metaphorical. Not to mention the Dead, but I remember reading an interview with Garcia, where he said that he’d get these poems from Robert Hunter, and when he turned them into songs, he’d intentionally omit some of the verses, so they made less literal sense. He liked the fact that the listener had to stretch to connect the dots. It made for a more active listener.
“I guess I try to do that as well. I have a whole bin of discarded verses,” he laughed. “It’s like an editor friend once told me — your words are like your babies, but don’t be afraid to kill a few of them.”
In the Box:
Tea Leaf Green will perform with Cornmeal at 9 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder, 303-443-3399.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
back to top
|
| |
