Ground Control Touring

From the band that’s been both accurately and inaccurately labeled just about everything this side of Top 40 comes a true-to-form rock-n-roll record. Scratch that, true-to-form is not Deer Tick’s style. Let’s start over…

Naturally, after so many years of critics praising [and making fun of] them for their “folk” and “country” sounds and hardly ever mentioning the fact that they’ve also recorded virtually dozens of other kinds of music, the band wanted to make a record that was truer to their live set (which has gained some notoriety): raw, loud, heartfelt, and completely uninterested in whatever the hell the rest of the music industry is up to.

To produce this record, the band recruited the team of Adam Landry and Justin Collins, who produced McCauley’s side-project Middle Brother’s debut album. The results are unlike anything you’ve heard on a Deer Tick album, but Deer Tick achieves something that is a lot more accurate to their live sound. Distorted guitars are aplenty, guitarist Ian O’Neil and drummer Dennis Ryan take lead vocal duties for the first time on record. Man, you can practically smell the sweat and the beer! Shit, you may even hear a guitar or two break somewhere in there! It’s got a little Exile, it’s got a little In Utero, it’s got a little Nilsson Schmilsson, but it’s 100% Deer-Fucking-Tick in their purest, and most carefree form… perhaps that’s because this is the first record they’ve recorded in their home state of Rhode Island… GAH!!! No need to over-think this shit!!! Moving on…

The songs are there. The delivery is in your face. There’s no studio magic. There’s no hiding the fact that Deer Tick is just five regular dudes. This record may rattle your thoughts, and it may make you think differently about Deer Tick, but at least they didn’t make the same album four times in a row, right?

-Cecil Thyme