#AOTW: Diamond Rugs

For those of you who have been reading this column for a while now, it should be wildly clear that I have a hetro lifemate man crush on Deer Tick’s lead singer John McCauley. It’s reached a new level as McCauley has now started his third band called, Diamond Rugs. So far I’ve loved all his records with Tick and Middle Brother, and Diamond Rugs is more of the same high quality rock that I’ve come to expect. The guy is super talented. McCauley catches a bad wrap as being a partier, a drinker, a drug user, and an all around instigator of chaos both on the stage and off. He’s not helping his negate that rep by doing interview like this one, but who cares?

What happened man? Have the days of rock stars being admired for their lifestyles of reckless abandon gone the way of the Dodo? I sure hope not. At this point in his career it’s time critics and fans of music alike, recognize him. There doesn’t seem to be an off switch for the guy. Two bands didn’t seem to be enough of a creative outlet for McCauley, so now we have Diamond Rugs, a super group of musicians that know how to party harder than the average man. A few months back they released their first self titled album, which was recently voted one of the Top 25 albums of the year by Filter. This week’s Artist of The Week: Diamond Rugs.

Diamond Rugs brings together two of my favorite bands. Deer Tick and the Black Lips, both notorious for causing a ruckus. There are also a few other key players. The band consists as follows.

Deer Tick dudes

John McCauley: Vocals/ Guitar

Robbie Crowell: Vocals/ Keyboard/ Sax

Black Lips alum

Ian Saint Pé: Guitar/Vocals

Dead Confederates vet

Hardy Morris: Guitar/ Vocals

A Los Lobos survivor

Steve Berlin: Percussion/ Sax/ Keys

Six Finger Satellite flange

Bryan Dufresne: Drums

And then there are some other fellas that come and go.

All of these cats came together when McCauley expressed interest in doing some solo work. It didn’t stay solo for long. After meeting up with Berlin in Nashville, it was only a matter of time before McCauley called on a few other buddies to come together and start writing, recording, and of course…drinking. If you like fun tunes then this is the band for you.

Lets start things off with the opening track fronted by Ian Saint Pé. For me, the thing I love most about the Black Lips, was their fearlessness to go for a primitive punk rock sound. Saint, always appeared to play with an aggressive attitude yet with a remarkably passive demeanor. It harks back to the days of The Velvet Underground. I know that’s a grand comparison, but if you listen, you’ll get what I mean. They play with attitude, an attitude that you could never dream of matching. It’s an element missing from modern music yet this song seems to capture it.

Here’s a bit of a tangent. All to often bands get big and then some asshole who can sort of strum a guitar starts taking themselves too seriously, and begins to think they have a right to speak on politics. We have enough Bonos in the world. We don’t need more of them. What we do need more of is Andrew W.K.s. Can we please get back to rocking for the hell of it? Please? Hightail is a great example of that bygone era attitude. It’s song about a dude whose lady literally “hightails” it out of a relationship. And rather than pining about it, like so many others, Saint does what a man should do. He deals. He deals because…well shit, worse things could happen. Despite all the bullshit, he’s still gonna kick it, he’s still gonna keep going, because he doesn’t know how to do anything else.

If that doesn’t get you tapping your feet then I don’t know what will. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be this week

Saint is also at the reins of Diamond Rug’s first single Blue Mountains. This is the most Black Lips-esque song on the album. The instrumentation is basic and catchy as hell, while Saint “white guy skats” over half of the song. Saint, forever in his Ray Bans exudes rock and roll gusto. He looks like M. Ward if M. Ward’s hobbies included heavy drinking, rocking out, fighting bouncers, inciting riots, and pissing on stage in front of live audiences. But here he’s toned it down. This is literally the first time I’ve ever seen him appear this calm. The version of Blue Mountains they performed on Letterman a while back was a bit livelier than the recording on the album, and the backing vocals from McCauley and Morris are a great addition.

Next up, 100 Sheets sung by Dead Confederates’ Hardy Morris. This song really embraces the use of Diamond Rugs’ horn section. I have always been a fan of horns in rock bands. They really add an element to the genre. And Berlin is no slouch when it comes to horns. The guy is brings the perfect amount of brass to the tracks. They hit perfectly and I couldn’t love them more. Berlin is exceptional on 100 Sheets and McCauley’s Call Girl Blues.

Sidebar: Dead Confederates is a great band name. Not good. Great. It’s just two words that seem to belong next to each other. What better than a dead confederate?

Finally we get to my favorite track on the album titled I Took Not, sung by McCauley, which is actually a cover originally performed by Mandarin Dynasty.

This is the beauty of bands like Diamond Rugs. Sure they may act like drunken, violent buffoons, but from listening to their songs you get the idea that a lot of it is false bravado. Their songs are about heartbreak, hangovers, insecurity, and depression. But rather than wallowing, they take those dark feelings and give them an edge, and that’s what makes them stand out. I like the edge. I don’t want my sad songs to make me feel worse. I want to get picked up off the ground by music. I don’t need it to hold me down. I feel like most critics appose that. They want sad music to be exactly that. So they rip Tick, they rip Diamond rugs, and they somehow get pleasure from doing so. So in closing I pose a question to all those writers that feel the need to take to their keyboards with less than rapier wit. Why are you hating these guys for having more fun than you? As soon as you get over being a mope, feel free to join the rest of us at the party.

Enjoy the band. See you next week.

Big hugs,

Kelly