Diamond Rugs

[wolof7]

taken from the A.V. Club:

Diamond Rugs is a new band made up of members from old, familiar bands: There's John McCauley and Robbie Crowell from the drunk-punk roots-rock band Deer Tick, Ian Saint Pé of drunk-punk garage-rock outfit The Black Lips, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, Hardy Morris of Dead Confederate, and Bryan Dufresne of Six Finger Satellite. Diamond Rugs is so new it hasn't even played a show yet. (The group is scheduled to make its live debut Dec. 29 in Atlanta.) But Diamond Rugs has recorded an album, which is due out in spring, and it includes an end-of-the-night ode with a yuletide spirit, "Christmas In A Chinese Restaurant," which we're streaming exclusively below. It's not exactly a holiday carol, but if this time of year signifies loneliness and isolation for you, this song ought to conjure that special Christmas feeling quite nicely.

http://soundcloud.com/partisan-records/diamond-rugs-christmas-in-a/s-CF8Fh

Certainly looking forward to this in the coming months...classic MacCauley on this one!

[mahg33ta]

maybe this was obvious to all buy me, duh- but John said the name comes from "damn, I am on drugs!!"

[mahg33ta]

I agree that it's a classic MacCauley song - his delivery live was fantastic too... hope this one sticks around a while.

[wolof7]

This has me really excited!!!

http://mplayer.pastemagazine.com/issues/week-26/articles#article=/issues/week-26/articles/diamond-rugs-looking-up-from-the-floor

[Ruckus]

First official single - meh.  After Let's All Go To The Bar, I didn't need another one with a little sax in it.  I do expect some more diverse sounds from the rest of this album

http://diamondrugs.viinyl.com/
http://www.spin.com/articles/first-spin-grab-indie-rock-supergroup-diamond-rugs-gimme-beer

[mahg33ta]

agreed-  meh.   sounds like they were having a fun time recording it, but doesn't necessarily translate to a good track.

[Penny Lane]

so far kinda disappointed in both songs...i love the black lips sound they add to it..but that's about it...agree it's like 'let's all go to the bar'

[Ruckus]

http://www.relix.com/features/2012/03/08/reel-time-john-mccauley-on-recording-with-diamond-rugs

I like this part:

How would you describe Diamond Rugs' sound?

It's pretty heavy. It's pretty rocking. It's a little psychedelic. It's got great horn sections. There's one song with dueling pedal steels, hard pans left and right—that was with Bucky Baxter and Spencer Cullum Jr. in Nashville. We were trying stuff that we hadn't really tried before. It's got a lot of familiarity to it, but it also sounds original without sounding annoying or trying to be extremely original or something.

[mahg33ta]

This is what I find interesting
Do you have any touring plans?We're working that out. We are going to try and do as many festivals as we can this year. We're thinking about a time where we can do a proper tour because all of our bands are so busy. Everybody is excited about it. We're going to make it happen even if it means none of us get a week off in the next year.



So far I don't think they've announced any festivals, right?   Either their plans have changed or they are going to be late additions.   I'd be curious to see them at Forecastle, right?  And Deer Tick is already there....


On a downer note, I'm just not a huge fan of the "lets write some songs in the studio and record them" type albums.    Sometimes you capture lightning in a bottle but the vast majority of the time you get mediocre songs that are forgettable in a few years.   This seems to be my biggest complaint w McCauley... slow down, don't be so prolific, and actually put some time and thought into your songs.   Quotes like the following don't inspire confidence:

When we finished a song and had no more material, we'd all go sit down with a pen and paper, and 20 minutes later, we'd have a song and we'd do it.

[Penny Lane]

When we finished a song and had no more material, we'd all go sit down with a pen and paper, and 20 minutes later, we'd have a song and we'd do it.

that explains the last album..

[YouAre_GivenToFly]

This seems to be my biggest complaint w McCauley... slow down, don't be so prolific, and actually put some time and thought into your songs.   Quotes like the following don't inspire confidence:

When we finished a song and had no more material, we'd all go sit down with a pen and paper, and 20 minutes later, we'd have a song and we'd do it.

I had a similar thought recently. We were driving back from their NYE show in NYC, listening to War Elephant or BoFD and I got the feeling that the band just wasn't patient enough to write songs like those anymore. Kind of a bummer.

[Ruckus]

Album streaming at teamcoco

[wolof7]

Better than I expected....got me dem Call Girl Blues  ;)

[Murph]

When I first heard about this project I couldn't wait to see what the hell they came up with.  After one turn through, I loved it.  McCauley sings lead on most of the songs, which is fine with me.  Early favorites are definitely Call Girl Blues, Country Mile and Gimme A Beer.  I can see myself bumping this one all summer.

[EasyRyder]

This is sweet, thanks for the link, Rob. Hungover and Horny is so damn catchy, Call Girl Blues is an early favorite too 

[wolof7]

5.1 on Pitchfuck, interestingly a better review than most of MacCauley's releases although he continues to shit on him throughout the whole review.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16525-diamond-rugs-diamond-rugs/

Pitchfork is really throwing down the gauntlet here, If I was Deer Tick I would sue for Libel.

"Deer Tick's star has risen in a manner directly proportional to their willingness to get as ornery about abusing alcohol and women as possible, and their most mean-spirited record to date (2011's Divine Providence) ended up getting them more "spirit of rock'n'roll" praise than ever."

? Abusing women, where the hell did this writer get that. The only lyric even possible of being misinterpreted would be that line from that Middle Brother song Blue Eyes which Matt from Delta Spirit wrote and sings.

[YouAre_GivenToFly]

5.1 on Pitchfuck, interestingly a better review than most of MacCauley's releases although he continues to shit on him throughout the whole review.
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16525-diamond-rugs-diamond-rugs/

Pitchfork is really throwing down the gauntlet here, If I was Deer Tick I would sue for Libel.

"Deer Tick's star has risen in a manner directly proportional to their willingness to get as ornery about abusing alcohol and women as possible, and their most mean-spirited record to date (2011's Divine Providence) ended up getting them more "spirit of rock'n'roll" praise than ever."

? Abusing women, where the hell did this writer get that. The only lyric even possible of being misinterpreted would be that line from that Middle Brother song Blue Eyes which Matt from Delta Spirit wrote and sings.

Whoever does Deer Tick's facebook (which might actually be John) posted a nice response.

"Pitchfork accuses Deer Tick of abusing women... Fuck you Pitchfork. Fuck you until you die."

[ironmike]

album is great......pitchfork is taken it to far

[Ruckus]

Tour Dates
http://www.partisanrecords.com/artists/diamond-rugs/events

[Jon T.]

Tour Dates
http://www.partisanrecords.com/artists/diamond-rugs/events

They've been teasing dates for a month and this is what they throw out?  Hanson tours harder than that.