Deer Tick On World Cafe

In this session, we welcome Deer Tick into our studio. This is a band that can go from in-your-face to introspective on a dime – and they do, on their new set of two full-length albums, Deer Tick Volume 1 and Volume 2. The former is folkier with just a little bit of a bite, while the band gets heavy and lets their punk influence rip on Volume 2. And although the music sounds different on both sides, the lyrics share the clever craft that's made Deer Tick beloved purveyors of both humor and heart.

The band of four visited World Cafe to play songs from both sides today. And I'll talk to lead singer John McCauley and guitarist Ian O'Neil about what's changed since their last album, 2013's Negativity. McCauley married singer Vanessa Carlton and had a child, O'Neil got married, too, and they went from a hard-partying bunch of wild ones to a band of guys with families and slightly different priorities who, in their words, sometimes still drink too much. We'll talk about celebrity sobriety, and they'll play a song called "Look How Clean I am", which addresses something I would call faux-briety.

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