Deer Tick (band)

History

Deer Tick started out in December 2004 as a duo called My Other Face, which was essentially a project for John McCauley to write songs. Before that, McCauley had played in high school bands named Kadaver, El Toro, and Metro Savages, but he shifted away from the heavier rock he grew up with after getting into Hank Williams. The duo played their first show at The Growroom in Providence and then regularly played shows around Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York alongside musicians like Chris Paddock, Jana Hunter, and Diego Perez.

After splitting with drummer Paul Marandola, McCauley dropped the My Other Face name and went on a US tour in May 2005 with Viking Moses. While holding down low-paying jobs as a movie projectionist and a waiter at a Chinese restaurant, he kept touring with Miranda Stokes, Mandarin Dynasty, and Nat Baldwin. Following a year of touring and selling his music on handmade CD-Rs, he came back to Providence with a new sense of confidence and songs like "Dirty Dishes," "Art Isn't Real (City Of Sin)," and "Ashamed."

Up until mid-2007, McCauley was the only official member of the band, working with a rotating group of players that included Marandola and keyboardist James Falzone. Wanting to make Deer Tick a proper band, he asked drummer Dennis Ryan from neighboring Pawtucket to join in April 2007, and Dennis said yes right away. McCauley had earlier tried to get Dennis's half brother Chris Ryan, an old high school friend and local bass player who had played with Stefan Couture And The Campfire Orchestra, to join full-time, but Chris was finishing a music degree at Providence College.

War Elephant

After a nationwide tour and finishing his degree, Chris Ryan finally came on board. The band put out their first album, War Elephant, on September 4, 2007, through Jana Hunter's Houston label Feow! Records. It was recorded before Dennis and Chris Ryan joined, so neither plays on it; McCauley handled most of the instruments with help from Brian McOmber of Dirty Projectors, Nat Baldwin, and James Falzone.

The album included "These Old Shoes," a cover of a Chris Paddock song. After the first CD run sold out by January 2008 and a royalty payment dispute came up, the album went out of print, leaving the band on tour without proper copies to sell. McCauley would sometimes burn copies of the album onto CD-Rs to sell at shows.