Day 3, Deer Tick - War Elephant

Deer Tick’s War Elephants made me tap my foot, and stager; nod my head, and bang it; smile, and drop my mouth wide open. It was an interesting mix of country, emo, rockabilly, and punk rock. Needless to say they toe a few lines, but I couldn’t decide if it was because they don’t know who they really are or because they are awesome and can do whatever they want. There are a few songs which seemed ripped off of a decent Bob Dylan album, but also a few moments I could swear I was listening to a Modest Mouse cover. They are strongest when they sit in one place or the other. For example, the first track “Ashamed” is a completely self-aware folk ditty and they run with it quite nicely. The track “Not So Dense” goes the other way, mashing twanged-out electric guitars and screaming vocals, and I dig it, too. The rest of the tracks fall somewhere in the middle—more or less.

I couldn’t help but likening these guys to one of those fake hunter bars with taxidermy on the walls, lots of wood, beer in cans, and cranky hipsters. To be more specific, this album reminded me of Redwood and/or Linda’s: two bars in Seattle, WA where cheep beer and well whiskey flows as liberally as hyperbolic opinions on God and “the media.” When you are at Redwood, Linda’s or the Bushwick, Brooklyn equivalent you are at a bar in the middle of a concrete city. It’s obvious that you are sitting in a physical mockery, but for some reason, nobody there thinks it’s too funny, which disturbs me. War Elephants works the same way. Punk rock Rhode Island kids singing country...pretty ironic.

Lyrically, War Elephants takes itself very (too?) seriously. It is provocative, but when it is all stacked up it comes off abrupt and overwhelming. By the time you get to track 13 and John McCauley is yelling “Christ, Jesus!” and claiming that he wants to kill himself and/or Jesus, I have to keep myself from shamefully laughing. I just don't believe it. I feel awful for saying this because I don’t doubt that this song is about John's cry for help during a depressing time in his life, and it saddens me to hear about someone’s destroyed relationship with God, but it I can't help it-I just don’t believe it. The muddled bass, the weird effects, the dramatic entrances and exits of the instruments, the repetitive lyrics. It just sounds like he is cashing in on screaming Jesus Christ backwards and being all blasphemous and angry-like. Just how these hunter bars in the middle of a city need to realize the humor of their irony, if you are going to wear neon-green aviators and sing country songs, you need have a sense of humor about it.