photos by Tim Griffin

MG& V @ the All House

MG&V, the new project of John McCauley (frontman of Deer Tick), Taylor Goldsmith (frontman of Dawes), and Matt Vasquez (frontman of Delta Spirit), made their debut (not counting a private performance they taped for IFC one day earlier) with a late-night set to a capacity crowd at Austin's Ale House on Friday, March 19th. Taylor's brother and bandmate Griffin played drums. Delta Spirit's Kelly Winrich played keys. Deer Tick family member Jonny Corndawg helped perform a song he also recorded and wrote with the group. As Duke Street Blog points out, "The set was filled with heartfelt Americana tunes, all featuring a healthy splash of CSN-like harmonies." Deer Tick actually played a set an hour earlier at Lucero's SXSW showcase at Red Eyed Fly (where they were joined by Nikki Darlin for a song). John ran right from show to show (as did Tim and I) (luckily we all saw Lucero earlier that same day). More pictures and a bunch of videos from both shows are below.

Their regular bands all made their fair share of appearances at SXSW this year too. Deer Tick (who played BV shows in 2009 and 2008) even had their own unofficial showcase this year at Threadgill's (with Cordawg, Those Darlins, Liz Isenberg, Chris Paddock and others on the bill). One of Dawes's shows was at the official BrooklynVegan showcase. Various videos from the week below.

Coming up, Deer Tick have a huge list of tour dates, which include shows with Those Darlins and run with Dr. Dog that makes a May 15th stop at Terminal 5.

Dawes's shows include opening for Josh Ritter at Town Hall on May 19th and a June tour with Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

Jonny Corndawg will play shows in April and June that include April 7th at Pianos, April 8th at Knitting Factory with Tim Barry, and June 11th with David Allan Coe. All dates below.

Last but not least, Delta Spirit have announced a run of tour dates set for June and July. They'll bring along Ezra Furman & the Harpoons and The Romany Rye for those. The three bands play Bowery Ballroom on June 30th and Music Hall of Williamsburg on July 1st. Tickets just went on sale.

Delta Spirit's new record, History From Below, is set to come out June 8th on Rounder Records.

"All we wanted to do is put the record together one song at a time," says Delta Spirit's singer/guitarist Matthew Vasquez about History From Below. "It's been three years of straight touring off our last record so most of the songs were written in hotel rooms and tested in front of an audience. We spent spent six months of this last year making a record that sums up three years of growing up."

The album was produced by My Morning Jacket's keyboardist Bo Koster and Eli Thomson, and you can check out the album art and tracklist below.

Everything mentioned, pictures, videos & lots of tour dates, below...

Continue reading "MG&V debuted @ SXSW (pics & video), Delta Spirit releasing new album & touring (dates), Jonny Corndawg shows & more"

photos by Bryan Bruchman

DOWNLOAD: Deer Tick - Easy (new MP3)

As previously mentioned, Deer Tick are going on a short tour with Jenny Lewis in June, June 9th at Music Hall of Williamsburg included. On July 4th, Jenny Lewis is playing a much bigger and much cheaper show (free) in Battery Park with Conor Oberst.

And I'm happy to announce that Deer Tick will be playing a free NYC show of their own this summer, though like Jenny Lewis, it will be as an opening band. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals headline the 'Celebrate Brooklyn' show in Prospect Park on August 7th. Other bands confirmed for free shows at the Brooklyn bandshell this summer are They Might Be Giants, David Byrne, Dr. Dog, and Phosphorescent. The entire schedule will be announced on May 4th.

And between June and August, Deer Tick will not be resting. After finishing with Jenny, John Joseph McCauley III (his full name according to MySpace) and crew (Deer Tick) will stay on the road, teaming up for a tour with Dawes for most of July, and then hitting the Bowery Ballroom for another headlining NYC show in that venue on July 24th (no opener or ticket info yet).

In October, Deer Tick is also scheduled to play Austin City Limits, and the Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival.

Deer Tick's new album Born on Flag Day will be released on June 23rd via Partisan Records. The first legally released track is available for download above. The entire track list, (new) cover art (they trashed the first design), more pictures from the 2009 BV SXSW show, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Deer Tick - new MP3, Prospect Park w/ Grace Potter, Bowery Ballroom, new album, more SXSW pics & 2009 Tour Dates"