John McCauley sounds like shit.
Not on the new album by Middle Brother, of course; heavens, no. On their self-titled debut, McCauley and fellow front men Taylor Goldsmith and Matthew Vasquez sound great, each bringing his own flavor of musical talent to the table.
The three each hail from their own well-established indie bands (McCauley from Deer Tick; Goldsmith from Dawes; Vasquez from Delta Spirit), allowing the music press to slap a “supergroup” label on them just on general principles.
The fact is, this is the most non-supergroup-acting trio you might ever hear. Neither their album nor their live shows have a whole lot to do with ego or attitude – what Middle Brother thrives on is the sheer goddamn joy of playing music together. Playing it well. And, above all else, just playing.
Which may explain why John McCauley sounded the way he did when I got him on the phone. Middle Brother had returned from a stretch of performances at SXSW (something like, oh, 84 shows in 4 days or whatever).
In the end, the interview was similar to a live, late-night Middle Brother set: smiles and good times with an undercurrent of “this thing could go hurtling off the rails and down into the canyon at any moment.” Me, being the suave professional that I am, start things off on what I’m pretty sure is the right foot …
BR: In the interest of being completely honest with you, John, I feel like I should tell you this: you sound like shit, man.
JM: (laughs, then coughs, then laughs some more) Naw … I’m doing (cough) okay. (laughs)
BR: You’ve been crazy busy between the Middle Brother gigs and Deer Tick and whatever else, right? You should get some orange juice or something …
JM: I had some orange juice yesterday … (laughs)
BR: Jeez, seems like that ought to do it. Well, while I’m on this run of being completely honest with you, there’s this: I doubt that you have much time to read reviews, but just in case, I wanted to tell you right up front that I’m the guy who wrote that your vocals on the Middle Brother album “vacillate between sounding like a Tuvan throat singer with a four-pack-a-day habit and a half-drunk-and-broken-hearted Paul Westerberg.”
JM: (laughs) I did read that, actually.
BR: Well, believe it or not, it’s meant to be a compliment.
JM: Oh, it’s cool; it’s cool. (laughs, then coughs)
BR: Speaking of Mr. Westerberg, why did you choose to cover the Replacements’ “Portland” on the Middle Brother album?
JM: We were playing the Replacements’ Don’t Tell A Soul album a lot while we were in the studio – listening to it over and over. And we were screwing around, trying to do a couple covers … “Portland” was the one that worked out. (laughs)
BR: Ah – it must’ve been the reissue with the bonus cuts.
JM: Yeah, exactly.
BR: As much as I love The Replacements, I’ve never listened to any of the reissues or compilations – so until your album, I’d never heard “Portland”. In fact, until I read the liner notes, I thought you guys had written it and were quoting from the Replacements’ “Talent Show” – the “It’s too late to turn back; here we go!” line.
JM: (laughs) Right, right …
BR: From this album and your work with Deer Tick, I’m guessing Westerberg’s one of your musical influences.
JM: Yeah, he’s up there. Definitely.
BR: Who else?
JM: Well … I’d say my three favorite bands are probably Nirvana, The Band, and The Replacements.
BR: You can’t go wrong there …
JM: Yeah. And then a bunch of singer/songwriter guys like Hank, Townes, Paul Simon … stuff like that, as well.
BR: I won’t go on and on about The Replacements – I think we’re supposed to be talking about Middle Brother –
JM: (laughs) Yeah, but, you know … The Replacements are cool, too …
BR: Well, I did want to ask: did you ever see the clip from that hokey International Rock Awards Show or whatever it was back in the late ‘80s?
JM: Yeah – that’s where they did “Talent Show’?
BR: I loved that!
JM: It’s great, man. (laughs)
[Note: For those who’d like to know more about this moment in rock ‘n’ roll history, here’s some suggested reading and some suggested watching which, between the two, may give you a little extra insight into John McCauley and Middle Brother’s approach to music and the art of live performance.]
BR: It summed up The Replacements’ history in, like, three or four minutes of live rock and roll. It’s like watching a drunk up on a tightrope: “He’s gonna fall!” “There he goes!” “Ahhhh!” But he never loses his footing and I think it’s fair to say that there’s a certain amount of that at a Middle Brother show, right?
JM: I guess we present ourselves in that same way. (laughter) We’ve just recently realized that some of our favorite bands did shit like that … we’re not the only band that plays drunk. (laughs)
BR: Hey, speaking of the band as a whole, it seems like the rest of the gang doesn’t usually get a lot of attention in the press. How about we talk about them for a minute?
JM: Oh, yeah – that’s cool. Taylor’s brother Griffin Goldsmith from Dawes is on drums. We had two drum kits on stage during the East Coast tour … every now and then somebody else would hop on the other set and we’d have two drummers at once. Dennis Ryan from Deer Tick has sat in on drums with us.
Tay Strathairn from Dawes and Rob Crowell from Deer Tick have both played keys with us. Wylie Gelber from Dawes comes in on bass for a few songs when, you know, I’m not playing it. (laughs) And then we have Jonny Corndawg, of course.
BR: Ah – yes: Jonny Corndawg. On the album, he’s on the title cut, right?
JM: Yeah – he helped write that song with us.
BR: Well, fill us in – the world needs to know more about Corndawg.
JM: I couldn’t agree more. (laughs) I met Corndawg, like, six or seven years ago when he was working in Philadelphia. We just became friends over the years and started playing more shows together.
Corndawg was living in Nashville while we were recording Middle Brother and he was working on his own record right down the street. He’d kind of just pop in about once a day to see how things were going and hang out and whatever.
We wrote this song together – me, Corndawg, and Taylor – and when it came time to cut it, we asked Jonny, “Why don’t you sing a verse?” It turned out great.
Delta Spirit, Dawes, and Deer Tick have been Corndawg’s backup bands at one time or another – and he’s been out on tour with Middle Brother. Corndawg’s basically as big a part of this band as anyone else, you know? For me, his presence is there on the record … even though he’s not playing or singing on a lot of the songs, his influence is there.
BR: And he has an album coming out?
JM: Yeah – it’s called Down On The Bikini Line.
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