John McCauley – Christmas In A Chinese Restaurant from Rollo & Grady Sessions on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago, we reported that John McCauley (Deer Tick), Robbie Crowell (Deer Tick), Ian Saint Pé (The Black Lips), Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), Hardy Morris (Dead Confederate) and Bryan Dufresne (Six Finger Satellite) had formed a new band and were set to record an album in Nashville. The super group has now settled on the name Diamond Rugs and released the single “Christmas In A Chinese Restaurant” for download.

Of the band’s origins, a Diamond Rugs spokesman explains, “Not too dissimilar from the beginnings of Middle Brother, McCauley decided he wanted to make another record during his downtime in his new home base of Nashville with producers Adam Landry and Justin Collins (Middle Brother, Deer Tick). While attending a Los Lobos show (one of his all-time favorite bands), he made his way backstage and met Steve Berlin. McCauley convinced Berlin to come to Nashville to play on the record. Over the course of the next month, he also managed to convince Saint Pe (whom he’d met once before), Morris (who had opened for Deer Tick on tour) and his good friend from his hometown of Providence, RI, Dufresne. McCauley also recruited Deer Tick keys/sax player Robbie Crowell to play bass on the album. What happened next was entirely unexpected; the musicians McCauley had recruited to play on his record, ended up contributing their own songs to the album and a fully-formed band emerged, rather than a group of musicians playing on another artists’ record.”

Diamond Rugs will make their public debut at Atlanta’s The Earl on December 29. A studio album is expected this spring.