If you're feeling self destructive, Deer Tick are probably the band to go on a new-lows bender with.

The Providence quartet play a greasy brand of Americana that's soaked in whiskey and god knows what else, giving ragged sad sacks a sparring partner for tales of woe. Sure this dusty road has been walked before, but the band are pretty savvy wallowers: They understand their sadness is an American institution and that part of the tragedy of their roots revival is that this heartbreaking music needs to be revived at all.

The characters in Deer Tick's songs are pretty much alcoholism personified. “There's gotta be some old recipe/ 'Cause I gotta get drunk I gotta forget about some things" frontman John McCauley sings on “Art Isn't Real (City of Sin).” The song is a good place to start with the band, its finger-plucked-melody worn down by melancholy. Perfectly placed string flourishes and slide guitar hit along with McCauley's gut punching lyrics. He sings, “maybe I'll see better days/ but I'm not sure I will,” and you know this isn't the first long night he's stumbled through.

Deer Tick plays the Tractor Tavern this Thursday, April 22
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