Tick Me Off

They haven't been around that long- their first album came out in 2007 - but the Rhode Island band Deer Tick has already become as annoying as the insect they named themselves after. Their most recent single of this writing, "Miss K," with its sparse, traditional guitar arrangement, purports to be a savvy, modern take on rock and alternative country. Instead, it sounds like a warmed-over Spin Doctors record. I've written here before that hip-hop is relentlessly pushing rock and roll out of the way, but if Deer Tick is rock's way of fighting back, we might as well surrender right now.

As far as I can discern, "Miss K" is about a free-spirited, spacey chick that the narrator wants to get more personal with. It sounds like a daring song, but its only daringness is throwing in an expletive that the college indie stations that play it are only going to bleep out anyway. The music is so low in key it almost evaporates, and the male protagonist's directives the woman in question almost sound like the sexual musings of a high school freshman - "Come on, Miss K, put you lovin' arms around me / Talk dirty, turn me on, let's get goin'."

Maybe there's more to Deer Tick than this song, but I doubt it. As John Cafferty proved back in the eighties, no band from Rhode Island should be taken seriously.

Also, no band named "Deer Tick" is ever going to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Beatles, yes. Deer Tick, no.