Diamond Rugs

John McCauley has a reputation for enjoying a good collaboration with other artists between projects with his band <a href="spotify:artist:3rT8xTwSOMDURtWpPyoKIO">Deer Tick</a> -- some time off from the band led to the album Middle Brother, featuring McCauley, <a href="spotify:artist:23DFMY4nrnRu8bAAypT3HF">Taylor Goldsmith</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:4ndN8LWSsLWQqbWVJD8miG">Matthew Vasquez</a> -- and Diamond Rugs is a group that came together when McCauley happened to meet one of his favorite musicians. McCauley saw a performance by <a href="spotify:artist:6OWapcJm9xd55ci9CYbAuT">Los Lobos</a> in his adopted hometown of Nashville, and after the show he met <a href="spotify:artist:6NX36J027FUE913vmbBuWl">Steve Berlin</a>, who plays sax, keyboards, and percussion with the veteran Los Angeles group. McCauley and <a href="spotify:artist:6NX36J027FUE913vmbBuWl">Berlin</a> struck up a conversation, and McCauley mentioned he was planning on recording some solo material; he invited <a href="spotify:artist:6NX36J027FUE913vmbBuWl">Berlin</a> to play on the sessions, and <a href="spotify:artist:6NX36J027FUE913vmbBuWl">Berlin</a> agreed. McCauley soon rounded up an eclectic group of musicians to join them for the upcoming project, including <a href="spotify:artist:3rT8xTwSOMDURtWpPyoKIO">Deer Tick</a> bandmate Robbie Crowell, Ian Saint Pé of <a href="spotify:artist:7mnBLXK823vNxN3UWB7Gfz">the Black Lips</a>, Hardy Morris of <a href="spotify:artist:48H1nUrpRQzqDAYgoMOb0t">Dead Confederate</a>, and Bryan Dufresne of <a href="spotify:artist:2YtMRsnq57aXEt7mmgKIbS">Six Finger Satellite</a>. Once the six musicians arrived in the studio, plans for a McCauley solo album quickly fell by the wayside as the players began exchanging ideas and introducing material of their own into the mix. The musicians soon gelled into a band, and McCauley dubbed the new group Diamond Rugs. The results of their initial recording sessions appeared on a self-titled album, issued by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Partisan+Records%22">Partisan Records</a> in the spring of 2012. The group reconvened for a second outing at the same Nashville studio to record their follow-up Cosmetics which arrived in early 2015. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi