John McCauley of Deer Tick wasn’t even born when John Cougar Mellencamp recorded Authority Song, but McCauley recently made an appearance on The Fader web-series Open Bar and treated everyone to a solid rendition of this classic Middle American style “punk” anthem. While sounding a little rough, eternally hungover, and years older than he really is McCauley and his distinctive voice and presence have Deer Tick poised for a break-out year. If there’s any doubt simply check out their Bri-tunes interview. After all, if you’re on NBC’s radar shouldn’t you be on everybody’s? Deer Tick’s upcoming record Born On Flag Day is scheduled for a June 23^rd release on Partisan Records.

We’re not the kind of fans that hope their favorite band never gets discovered by others, and we understand when they sit down and labor through an interview with a well regarded news anchor for the sake of publicity. That last comment was put to the test after watching Deer Tick on the inaugural BriTunes webcast. For the record we love Deer Tick and we don’t dislike Brian Williams. In fact we appreciate him sticking it to Katie Couric in the ratings. We’re just not sure if this is a series that’s worth continuing. Anyway, watch it for yourself, but if you are uncomfortable with awkward moments and unnecessary itunes references then it could be an excruciating 3 minutes.