Diamond Rugs w/Turbo Fruits, Ranch Ghost, James Wallace And the Naked Light & Denney and the Jets: at Marathon Music Works (Nashville, TN) Mon. October 29, 2012

Diamond Rugs w/Turbo Fruits, Ranch Ghost, James Wallace And the Naked Light & Denney and the Jets

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

As a rule, supergroups are generally not all that super (Velvet Revolver, Chickenfoot, et al). As an exception, Diamond Rugs are most excellent. A veritable Traveling Wilburys of indie rock (or better yet, a scuzzy Southern-rock Rockpile), Diamond Rugs (translated in “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”-speak as I’m-on-Drugs) features Deer Tick frontman and recent Nashville transplant John McCauley, his DT bandmate Robbie Crowell, The Black Lips’ Ian Saint Pé, Dead Confederate’s Hardy Morris, Six Finger Satellite’s Bryan Dufresne and, as an out-of-left-field wildcard, Los Lobos keyboardist/saxophonist Steve Berlin. The ragtag ensemble’s self-titled debut is a loose 14-track romp through panoramic, day-drunk dirges, hung-over heartland rock and tripped-out country psychedelia, making for the one of most satisfying low-key listens of 2012. Tonight, The D Rugs make their Music City debut, and they’ve assembled one helluva top-shelf local-rock undercard featuring Turbo Fruits, Ranch Ghost, Denney and the Jets, and James Wallace and the Naked Light.

—ADAM GOLD