“A nostalgia for that kind of seediness”: Deer Tick to explore mafia lore on new record Coin-O-Matic, due June

The record serves as a thematic departure for the group, exploring the intersection of working-class life and the organised crime network that once operated within the state – songs that examine desperation, grief and resilience against a backdrop of mafia lore.

The album’s title is borrowed from a cigarette-vending-machine company that notably served as the headquarters for Raymond Patriarca, a prominent mob boss who ran a powerful crime family. “If you grew up in Rhode Island years ago, you’d see all these mobsters on the news and then run into them at a restaurant on Federal Hill,” the band's frontman John McCauley explains. “They were criminals but also very colourful characters, and I wanted the album to partly reflect a certain nostalgia for that kind of seediness.”

The album’s lead single “Mary Singletary” deals with teenage lust and religious division and according to McCauley touches upon the scandal of interfaith relationships in his parents’ generation. “With that song in particular, I liked the idea of writing about Catholic guilt and pre-marital sex and adding in a little bit of Looney Tunes-style violence,” he explains. “Sometimes as a young Catholic boy, I did imagine a vengeful God cutting me down in a cartoonish kind of way.”

Coin-O-Matic is the follow-up to 2023’s Emotional Contracts and marks the first time the band have self-produced a record, having previously worked with the likes of Dave Fridmann. "At first it was daunting not to have that extra ear in the studio, but it felt like the right time to peel off the Band-Aid and fully trust ourselves,” guitarist Ian O’Neil says. “Since we were working in our own space and there weren’t any limitations on time, we had the freedom to take these four-guys-in-a-room rock songs and experiment with different ways of decorating them.”

The sessions for the record included contributions from guests including Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin on baritone saxophone and former member Rob Crowell on organ. The band’s drummer, Dennis Ryan, also took on engineering duties for the album: “We’ve never been so comfortable making a record, and I think you can feel that in the performances,” he explains. “We weren’t beholden to anyone else’s idea of what Deer Tick sounds like, and because of that this album feels like an unfettered capturing of who we are as a band.”

While the stories are rooted in the specific geography and characters of Rhode Island, the band see them as having a wider resonance. “I think there’s something universal in stories of regret and loss and poor decisions, even if they’re told through the lens of all the odd characters in this little state of ours,” O’Neil said. McCauley added: “Sonically, there’s nothing country about it, but to me it almost feels like a country record set in an urban environment—there’s definitely some outlaws in there.”

Coin-O-Matic artwork

Coin-O-Matic tracklist

“Dog Years”
“Mary Singletary”
“Endless Loop”
“Sweetest Thing”
“ACI”
“Everything Born”
“Eyelid”
“I Am an Island”
“507 Smith”
“Exit Door”
“Candy Cigarettes”