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From The Desk Of Diamond Rugs: Rock ‘N’ Roll Vs. Age Part One

As was the case with Diamond Rugs’ 2012 self-titled debut record, much of the band’s sophomore album, Cosmetics, formed and grew in the studio. That’s an impressive feat, considering that Diamond Rugs is something of a weekender project for members of no fewer than five bands, all of whom keep moderate-to-ridiculous recording and touring schedules anyway: John McCauley and Robbie Crowell (both Deer Tick), Ian St. Pé (Black Lips), T. Hardy Morris (Dead Confederate), Bryan Dufresne (Six Finger Satellite) and the legendary Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, Blasters and about six dozen other outfits). The boys in the band will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our recent feature on them.

GuidedByVoices

Crowell: About a year ago, I went through a long period of re-evaluating a lot of things in my life. One thing that crossed my mind was that maybe I was getting a bit too old, at 33, to be playing/touring in rock bands. Coincidentally, around this time my friend Bobby Bare Jr. needed a bassist for a tour opening for Guided By Voices. I knew a bit about GBV, a few songs heard late at night, filtered through countless Heinekens and packs of cigarettes while hanging with my rock ‘n’ roll gurus Dave Marsh and Paul Boudreau, long after the customers at the bar Paul owned had gone home. The first night we opened for them, in Des Moines, I believe, I had no idea what to expect. I certainly didn’t expect five men over 50 to pummel the audience with two-and-a-half hours of relentless three-minute songs, fuzzy pop and abstract rock compacted into a menacing and brutally awesome package. Three nights in, while talking to Bob Pollard after the show, I asked, “Bob, do you do yoga or what? How the hell can you swing your leg straight over your head in the middle of singing?” He smirked and replied, “Are you fucking kidding me? It takes at least 10 beers for me to pull that off.”

No one’s too old for rock’n’roll.

Video after the jump.