Deer Tick and Brian Williams Get Awkward

[mp3] Deer Tick: "Easy"

NBC News anchor Brian Williams has always been one of the good guys: intelligent and down to earth in his nightly news telecasts without being preachy, and witty and self-deprecating in his appearances on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock without forcing it. So, Brian Williams checklist, you guys: smart, funny, relatable. But brilliant rock journalist he is not.

In his new online series BriTunes -- an awful and certainly corporate-inspired title -- Williams profiles upcoming indie rock bands. He's got a knack for "identifying good music and good groups, discovering them early and following them through their journey." Inexplicably, Stark faves Deer Tick are the first band in the inaugural segment, and duh, the whole piece is cringeworthy. Williams asks John McCauley and gang what is essentially the same question (what's it like to be an emerging band?) several different ways, and then comes off like a dad when describing the epic "use of the crash" (hand motions included) at the end of the song "Dirty Dishes." The whole thing is bizarre. Not quite Weezy/Miss Katie bizarre, but close.

Deer Tick will release Born On Flag Day via Partisan on June 23, which is not Flag Day.