June 2002 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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June 2002 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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Deerhoof release 4th album, start short US tour 4 June 2002
On their fourth full length, San Francisco avant-garde flag bearers Deerhoof let loose with a sustained burst of creative insanity... maintaining a state of continual surprise across 16 tracks and 33 minutes. Call it anti-chill. Now, surprise gets boring quickly. How long do you want to listen to the percussive genius of a toddler loose in a kitchen? But Deerhoof modulate their strangeness with a knife-edge musical sensibility, randomly breaking their own patterns while maintaining just enough coherence and melodic focus to keep it tasty. On Reveille, out today as a joint release by Olympia, Washington indies Kill Rock Stars and 5 Rue Christine, Deerhoof ricochet among prog-rock, noise-punk, space-jazz, and post-musique-concrète without missing a bleep. Reveille is as wonderfully euphonious as it is ecstatically bizarre... think Stereolab through a Mixmaster set to 'shred'; interrupted by The Shaggs covering St. Etienne. The band, which first got together in 1994 and whose lineup shifted during the making of Reveille, are now Satomi Matasuzaki (vocals and guitars; growing up in Tokyo she no doubt listened to Shonen Knife and The Boredoms), Greg Saunier (drums, keyboards; ex The Curtains, THETEETHE), John Dieterich (guitars, bass, other instruments; ex Natural Dreamers, Gorge Trio, Colossamite), and Chris Cohen (bass; ex The Curtains, Natural Dreamers). Last summer Deerhoof laid down tracks at John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studios in San Francisco—home to projects by the likes of Bright Eyes, Deltron 3030, MK Ultra, Of Montreal, and Spoon. They tracked the LP live for the most part, with only the rare vocal overdub. The immediacy, intimacy, and honesty of this approach proves the perfect spice to this most alien delicacy. Four bites out of five. Rockbites ratings 5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying. Deerhoof launched a short US tour on Sunday in Salt Lake City, continuing through the 13th for a closer in Austin. Check their Website for dates. Their new video by Ben Wolfinsohn (known for his punk documentary Friends Forever) is slated to appear on a free DVD in a forthcoming issue of Spin Magazine, along with a video by Oxford, England’s Radiohead. | Deerhoof | | Deerhoof on Kill Rock Stars | | 5RC records | | CD from Amazon US | | top of page | |
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