Deerhoof
If you want someone to pin blame on, Rob Fisk and Greg Saunier are your guys. If it weren’t for them, no Deerhoof. But because of them, in 1994 - Deerhoof.
Both fellas were members of the band Nitre Pit, but tended to get to practice early to work on their drums / bass compositions apart from the rest of the band. They’d stay a two piece for a while, releasing a seven inch on Kill Rock Stars in 1995, before singer Satomi Matsuzaki joined the band after moving to San Francisco from Tokyo in 1996.
A year later, with Deerhoof now a proper trio, the band would release ‘The Man, The King, the Girl’, their first LP. The liner notes named the band as simply ‘The Man – bass, guitar / The King – drums / The Girl – vocals’. Guessing the drummer wrote that one, then. It was a wildly experimental, messy and jittery record, unlike the follow up ‘Holdypaws’, which was noted for its much more rigorous approach for songwriting and composition. For that, keyboardist Kelly Goode was added to the Deerhoof flock.
However, the line up wouldn’t remain that way for long. Later in 1999, both Goode and founding member Fisk would leave the band to be replaced by John Dieterich, formerly of Gorge Trio. The new line up went in to the studio to record as Deerhoof had never recorded before - live - and the resulting work made up part of the LP ‘Koalamagic’ (the rest of which consisted of previously recorded live material), released in 2000. Just a year later and ‘Halfbird’ found its way on to shelves, despite being begun four years previously. Finally, having gotten all that out of their system, the band’s newest incarnation were ready to focus on brand new material.
‘Reveille’ was Deerhoof mark four’s first work, and the first to feature Satomi’s artwork as its front cover, and none of her then trademark screaming. After touring with Chris Cohen’s band The Curtains in support of the record, a relationship with Cohen’s band grew to the stage where members of Deerhoof became part time members of Curtains and Cohen became a full time member of Deerhoof. Keep up.
Deerhoof mark five then recorded the excellent ‘Apple O’, a concept album loosely based around the story of Adam and Eve, in one nine hour long session. Only after its success, and nine long years in the band, did the members of Deerhoof quit their day jobs and take on their hobby as a full time obsession.
So obviously, the one album a year pace wasn’t about to slow down. ‘Milk Man’, released in 2004, was their next effort. It’s an album on which the band members never played simultaneously, preferring to record each part separately on to a computer for the first time, and their seventh in total. The orchestral and largely Japanese language ‘Green Cosmos’ EP followed, before the bracingly democratic (in construction at least) approach taken to ‘The Runners Four’, a record which went through at least four reworkings before it was finally released in 2005. Until ‘Friend Opportunity’, it was judged to be their masterpiece.
When you’ve had as many line up changes as Deerhoof have, you don’t let the loss of one more fella bother you. In fact, when Chris Cohen left to focus on his first band The Curtains full time, Deerhoof released an untitled, download only EP entirely free to visitors to their website to wave him off and wish him a safe journey. The band then headed back to John Dietrich’s bedroom to record ‘Friend Opportunity’, a record which gets its full UK release this week. It’s the first truly perfect thing we’ve heard in ages.
DEERHOOF OFFICIAL: This website is titled ‘Choco Choco Beep Beep Hello’. It’s a better title than your website’s got, that’s for sure. Or ours, for that matter.
DEERHOOF MYSPACE: Four songs from throughout the career of this remarkable band, plus all the usual crap you get on these things.
SAUNIER’S BLOG: Greg keeps a blog, you know. Here it is. It’s the sound of the contents of a horse’s mouth.
FOUR PAWS : The band’s press people actually do a good job of looking like they genuinely care about music for once. Just read the biog, for starters. Then download massive pics and super fun MP3s.
LIVE @ KOKO: In support to The Melvins and coming on after Part Chimp for what was, with hindsight, one of the greatest triple bills ever. Don’t you just love the sight of a good hind?
THE CURTAINS: Caught live as part of the Frieze festival – was Chris Cohen right to leave Deerhoof to focus on this? You decide…
DEERHOOF @ ATP APRIL 2004: The first time we ever caught them – opening our favourite of festivals.
DEERHOOF @ ATP APRIL 2004: The first time we ever caught them – opening our favourite of festivals.
DEERHOOF @ ATP APRIL 2004: …and the last time the band’s instruments tickled our earlobes in a live setting, naturally not with the same line up.
DEERHOOF – ‘STUFFED’:
DEERHOOF – ‘WRONG TIME CAPSULE’:
DEERHOOF – ‘DUMMY DISCARDS A HEART (LIVE)’: