Deerhoof
Where: Manchester Deaf Insititute
When: 29th June 2009
Apparently Deerhoof are ‘unclassifiable’, according to our mystifying music press. Swept away in the tide of nu-genre invention, Deerhoof can be ‘abstract-noise-pop’, as Giant Drag may be ‘nu-grunge’ or The Thermals ‘post-post-punk’ (‘putting a post before anything makes it all sound cool’). Looking within David Browne’s Sonic Youth biography ‘Goodbye 20th Century’, he has claimed parts of their discography, which he loaded onto his ITunes, was similarly ‘unclassifiable’ in the genre bar. Browne thinks Mr. Macintosh is a truth-teller. Who needs a computer to tell you what you might like, because you thought you favoured ‘art-pop’? Only the live show can do the talkin’, particularly with Deerhoof…
In Manchester, with Ed Rodriguez on guitar, the band are one fluffy pom-pom beacon for the power of the record. Without the grand ferocity of Jack White, personally creating vinyl in his steam-powered Third Man Studios, Deerhoof sold their own merchandise at the live gig. Cleverly, it puts the ‘customer’ in the shit yourself position, where you can’t opt out of buying the £10 record as the man who made it stands in front of you. They’re compromising our free download sprees and helping to drive a sense of context to music, (instead we’d be shuffling our Ipods mindlessly.)
Deerhoof even seem to move the hardest Lancashire lad to childlike clappy bopping, as observed when Marc Riley red facedly punched the air in joyous amour along to Panda Panda Panda (Apple ‘O). When Satomi takes the stage, in the child manner she provokes with real-minimal lyrics, chirping "basket ball, basket ball, basket, dribble, pivot, pivot, pivot, escape" (Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back, Offend Maggie) she’ll mock reactions to her ‘otherness’. In fact, although Deerhoof appear particularly niche on their recorded material, you couldn’t get rawer live music as they use drum, guitar, bass and vocal and their roots in true rock’n’roll. This modernist performance has tempestuous jazz drummer Greg Saunier sweaty skifflin’, Ed Rodriguez in a classical blues drive and John Dieterich performing seemingly impromptu as ‘a John Lennon to Rodriguez’s George’. Satomi, absorbed in abstract lyrics and angular body poses, transforms these traditional elements into a thoroughly innovative ‘art’ act and the band recreate their music into live original pieces.
Deerhoof, then, are as close as we can get to punk – they rely on an art embedded in reactionary sentiment. Within Dummy Discards A Heart, "Play to the Queen of Heart, Play King of Club, Play Jack Of Spade, Play Ace of Diamond" are memoirs of ranting punk with Deerhoof’s sweet vocal distortion. As they play The Ramone’s 'Pinhead' with Saunier’s even softer vocals, you understand their jazz punk purity. Friend Opportunity’s 'The Perfect Me' and '+81' highlight the Satomi’s pop. This is a true masterclass in musicianship and the instantaneous movements of sound, it’s only sad to say softer, string tracks such as 'Whither The Invisible Birds?' could not have been played with.
Words: Alice White
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