Deerhoof
Deerhoof vs. Evil
ATP Recordings (UK) / Polyvinyl (US)

Deerhoof vs. Evil is the tenth album proper from the San Francisco based art rock quartet. They still make music quite off the path most other bands stroll. I had the pleasure of seeing them live here in Oslo a year and a half ago, and it was really a night to remember. Gig of the year, for sure. Let's check how they fight evil.

Greg Saunier (drums, synths), John Dieterich (guitars), Satomi Matsuzaki (vocals, bass), and Ed Rodriguez (guitar) have somewhat left their wild and playful style from former albums. Yet, here's still a lot of playfulness and ideas seldom heard in modern alternative, cartoonish avant pop music.

It's been nearly 2 1/2 years since their last album, Offend Maggie, so it's about time to put out a new record. And it's just not any album. Like always with Deerhoof, this is music for mind and body as a total - all the time, all the way through. Expand your mind, extend your limbs. Inhale, exhale, see, believe, listen, imagine, feel, touch, sense, smell, taste. Deerhoof's got everything. Deerhoof is about musical culinary of the purest kind. The songs "Behold a Marvel in the Darkness" and "Super Duper Rescue Heads!" put Deerhoof on the right track, presenting twists and turns, and all the unexpected, joyous stuff Deerhoof always bring on. The Spanish influenced "No One Asked to Dance" is a delicious, gentle duel between Satomi's voice and John's guitar. "Secret Mobilization" is a way cool, calm, strolling rock song. So is "I Did Crimes for You". It's so weird, how Deerhoof can get their songs to sound so relaxed, yet pulsating with liveliness. When the closing "Almost Everyone, Almost Always" fades out, you're about to chill out and have some meditative relaxation, before diving into the album once more, once again. Over and over again.

Deerhoof vs. Evil is another masterpiece by Deerhoof. They never seem to fail or disappoint. Deerhoof create pop art. Pop and art. Strange pop, fine art.

PS! There's a deluxe edition of vs. Evil holding two extra live cuts; "Panda Panda Panda" off their album Appe O', and "You Can't Sit Down", which is a cover of an early 1960s song also known from Disney cartoons. The Japanese release even includes two more tracks; "Flower" (also off Apple O') and "Numina" (off Offend Maggie).

Copyright © 2011 Håvard Oppøyen