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DEERHOOF

Deerhoof

Friend Opportunity - 2025 Reissue

    'Friend Opportunity' is a feat of reinvention that could only come from artists willing to rethink everything. Even though Deerhoof have been around a long time, they're still restless, still hungry for the rush of the new. Not coincidentally, and fortunately for Deerhoof, they've attracted a burgeoning following who absolutely love to be challenged - from album to album, from song to song, from moment to moment.

    'Friend Opportunity' will not disappoint them. or anyone else. songs like 'The Perfect Me' have three or four sections of heart-stopping epiphanies of the sublime; 'Matchbook Seeks Maniac' pulls a 99 luftballoons breakdown move in the middle, rocks a brahms interval in the pop-narcotic chorus, and the Beach Boys and the who are all over the mix. 'Believe e.s.p.' opens with Deerhoof's take on get-down funky slinkopation but the next passage sounds like something out of palestrina, and so many of these songs are like a scenic drive that flows seamlessly from one astonishing vista to the next, from wide, shimmering deserts to foggy canyons to staggering, snow-peaked mountaintops.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. The Perfect Me
    2. Choco Fight
    3. + 81
    4. Believe E.S.P.
    5. The Galaxist
    6. Makko Shobu
    7. Matchbook Seeks Maniac
    8. Cast Off Crown
    9. Kidz Are So Small
    10. Whither The Invisible Birds?
    11. Look Away

    Deerhoof

    Noble And Godlike In Ruin

      Though Deerhoof long ago established itself as one of the greatest rock groups ever to stride the earth—and if you think that’s hyperbole, you haven’t spent enough time listening to Deerhoof—the furiously inventive quartet treats each of their new albums as an opportunity for creative rebirth. And yet somehow, they’re also profoundly reliable, a strange but true descriptor for a band so creatively restless. You never know what a new Deerhoof album might sound like, except that it will always sound like Deerhoof.

      They are defined by such paradoxes, as 'Noble and Godlike in Ruin' reaffirms. Their latest album is either a portrait of a world descending into monstrous hate, dehumanization, and dollar signs, or a haunting self-portrait of band-as-monster: an intelligent, sensitive, hybrid creature, singing tirelessly of love, but increasingly alienated from that world.

      The music is joyful and foreboding, cybernetic and deeply human, all at once. Strings that evoke avant-garde chamber music and classic horror-film soundtracks bounce off guitar and bass lines that chug on impervious to the creeping dread. The drums are sometimes filtered to sound almost electronic, but no computer could come up with rhythms so funky and dynamic, with each minute variation from one snare hit to the next conveying worlds of possibility. Fronting it all is Satomi Matsuzaki’s inimitable alto. A voice of solitude, whose plainspoken calm can seem strangely outside of the band’s maelstrom, even as she contributes to it with her jaggedly precise bass parts. As a first-generation immigrant to the US, she’s never tried to disguise her Japanese accent, or her deadpan, karaoke-esque delivery. On 'Noble and Godlike in Ruin', her sense of remove feels alternately like an expression of loneliness and like a cool provocation to systems of oppression and control. “Kindness is all I needed from you,” she sings on the epic album closer 'Immigrant Songs'. “But you think we’re in your house.” Not long after, the song detonates, its tightly wound art-pop giving way to several minutes of howling noise.

      Though the subject matter may be bleak—how could it not be?—the songs carry an implicit note of defiant optimism in their refusal to bow to convention or received wisdom. There’s that famous Dylan Thomas line about raging against the dying of the light: 'Noble and Godlike in Ruin' feels a little like that. The world may be going down, but Deerhoof is going down swinging.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Overrated Species Anyhow
      2. Sparrow Sparrow
      3. Kingtoe
      4. Return Of The Return Of The Fire Trick Star
      5. A Body Of Mirrors
      6. Ha, Ha Ha Ha, Haaa
      7. Disobedience
      8. Who Do You Root For?
      9. Under Rats (featuring Saul Williams)
      10. Immigrant Songs

      Deerhoof

      Reveille - 2024 Reissue

        OOIOO, Blonde Redhead, Guerilla Toss, Rolling Stones, Liars, Marnie Stern, Yoko Ono, Battles. Clear Sun Vinyl. Reissue of Deerhoof’s 2002 album Reveille. First Deerhoof album with guitarist John Dieterich. 

        Deerhoof debuts their new guitarist John Dieterich and achieves widespread critical acclaim for the first time. 2002’s Reveille is a defiant expression of artistic rebirth, spilling over with madcap exuberance, apocalyptic imagery, newfound technical confidence belying their no-budget DIY recording methods, and jarring stylistic about-faces in which no two songs sound alike. The contrast of Satomi’s ever-catchy, ever-charming melodiousness with John and Greg’s noisy, cinematic bombast still has the power to thrill and tickle and upset, more than 20 years after its initial release. Includes reimagined cover art with the faint morning glow the band had always envisioned, pressed on clear sun-colored vinyl. Complete lyrics included for the first time, written by Satomi on the center labels. 

        TRACK LISTING

        1 Sound The Alarm
        2 This Magnificent Bird Will Rise
        3 The Eyebright Bugler
        4 Punch Buggy Valves
        5 No One Fed Me So I Stayed
        6 Frenzied Handsome, Hello!
        7 Days & Nights In The Forest
        8 Top Tim Rubies
        9 Hark The Umpire
        10 Our Angel's Ululu
        11 The Last Trumpeter Swan
        12 Tuning A Stray
        13 Holy Night Fever
        14 All Rise
        15 Cooper
        16 Hallelujah Chorus

        Deerhoof

        Miracle-Level

          Did you know that miracles happen every day? We don’t always see it that way. We look at the state of the world and think, “It’ll be a miracle if we make it out alive.” But miracles are what humans do. We’re Earth’s most inventive and unpredictable species, when we’re allowed to be. Also the most destructive. Miracle-Level is Deerhoof’s mystical manifesto on creativity and trust. It celebrates the infinite small wonders of existence that spontaneously present themselves, when not obstructed by our death-driven masters. Musically, Miracle-Level is vulnerable, brave, and brimming with spicy surprises. Deerhoof’s 19th album is also their their first to be recorded and mixed in a recording studio. Production was entrusted to Mike Bridavsky, at No Fun Club in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This is also their first album written entirely in Satomi’s native language. Deerhoof once again speak in a secret code that only their fans understand, in which hooks abound, and genre is nonexistent.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Sit Down, Let Me Tell You A Story.
          2. My Lovely Cat!
          3. The Poignant Melody
          4. Everybody, Marvel
          5. Jet-Black Double-Shield
          6. Miracle-Level
          7. And The Moon Laughs
          8. The Little Maker
          9. Phase-Out All Remaining
          10. Non-Miracles By 2028
          11. Momentary Art Of Soul!
          12. Wedding, March, Flower

          Deerhoof

          Actually, You Can

            Over eighteen boundless albums as experimental as they are pop, Deerhoof has continuously quested for radical sounds and daring storytelling. 2020’s Future Teenage Cave Artists explored fairytale visions of post-apocalypse, welding intrinsic melodies with absurdist digital recording methods. Its sequel Love-Lore, a live covers medley, channeled futurist mid-century artists Parliament, Sun Ra and Stockhausen, to name a handful into a patchwork love letter to the anti-authoritarian expressions that inspire the band.

            Galvanized by the challenge of unifying many styles of music, Deerhoof landed on their next record’s concept: baroque gone DIY. Actually, You Can is a genre-abundant record that uses technicolor vibrancy and arpeggiated muscularity to offer a vital shock from capitalism’s purgatorial hold. “In the United States now, to be a moral person means to be a criminal, whether it has to do with a general strike or forming a union or Black Lives Matter protests,” clarifies Saunier of the album’s countercultural embrace of liberation. “If you follow the rules, you’re guilty. That’s the spirit we were trying to express: an angelic prison bust, a glamorous prison bust.” It’s a condemnation of America’s mundanity, replacing violence with the heartfelt power of mutualism.

            With state lines and oceans separating band members, Deerhoof not only reinvented their sonic and thematic credo, but also their recording process. Deerhoof’s players are not strangers to home-recording their individual parts, and have long embraced composing via file trading. But 2020’s halt to touring kicked off their longest separation from playing together, foregrounding new priorities. As the group’s combined demos became increasingly layered, bassist and vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki put her foot down, insisting the new album should replicate concert energy. Visualizing the quartet on huge stages with past tourmates Radiohead and Red Hot Chili Peppers, Saunier fugue-arranged his bandmates’ complex demos into songs to make an audience smile and dance. He sought out far-traveling delays, heavy playing, and unique panning to evoke the power of outdoor music. Matsuzaki scrutinized spots that would betray the conceit, eliminating anything that took away from the sound of onstage grandeur. “We spent so much time imagining playing together in the process of recording, it’s almost like a false memory of us playing this music together,” Saunier marvels.

            For Deerhoof’s members to continually uncover new corners of their own talent requires deep wells of gratitude, not only for each others’ creativity but for the freedom their career affords. But by embracing each other’s art with curiosity, Deerhoof authors a musical alphabet that continues to astound and inspire, a unique lexicon expanding limitlessly with each album. For new listeners and decades-long devotees, Deerhoof’s electrifying, generous approach to collaborative worldbuilding on Actually, You Can is an emboldening call to support our communities with renewed strength, infinite love, and the resilience to keep exploring.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Be Unbarred, O Ye Gates Of Hell
            2. Department Of Corrections
            3. We Grew, And We Are Astonished
            4. Scarcity Is Manufactured
            5. Ancient Mysteries, Described
            6. Plant Thief
            7. Our Philosophy Is Fiction
            8. Epic Love Poem
            9. Divine Comedy

            Deerhoof

            Halfbird

              Recommend If You Like: DEERHOOF (!), Blonde Redhead, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Animal Collective, Liars, Lightning Bolt // “...the best band in the world...” Pitchfork // Deerhoof and Joyful Noise Recordings will issue the first ever vinyl edition of the band’s third LP, Halfbird. Originally released in July 2001 by Menlo Park Records, Halfbird is 14 tracks of playful absurdity and pummeling energy, featuring founding member Greg Saunier (drums - guitar - vocals); Satomi Matsuzaki (vocals - bass); and Rob Fisk (guitar). 2019 sees the 25-year anniversary of Deerhoof being a band. To celebrate the occasion, three labels that have worked with Deerhoof over the course of their expansive and colorful career will each reissue one of the first three Deerhoof LPs: 1997's The Man, The King, The Girl (Polyvinyl); 1999's Holdypaws (Kill Rock Stars); and 2001’s Halfbird (Joyful Noise Recordings). 

              STAFF COMMENTS

              Barry says: One of Deerhoof's classics gets the reish treatment, and the timind couldn't be better. What else could you want in these troubling times than a slab of grooving, psychy noise rock.

              TRACK LISTING

              Halfrabbit Halfdog
              Six Holes On A Stick
              Red Dragon
              Trickybird
              The Man The King The Girl And The Spider
              Witchery Glamour Spell
              Queen Orca Wicca Wind
              Sunnyside, Carriage
              Littleness
              Xmas Tree
              Rat Attack
              The Forty Fours 
              Halfmole Halfbird.

              After all the accolades from press and peers, what’s a legendary band left to do? Rent out an abandoned office space in the middle of the desert in New Mexico in lieu of a regular recording studio, go in with little or no preconceived notions of what would happen, set up, plug in and get loud! After seven days Deerhoof had found (you guessed it) ‘The Magic’, a raw and refreshing wallop of an album about leaving your comfort zone and finding a pineapple.

              With ‘The Magic’, Deerhoof dreamed up an alchemy of '77 punk, pop, glam, hair metal, doo-wop, hip hop, and R&B, late-night car rides, long days, spandex, shadows, and attitude. Poetry into noise, volume knobs into pleasure, friendship into rock band.

              "Maybe it came from the music we liked when we were kids, when music was like magic - before we knew about the industry and before there were rules - sometimes hair metal is the right choice. We all showed up in the mood to sing," says drummer Greg Saunier.

              For singer and bassist Satomi Matsuzaki, the making ‘The Magic’ was the latest episode of an ongoing gamble. "I joined this band a week after I arrived in San Francisco from Japan. I hopped on a MUNI bus to have a first meeting with Deerhoof. I got off at a wrong stop. I was lost and confused. They found me on a dark street corner after I called for help from a pay phone. Since then my adventure expanded. Deerhoof is a vehicle with four powered wheels that takes me through forest, desert and buildings. My life is adventure!"

              ‘The Magic’ is a mixtape imbued with Deerhoof's sorcery; boldness, wonder, technical know-how, risk. It is a mixtape by the kid with the biggest music collection you've ever seen, who will take you camping and show you how to pull a rabbit out of a hat.


              STAFF COMMENTS

              Barry says: Never one to go with the flow, Deerhoof have once again come up with a fresh approach to songwriting. Both psychedelic and melodic, but never boring, Shimmering guitar hooks and grooving bass permeate the driving drum refrains. Slightly hazy vocals float atop murky rivers of grunge. Post-punk attitude with a psychedelic sheen. Impossible to categorise, but easy to appreciate. Classic Deerhoof.

              TRACK LISTING

              01. The Devil And His Anarchic Surrealist Retinue
              02. Kafe Mania!
              03. That Ain’t No Life To Me
              04. Life Is Suffering
              05. Criminals Of The Dream
              06. Model Behavior
              07. Learning To Apologize Effectively
              08. Dispossessor
              09. I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire
              10. Acceptance Speech
              11. Patrasche Come Back
              12. Debut
              13. Plastic Thrills
              14. Little Hollywood
              15. Nurse Me

              Deerhoof

              Fever 121614

              On one special night, the band took to the bandstand in a tiny Tokyo club while the tape was rolling. The result is Fever 121614. With gems from throughout the band’s ridiculously deep back catalog, the 12-song collection that appears on both the LP and the video is Deerhoof at their rawest.

              TRACK LISTING

              1. Exit Only 
              2. Paradise Girls 
              3. Let's Dance The Jet 
              4. Doom 
              5. Fresh Born  
              6. We Do Parties 
              7. Buck And Judy  
              8. Dummy Discards A Heart 
              9. Twin Killers 
              10. I Did Crimes For You  
              11. There's That Grin 
              12. Come See The Duck 

              S T A R G A Z E

              Deerhoof Chamber Variations

                Transgressive Records are proud to announce that Berlin’s instrumental collective s t a r g a z e have signed to the label, anointing their partnership with the stunning EP ‘Deerhoof Chamber Variations’.

                ‘Deerhoof Chamber Variations’ is devised as a continuous piece of instrumental music, based on 9 1/2 songs which drummer and composer Greg Saunier originally wrote for his acclaimed band Deerhoof.

                Different from most other band and orchestra / classical collaborations Greg himself arranged and recomposed the material for a classical chamber ensemble, using exactly the same notes as in the originals while rearranging the songs structurally, in a kind of miniaturizing and abstracting way.

                s t a r g a z e adapted this new composition to their particular line-up and the musicians’ personal skills, as Greg Saunier produced the album in Berlin in the freezing winter days of December 2015. The intimacy is evident - favouring the dry sound of the Beatles and George Martin’s approach to recording classical ensembles, rather than the lush approach favoured today.

                The 19 minute piece of music is the latest in a series of collaborations for s t a r g a z e, who have previously worked with Julia Holter, Owen Pallett, Nils Frahm and Matthew Herbert.

                Deerhoof

                Super Duper Rescue Heads

                First single from forthcoming album "Deerhoof vs. Evi.l".

                Includes brand new b-side "Hitchcock" and also previously unreleased live version of "Rainbow Silhouette Of The Milky Rain" from the album "Milk Man".

                'Good and bad title, made up by Greg Saunier. I love this song! Rave pop rock! Reminds me of 80s neo romantic music ... 'Me to the rescue!' I am gonna come to rescue you! 'You to the rescue!' Please rescue your friends who are lonely.” - Satomi on ‘Super Duper Rescue Heads !’

                Having formed in 1994, Deerhoof is now that fateful age and by rites it's the band's turn to go out and challenge the world. The same way a rebellious adolescent turns tough and irrational, Greg Saunier, Ed Rodriguez, John Dieterich, and Satomi Matsuzaki just up and split from San Francisco, the only home they've ever known as a band, and left behind all notions of what a "Deerhoof record sounds like." The result is Deerhoof vs. Evil (the band’s 11th album!). The musical equivalent of hormones raging out of control, it explodes out of the speakers with its gawky triumph and inflamed sentimentality. These are songs that practically demand that you dance and sing along (however elastic the rhythms, or abrupt the melodies). Right from “Qui Dorm, Només Somia” (sung in Catalan), it's evident that Deerhoof aren't afraid to take chances (critics be damned).

                Ironically the result is polished, blissfully exuberant, and huge-sounding. Going DIY meant freedom to reinvent themselves, playing each others' instruments, altering those instruments so drastically as to be unrecognisable, (those aren't Joanna Newsom or Konono No. 1 samples, those are John and Ed's guitars), and generally splashing their sonic colours into the most unexpected combinations.

                STAFF COMMENTS

                Andy says: Playful, crazy, clever, cute pop, and with a top message as well. Excellent.


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