Deerhoof

For a band that seems to thrive on collapse, it's simply amazing that this US/Japanese quartet is now celebrating their 31st year. 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 seen them live-the furiously inventive quartet releases new albums on the schedule of a young band still hungry for its first break. Each one discovers some previously unknown combination of candy-coated hard-rock riffs and free-jazz percussive freakouts, sideways J-pop hooks and fearsome dissonance, trenchant social commentary and surrealist humor. Fronting it all is Satomi Matsuzaki's inimitable alto, whose plainspoken calm can seem strangely outside of the band's maelstrom. This music is joyful and foreboding, cybernetic and deeply human, carrying an implicit note of defiant optimism in their refusal to bow to convention or received wisdom. Deerhoof is defined by such paradoxes.

Missive 3-19-25:

Deerhoof today announced their new album Noble and Godlike in Ruin will be released April 25th (Joyful Noise Recordings), and took an unexpected turn by exclusively premiering its lead single "Immigrant Songs" via Craigslist-two days ahead of the song's official release at streaming services. In a series of Craigslist 'Services' posts advertising themselves for hire in their local communities, including Brooklyn, Tucson, Portland, and Minneapolis, the band shared a message directing readers how to hear their epic album closer alongside photos of the album artwork (front/back, insert, center label). This unconventional premiere serves to spotlight a tech platform that isn't blatantly supporting fascism.

"Immigrant Songs" is an odyssey like only Deerhoof could dream up: beginning with an innocuous lyric about showing up to a party, set to a delicate ostinato for bells and sparkling guitar; and ending with a noise-rock blowout that sounds like reality coming apart at the seams. The band of Satomi Matsuzaki, Ed Rodriguez, John Dieterich, and Greg Saunier get from one extreme to the other through expertly managed tension and inventive juxtaposition, weaving four-on-the-floor beats through bossa nova guitar chords, following passages of tightly coiled rhythm with wide-open vistas. All the while, the narrative about the party gradually reveals the allegory hinted at in the title. (Which, given Deerhoof's encyclopedic relationship to music history, is probably also a Led Zeppelin reference.) "Kindness is all I needed from you," Matsuzaki sings to an unwelcoming host, "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.

"This song is kind of a sequel to Satomi describing her immigration tribulations in 'Exit Only.' It's what it feels like to see the discourse around immigration get so twisted. The most criminal and barbaric 'migrant horde' to invade America was from Europe. There's a sector of racialized, underpaid immigrants, doing labor white people won't, who are getting deported and dehumanized in record numbers in recent years. They are really the glue keeping our society from collapsing. It's these heroic fugitives, not millionaire politicians holding little signs with one hand while sending out fundraising emails about 'strengthening our borders' with the other, who actually have a thing or two to teach us all about how to resist and survive." - Greg from Deerhoof

Matching the whimsical to the revolutionary, the beautiful to the horrific, Noble and Godlike in Ruin provides a catharsis which liberates listeners from the inhumane world we're forced to wrap our bamboozled, grief-stricken heads around. Their 20th album and follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2023 LP Miracle-Level was self-produced by the band and features Saul Williams on "Under Rats."