Once headquartered in the very apropos San Francisco/Bay Area,the members of the experimental rock quartet Deerhoof have scatteredacross the country in recent years.
Guitarist John Dieterich followed his girlfriend to Albuquerque,N.M., founding member and percussionist Greg Saunier decamped to NewYork, bassist Satomi Matsuzaki has just kind of traveled around, andguitarist Ed Rodriguez relocated to Portland, Ore., where the bandreconvened last week for rehearsals before their new tour, whichstops in Memphis on Thursday at the Hi-Tone Caf.
"In some ways, it makes life more difficult," says Dieterich ofthe separation's impact on the band. "But at the same time, for ourcreative process, it's fine. We all tend to write alone anyway.We've never been one of those bands that write by jamming. We're notvery good at it."
There is a joke somewhere in there about how Deerhoof sounds likefour people who have never met at all, and to people who firstencounter the acclaimed combo, "chaotic" is inevitably one of thefirst descriptors that leaps to mind. A key bridge between SonicYouth and the Dirty Projectors, Deerhoof writes and performs musicrooted in free jazz, noise rock, the modern avant-garde, and theelectronic music movement. Songs are full of abrupt rhythmic shiftsand atonal harmonies, foreign and nonsense lyrics, ramblingstructures and sudden stops.
Given those elements, it is tempting for some to dismiss Deerhoofas pretentious "coastal" music. But while undeniably challenging -this is not a band ever in danger of winding up with a radio hit -there is a lot there for more mainstream music fans to sink theirteeth into. This includes an aggressive approach to rhythm akin tometal's, a dissonance redolent of punk music, and sometimes, beneathall the strangeness, even some startlingly infectious pop melodies.
"I think we get our inspiration from everything," says Dieterich,rejecting the band's high-art rep. "Like everybody else, I grew uplistening to pop music and rock music and lots of metal."
It's easy to see where Deerhoof got its vanguard standing,though. Saunier started the group in 1994 shortly after graduatingfrom Oberlin College of Music. Two years later Tokyo migr Matsuzaki,an artist and film student with no music experience, came on board.In 1999, Dieterich, a music composition major at Oakland's MillsCollege, replaced founding member Rob Fisk.
The band's next record, 2002's Reveille , their first withDieterich, began to focus on what could be called the Deerhoof soundand also got the band its first national exposure with severalpublications, among them The New York Times, which put the record onits year-end best-of list. Tours with the likes of Wilco, theFlaming Lips and Radiohead followed, as did four more criticallyadmired releases, including 2005's expansive The Runners Four .
Then, in 2007, Deerhoof released Friend Opportunity , itstightest, most concise statement yet. The record became the band'smost roundly praised and arguably most commercially successful. Manyeven went so far as to say Deerhoof was going pop, albeit a verystrange, schizophrenic form of pop. It's a charge that has followedthe band through subsequent albums - 2008's Offend Maggie , thefirst with guitarist Ed Rodriguez, and the just-released Deerhoofvs. Evil - though Dietrich pays it little heed.
"Literally, every single album since I've joined the band, thathas been said by maybe 25 percent of the reviewers," he says ofclaims the band is mellowing into accessibility. "Maybe they're allright; I haven't the slightest idea.
Deerhoof vs. Evil was executed in a manner that has becomeroutine for the band, with each member writing separately beforecoming together to record in a home studio. The result, which wasreleased piecemeal on the Internet before the final collectedversion came out this week, is a typical mix of the charming and thechallenging with a rougher edge that would seem to evoke theinfluence of playing live.
"I don't even know what it sounds like," says Dieterich, morefocused on taking the record on the road, where he says technicallimitations have a habit of evening out the band's excesses intosomething more resembling a rock show. "I am interested in howpeople will see it, and it's hard not to be worried about it. Butwith us going on tour, I don't allow myself to worry about it toomuch. For me there's a whole different side of it, this performanceaspect and interacting with audiences. Ultimately, thoseinteractions are more meaningful to me."
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Deerhoof with Ben Butler & Mousepad and the Powers That Be
9 p.m. Thursday at the Hi-Tone Caf, 1913 Poplar. Tickets: $15,available at the door and in advance at hitonememphis.com . For moreinformation, call 278-8663.
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