Deerhoof - Halfbird
(Menlo Park)
Before Rob Fisk, guitarist and visual artist for San Fransisco's Deerhoof, left the band to move to lands unknown (Alaska, as I once heard, or maybe just somewhere else in CA), the group, a trio at that juncture, recorded Halfbird. And though the band, now featuring John Dieterich (Collasamite, Gorge Trio) on guitar, have since released Reveille, their excellent and most recent CD on 5RC and Kill Rock Stars, Halfbird is far more than a simple document of an era of the band that's now gone.
Recorded on gloriously imperfect four-track cassette, Halfbird is gritty and full of distortion, both the type created by guitar amps and the type caused by the "inferior" recording equipment. Lo-fi rarely sounds so good (or fitting). Halfbird marks a turn in the sound of Deerhoof, as Holdypaws' use of keyboards has evolved into one in which the keyboards play a more important role in the melodies of the songs, and electronics shape the compositions in both the recording and post-recording process. Deerhoof have stretched their half-wings on this album, and while their previous efforts were in no way one-sided, the band has taken their stunted, angular approach to pop and continued to evolve. Just as their early, noisier material made way for the simplistic avant-pop that was Holdypaws, Halfbird goes in directions henceforth untouched, and the result is a freer Deerhoof, and one that's showing themselves to be continually more open to some of rock music's more conventional tools. "Sunnyside" is the most exuberant and child-like that Deerhoof's even been, and "Six Holes on a Stick," a song about the woodwind instrument used in the song, is a smooth combination of Deerhoof's sound with something reminiscent of straightforward, contemporary, female-led indie rock. Tracks like "Red Dragon" and album's closer, "Halfmole Halfbird," contain vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki's most beautiful work to date. I think I might even hear male vocals on "The Forty Fours." What's this world coming to?
What's important here isn't necessarily what has changed, it's what's stayed the same. Halfbird is a Deerhoof album, and, really, that's all you need to know. Holdypaws may remain my favorite, but as long as Deerhoof continue to make their music, those sweet sounds that confound people who don't know whether to call them pop, rock, no wave, experimental jangling, or Aggressive Drum 'n' Bass, this listener will keep on listening. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a band lately who's been making such accessible, yet challenging music. Deerhoof is the sound of the inner child in all of us.
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