Ask anyone and they'll tell you that totally unique music does not exist. No one is free from the influence that our predecessors and peers have on us and no one composes music on a desert island. Rock 'n' roll is music based on cliché - the back beat, a tonal center, repetition, etc. - so it's a band's task to create music that either embraces or subverts these traits while still remaining interesting, enjoyable, and meaningful. I'm oversimplifying, of course, but I think most people will agree that rock music's primary function, being an ultimately commercial entity, is to make us feel good. This is not to say, however, that rock 'n' roll should not strive for innovation and ingenuity, for this is what keeps things interesting. On Deerhoof's new album, the band somehow finds a way to seamlessly synthesize the simplest and most complex of experiences. There is, perhaps, no better example of this than in the opening of Milk Man's title track. After a short intro Deerhoof, a band that has a reputation for being 'avant-garde', find themselves playing a chord progression that is unmistakably reminiscent of Everyday People by Sly & the Family Stone. This is simultaneously one of the strangest and most familiar moments of music I've heard in a very long time. Only Deerhoof could play the most familiar of sounds and leave us scratching our heads and smiling because of it. These are the kind of ambiguities that make Milk Man an outstanding achievement.
Since 2001's Reveille, the first post-Rob Fisk Deerhoof release, we have seen the band move more and more towards music where the primary compositional tool is melody. Not just any melody but, more often than not, the absolute simplest of melodies. These are melodies that, when played by themselves seem unbelievably banal and childish but when recontextualized by the band's unique and highly detailed compositional methods these tunes somehow seem invigorating and vital. While Apple O was heavily reliant on melody it still retains many of the harsh and raucous qualities found on Reveille. Every song on Milk Man, however, is devoid of almost anything that couldn't be called, dare I say it? Pleasant. Even more energetic songs such as "Milking" and "Rainbow Silhoutte of Milky Rain" leave me feeling full of love - love for music, love for the sound of my own voice, love for my imagination - without a trace of feeling as though Deerhoof is doing anything other than what comes completely naturally. Greg Saunier said himself, "if everybody were realizing their imaginations, then everybody's quote-unquote art would be as unique or strange or different or whatever as our music often gets called."
Milk Man 's decidedly more "poppy" sound will, no doubt, leave many fans longing for the noise-ridden days of Holdypaws but, aesthetic preference aside, I challenge anyone to show me a band with a clearer, more decisive conception of music than Deerhoof. They'll have you playing your old records while you're simultaneously pushing them aside.
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