Deerhoof
Milk Man
2004
Maybe it’s their San Francisco sensibility that makes Deerhoof’s harshest moments sound soothing. Whatever the reason, on 2004’s Milk Man, we’re granted half an hour into the heads of one of the most captivating groups touring today, even if we can’t agree on what makes them so compelling.
It could be those juvenile tracks that inevitably make an appearance on any of their 13 albums. “Dog on the Sidewalk” is a jerky, fuzzy mess that sounds as innocent as the school-yard chant lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki imitates. Or maybe it's the free jazz and colorful psychedelia collision on “Rainbow Silhouette of the Milky Rain,” a roaring roller coaster of a song that soars with “Free Bird”-like absurdity.
It seems in a brilliant move they took the avant-garde aesthetics of noise, polyrhythm and technical skill as one of many elements for jubilant rock ’n’ roll. When they play, everything is casual. On Milk Man, the results are something timeless.
