THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For a band that seem to thrive on collapse, it’s simply amazing that this U.S. / Japanese quartet are now celebrating their 31st year. Though Deerhoof long ago established themselves as one of the greatest groups ever to stride the earth — and if you think that’s hyperbole, you haven’t spent enough time listening to them — the furiously inventive quartet release new albums on the schedule of a young band still hungry for their first break.
As Noble And Godlike In Ruin reaffirms, each release reveals 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. 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. Fronting it all is Satomi Matsuzaki’s inimitable alto, whose plainspoken calm can seem strangely outside of the band’s maelstrom. Deerhoof are defined by such paradoxes.
“Almost as bad as the crimes of the ruling class are the crimes that enable them: Tricking everyone into thinking that no one else cares,” drummer Greg Saunier says of the single Under Rats, a collaboration with Saul Williams. “There were so many times when we were making our new record when we became almost overwhelmed with doubt: ‘What’s the point of music when genocide is standard fare and the murderers are the most rewarded people in society?’ Saul Williams was and is someone we look to. Who’s doing it like Saul? He’s been there every day with poetry, with grief, with news that oligarch-owned media doesn’t touch for months. Making us all feel less alone. We express ourselves in order to find our chosen family.
“I met Saul at a tiny music festival in Switzerland. I was performing a duo with Marc Ribot, and Saul was performing with a string quartet. When it was over Saul, Marc and I talked American politics backstage for hours, and I immediately felt I’d become acquainted with someone I would respect for a lifetime. I’ve been grateful ever since.”
