Album Review

I immediately jumped at the chance to review Deerhoof’s new album, Offend Maggie, because I thought the experience would be a fun and challenging opportunity for me to get to know a band better. I’d been a lazy listener of 2005’s Runners Four and 2006’s Friend Opportunity, either enjoying and/or finding myself perplexed by a song once a month or so, then switching my iPod to something more palatable and familiar. It’s not that I didn’t like the band; rather, I always had a sense that I wasn’t trying hard enough to like them. So, again, when I plugged into Offend Maggie I was ready to learn – hoping for some fun and a little bit of critic’s challenge on the way to becoming a real fan.

Well, I got the challenge part immediately. After my first two days with the album, I decided that I had made a monster mistake. Not only did I not get Deerhoof, I had no desire to get Deerhoof. I flipped from song to song, frantically attempting to find my way, to understand why I was so lost in their music. It wasn’t like a swamp of despair sort of lost, which I can usually find my way out of by taking a nap or a walk – it was like arcade-lost with mirrors and distracting noise and clowns and I felt downright manic. Plus, I think something in me has always been vehemently opposed to lead singers who sound like animals. Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki sounds like a little kitten singing much in the same way that Brian Wilson sort of sounds like a donkey these days. It freaks me out and leaves me with a bizarre (though occasionally cute) visual of their concerts. Her lyrics – mostly nonsensical and really (again) adorable – also sound as if they were written by a kitten and maybe a little pixie who helps with the pen.

So, that’s where I was two weeks ago. And honestly–I was mad. Not mad at Deerhoof though, just mad at myself! If I didn’t get this kind of arty noise music, then why did I offer to write about it? It wasn’t fair to anyone. I talked to some friends – friends who are big Deerhoof fans (and there seems to be a lot of them) and asked them why they loved Deerhoof. Words like “bright” and “dirty” and “clean” and “loud” and “sweet” came up. All these descriptors left me feeling more at odds because they were themselves opposites. But still I persisted because I had a deadline. I read more; I listened back through their catalog. And now here I am… writing this very challenging review.

And let me tell you what happened: about a day or two ago, the clouds broke…and no, it was not my cat taking Matsuzaki’s cue and singing backup on the 15 tracks. It was that I started to get it! I began to find myself wanting to hear songs more than once, and understanding the album as a unit. I began to find my favorite tracks. And while many would agree that a central thesis of “give yourself two weeks and you’ll find you really don’t mind it” isn’t the most glowing recommendation, I will tell you, dear reader, that Offend Maggie is worth a listen or two or many more than that.

I have a bad habit of being a referential listener. I always say “This reminds me of…”, “He sounds just like…”. And what’s worse is that I often complain about how everything sounds like something else. With Deerhoof, I realized that my problem was that they don’t readily sound too much like anyone. I was confused – how do you describe something without being able to compare it with something else? You go the spacy, synethesia route – “This album feels like the color Purple!” “This album sounds like blueberries smell!” “This album feels like a puppy’s nose!” or some other nonsense like that. As a reviewer, I was pretty uncomfortable in this territory.

But if you listen closely, you will find old friends in their conceits. Offend Maggie is largely its own beast – but if it stands on the shoulders of any genres it would be have to be a combination of shiny surfer pop a la Beach Boys and Jan and Dean and psychedelic folk from the British invasion – like the Zombies. And maybe there’s a little bit of NES theme music sprinkled in for good measure. All these reference points are both obscured and ignited by the discerning guitarwork of John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez, the unpredictable, exciting drumming from Greg Saunier, and Matsuzaki’s Tinkerbell vocals. There you have Offend Maggie. But in no way is that nutshell description.

The album starts strong with “Tears of Music and Love” –a hard-driving, garage-rocking opener that introduces the band’s ease with opposing sounds– guitar riffs tear through the cabaret atmosphere Matsuzaki’s kittenish voice creates. “Snoopy Waves” feels like the bright Californian sunshine it mentions, and the title track opens with sweet-sounding, dueling acoustic guitars that somehow call up memories of Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May.” This track probably has some of the most coherent lyrics on the album – Matsuzaki transcribes a telephone exchange/communication breakdown. “Offend Maggie” offers the urgency of an emo-rock song and the sophistication of a Books’ creation, in terms of movements and instrumentation.

There is a triad of songs mid-album that center around images of birth and infancy. In “Don’t Get Born,” Matsuzaki sings with the angels while wishing she “had a plan she could follow” as she travels out of the womb and into the harsh world. It’s a sad, beautiful little moment at only thirty seconds in length. “Fresh Born” is a song about encouraging a baby deer to stand up (really!) while “Family of Others,” sung chorus-style by the entire band, is what might happen if Animal Collective and the Zombies had a child prodigy.

Some tracks do feel a bit silly, especially “Buck and Judy,” which is too cutesy and too much like the score for a puppet show. The album’s closing tracks “Numina O” and “Jagged Fruit” likewise, are less compelling and memorable than those songs presented in the First Act, but they don’t spoil the entire experience by any means.

So now, you ask, do I feel comfortable in my Deerhoof fan-dom? And my response has to be that I don’t think “comfortable” is the way I’d describe it – or what the band would want me to feel for that matter. What I feel is both energized and exhausted. At home and at loose ends. For a band that finds its own comfort in the far sides of the spectrum, I think that they’ve got me right where they want me – listening harder, listening more, and enjoying them make challenging music more fun and what feels fun more challenging.

Offend Maggie is out now on Kill Rock Stars

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