The group were originally formed by Rob Fisk and Greg Saunier, as a bass and drum pairing who focused on improvisation. A year later, singer Satomi Matsuzaki moved to San Francisco from her native Japan and quickly joined the band, despite having no previous experience of playing music. After a slew of early, four-track recorded singles and some support tours, the band released their debut album, ‘The Man, the King, the Girl’, in 1997. Since then, their output has been prodigious; they’ve put out a further twelve records, with six dropping between 2001 and 2005 alone.
They’ve continued to push the envelope sonically during that time; one of their signaure moves is to change sound abruptly between albums - take the jump from album one to two, which saw the noise rock element completely excised from their sound. They’ve turned their collective hand to electronica, girl-group pop and aggressive punk rock over the years; the 2011 full-length ‘Deerhoof vs. Evil’ is one of the best encapsulations of their constantly experimental sound. They’ve collaborated widely, too, with the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Busdriver and Of Montreal having contributed to their series of remixed seven-inch singles. They’ve toured with the likes of Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips and Sleater-Kinney, a further testament to their versatility.
Satomi Matsuzaki seems so unassuming on stage, nervously saying “thank you” and leaving the between-song talking bits to energetic drummer Greg Saunier who needs no excuse to leap from behind his kit to come up to the microphone and thank us for coming out to see this Deerhoof show. Bless, she seems so shy…which makes it all the more fun to see Matsuzaki during Deerhoof songs, a mangle of limbs and hair, thrashing away at her guitar and yelping into the microphone. Deerhoof have such a varied and extensive back catalogue, the best of which are albums The Runners Four and Friend Opportunity, that they barely pause between songs – they want to deliver as many crazed and off-kilter art rock tracks as they can for us, while we try to work out how to jump in time to their manic and unpredictable rhythms. We eventually give up and let the mad rush of ‘The Perfect Me’ overcome us, chant along to ‘Panda Panda Panda’ before completely losing it to the classic ‘Giga Dance’. There are times when you have to take a step back and look in wonder and awe at both the crowd and the band going completely nuts; that’s the real joy and power of a Deerhoof show. Inhibitions are lost, possibly misplaced forever as we’re overcome by the sheer sonic wonder of this lovable lot.