Deerhoof “Friend Opportunity” (2007) [by Michael]

This album starts fast and loud. One of the issues I have with Deerhoof is the same issue I have with Sonic Youth (who I don’t really like) and the early Boredoms (who I do like) - and that is the use of what I guess would be called “dissonance” and “atonality”, combined with abruptness and a jarring quality in the songs. I like all these things in concept, but in practice they can be disruptive, not interesting. I find this phenonmenon/aesthetic prevalent in Deerhoof quite a bit – call it “avant-rock”.

I really have to listen actively to this album; if I try and just put it on and concentrate on others things while it’s playing, I find “Friend Opportunity” annoying. If I listen actively, though - like if I’m in the car on a long distance drive, or maybe doing something around the house that doesn’t require a lot of attention - I can follow the nuances. This is why I find myself going back and forth on Deerhoof albums. They combine elements of innocent pop, planned amateurishness, dissonace, atonality, abruptness, and other listener-challenging techniques. There’s a lot of simplicity, and even more complexity, on Deerhoof albums, and I don’t think either one of those things is automatically good or bad. On “Friend Opportunity” there’s a lot of sound texture. There’s also minimalism of varying kinds – simple and thrashing guitar noise, electronic beat minimalism, lone and vulnerable vocals. The strongest strains running through the music are Progressive Rock complexity (a la Goblin, Faust, etc), Avant-Noise dissonance (a la Boredoms, Yoko Ono, Faust again), and unpolished Indie-Pop melodicism (a la I don’t know who – I’m not too familiar with those specific bands: insert your own – this is your review too!).