Deerhoof Make Magical Art Rock

When San Francisco musicians Rob Fisk and Greg Saunier formed Deerhoof nearly a decade ago as a side project to their band Nitre Pit, they never thought it would lead to a full-time job. "We would show up at practice an hour early, and we would just do free improvisation," says Saunier. But when Nitre Pit dissolved, bassist Fisk and drummer Saunier were faced with a conundrum: cancel several booked shows or take a gamble and form a new project. "In a panic-induced blur," says Saunier, "we came up with the concept for the band."

The gamble led to the release of a pair of singles. But for the band to grow, they realized they'd need to do more than just mess around on instruments and find a singer. Satomi Matsuzaki, who had just arrived in San Francisco from Tokyo, caught wind of the duo and was turned on by what she heard. "They recorded separate songs on the left stereo and the right stereo," she says. "It was noise. I really liked it!"

When she first jammed with the boys, Matsuzaki, who has no formal musical training, sang on a strange new instrument Fisk had created. "It was a papier mache deer or a leg or something," explains Saunier. "Inside was a distortion pedal, and the microphone was a pair of Walkman headphones you could sing into." Weird noisemaker in hand, Matsuzaki could not have been happier: "I immediately just felt connected."

She felt connected to more than the experimental sound: she and Saunier eventually fell in love and got married. And though co-founder and arts-and-crafts hobbyist Rob Fisk had moved on after 1999's Holdypaws, Deerhoof added guitarist John Dieterich and guitarist/bassist Chris Cohen, who fit right in. Says Cohen, "We're a couple of peas in a pod."

Matsuzaki's voice is thin, child-like and high-pitched, devoid of Mariah Carey's frills or Fiona Apple's might. It's an acquired taste, but her vulnerable, affectless delivery is charming when matched with her abstract lyrics: "Hearts are closer/ Sing a song we like/ Laugh together/ I'll paint your cheek colorfully/ Will you like it to be blue, red or green?" Her idyllic, sweet vocals are especially compelling when paired with Deerhoof's layered sound, as spontaneous as jazz improvisations but delivered with rock & roll muscle. It's as if Sonic Youth were being fronted by an anime cartoon.

For their new album, The Runners Four, each member contributed equally to the writing and recording process. "Part of the concept of the album was to see how far inside each other's minds we could go," says Dieterich. Songs like "Wrong Time Capsule" and "Spirit Ditties of No Tone" contain disparate yet irresistible hooks that reflect more of a non-linear, cut-and-paste approach to songwriting. Others, like "Twin Killers" and "Running Thoughts," are propelled by the group's passion for rock abandon.

"Sometimes a song seems to come together in a half-hour," says Saunier, "and other times we're trying to figure it out maybe three years later. It's like we don't even have the first idea of how to be a band or how to approach our instruments. When we start a new song, it's like 'What are these long wooden things in my hand?'"

But the songs on Runners, released last fall, will continue to take on new life when the band hits the road for a string of dates starting this Tuesday. Onstage, their recorded songs become more ragged, free-form and cacophonous, with Saunier exploding behind the drum kit and Matsuzaki shimmying and shaking across the stage. "When we perform," says Cohen, "the songs are basically unfinished. The work is still underway."

Deerhoof tour dates:

1/24: Cambridge, MA, Middle East
1/25: Providence, RI, AS 220
1/26: Saratoga Springs, NY, Falstaff's at Skidmore College
1/27: Baltimore, MD, Ottobar
1/28: Washington, DC, Black Cat
1/29: Philadelphia, First Unitarian Church
1/30: New York, Bowery Ballroom