Deerhoof
“Milkman”
(5 Rue Christine)
Damn… if you count their 2000 live album “Koalamagic”, this is Deerhoof’s seventh full-length since 1997. Some would say they’ve “matured” since early noise excursions such as “The Man, The King, The Girl” with more elaborate, complex and dare I say, “traditional” song structures? But the truth is Deerhoof gets even more childlike with age. This isn’t a bad thing. I’m saying childlike as in fresh, full of wonder and taking joy in the act of playing itself.
“Milkman” is actually about children and a creepy masked naked guy with fruit sticking out of his body who takes them away in the middle of the night. Somehow Deerhoof make this bizarre fantasy sound strangely innocent. I don’t know how these guys do it, but they’ve been putting one album out after another like clockwork and they just keep getting more and more into their own fucked-up magical thing; and it’s goddamn wonderful.
All Deerhoof albums are highly recommended, and “Milkman” is more than a fine place to start for someone new to their world.