DIRT PIRATE CREED

San Francisco has always been known for its freakiness but most tend to think of the 60s vibes of the Grateful Dead or Janis Joplin, however the city never lost its knack for producing totally bizarre and even uncategorizable musical talent. DEERHOOF is one of those such whacked out musical entities that generally gets lumped into the indie rock or noise category but somehow throughout their career have also weaseled their way into the progressive rock world as well punk, experimental pop and just plain weirdo rock. While their sound would change drastically around the turn of the millennium, in the beginning when bassist Rob Fisk and drummer Greg Saunier formed in 1994 they mostly cranked out improvisational bass & drum punk. However when they met Satomi Matsuzaki and invited her to sing with them, she would forever alter the sonicscape of the already strange improv noise rock by adding an element of cutesy twee femininity to the surreal melange of madness.

Their first album is actually DIRT PIRATE CREED which came out in 1996 although there are many sources where their discography is listed that totally omit this one and begin the list with "The Man, The King, The Girl" as their debut. This is probably because this one is fairly obscure, was only released once as a vinyl LP, and has never been reissued and therefore seemingly forgotten. It could also be because at this stage the trio was cranking out some of the harshest noisy experimental rock that you could ever possibly imagine with more focus on sonic assaults than any sort of melodies or even atmospheric textures. While Matsuzaki does lend a melodic touch with her niminy-priminy vocal contributions, they turn out to be just as weird and detached from reality as her energetic instrumental bandmates. The result is a very strange trip through the equivalent of a sonic minefield where it feels like they tiptoe through atonal quiet passages only to explode into dissonant bursts of energetic brutality fortified with feedback and frenzy.

While i actually love the early years of DEERHOOF, this one is totally errant in its approach and gives zero f.u.c.k.s about what anyone considers music. In some ways it reminds me of early Boredoms in this regard although musically doesn't sound anything like them. This is some mean meandering craziness all dragged out into an album's length and at this point DEERHOOF is still in the extreme noise phase as heard on their earlier EP "The Return Of The Wood M'Lady." This one is reserved only for those who love noise punk and space cadet music in total surreal mode. The closest thing that resembles "normal" established musical systems are the percussive rhythms that offer some sort of connection to rock music but often it is as wild and unpredictable as the bass and vocal parts. Not as good as the next album that adds more variety to their sound. This one goes out of its way to be weird for weird's sake, but if that's what you're craving then this one delivers that out of body experience where you can astroplane in a Salvador Dalí painting. I do love this on occasion.