thumped.com

Foggy Notions presents

Whelan’s, Friday July 10th, 7.30pm

& special guests Abedisi Shank

Tickets available from www.tickets.ie, WAV box office [lo-call 1890 200 078], City Discs, Sound Cellar & Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

“the best band in the world.” - Pitchfork

“Offend Maggie is head-spinning bliss from beginning to end and proves that the quartet are the best progp-rock post-punk Afro-Oriental art-pop folk-jazz band in the world.” - Observer Music Monthly

“All the parts are in place on Offend Maggie, Deerhoof’s beguiling, characteristically uproarious new album.’ - The New York Times

“Offend Maggie is the sound of a group mind at work, deep in spontaneous collective play-but a kind of play taken very very seriously. As it should be.” The Wire

Like all the best pop music, Deerhoof has always been strikingly new and yet strangely familiar. Melodic beauty, as if out of a half-remembered dream, is set against flashes of brilliant innovation that seem to be as much of a surprise to the band as to the listener. With Deerhoof every song is an adventure. Classic rock, J-pop, jazz, classical, and noise suddenly become inseparable, as if no stylistic barriers had ever truly existed. This is reflected in their equally wide following: Ask five fans to pin down Deerhoof's sound and you'll get five completely different answers.

Their mid '90s debut saw them being branded "too noise for pop" and "too pop for noise." But even as this combination eventually proved basic to the sound of contemporary indie rock, lifting the band out of obscurity in the process, Deerhoof has remained a genre unto themselves. >From the cartoon surrealism of Milk Man (2004) or Friend Opportunity (2007) to the gritty realism of Apple O' (2003) and Offend Maggie (2008), they have invented their own instantly recognizable way of writing, playing and recording a song.

They are a study in contrasts. Vocalist/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki's light, cool delivery, and the laser beam clarity of her melodies, create a magical tension with her bandmates' ragged power and hyperexpressivity. Underlying any seemingly mythic tendency in the lyrics is a very human concern with worldly love and friendship. And while they can pull out all the stops with some breathtaking songwriting sophistication and virtuosic sparkle, always present is an unpretentious Deerhoofian joy. Ultimately their only rule has been to throw away the rules. As successful as they've become, they are an inspiration to their ever-growing audience because they've stayed DIY, stayed positive, and stayed pure.