PowderBlueOrbit: Deerhunter

What kind of music is this?

Atlanta based Deerhunter seems to be the latest hype-driven Contemporary Spacerock offering. I find them having equal parts pure/noise/guitar ambient (Amp) and psychadelic/art rock (Flowchart.). I also hear traces of Georgia brahs, Olivia Tremor Control, and perhaps early Grasshopper-era Lips. This suggests that Deerhunter has some loose roots in, and a weird skew on, pop. Unfortunately, I also hear some tinges of "post-punk", which I fucking hate. I think alot of reviewers will tag the pop-punk/post-punk ribbon to these guys, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. At least no one has said "sounds like My Bloody Valentine". Yet. According to their mandatory myspace page, their live shows are pretty wild. Take a read through the "Sounds Like" testimonials.

Where are they from and what label(s) are they on?

They are from Atlanta, Georgia. They are on Kranky. They have a weblink to notownsound.net which doesn't work, so I'm not sure if this was a previous label or their band site.

Does it rock or suck?

I doesn't suck, although if you're bothered by lo-fi, or worse, pretend lo-fi, this isn't for you. In fact, I think the whole recording sounds kinda lame, making me wonder if they recorded and mixed it themselves. Although not always a bad thing, there's alot of hiss in places where I would think they would have chosen to clean it up, specifically on "Providence". The well tremelowed, although relatively clean guitars are sounding like cheap Fender Squires played through cheaper Crate amps. Worse, the drums are particularly fisty- they're flat and quiet, and buried in the mix, especially on "Lake Somerset" or "Hazel St." I'm sure this lo-fi aesthetic and oddball mixing is a conscious aesthetic decision, so bravo, Deerhunter, how avante. That said, I bet they rock live.

Should I buy their music, or see them live?

Buy their "Cryptograms" release on vinyl, smoke a dube then play it on your uncle's Hi-Fi. Sound better? I'll bet. Oh wait, it's 2007 and Kranky didn't put it out on vinyl. Pity. ***UPDATE*** (A birdie told me that this release is coming out on multiple vinyl!) Personally, I will make an effort to see them live so I can really see what the hell is going on. Unfortunately, I will be out of town when they're in NYC. If you're in town for these shows, I'd go to the underground/indy performance and not a venue show. I bet this band is much better when experienced outside of a "normal" venue. I bet being drunk or high helps too.

Summary:

The Contemporary Spacerock Revolution is good times. Obviously older people like me are needing to fill a void. It seems that any newish band that sounds remotely spacey seems to instantly get hyped and blow the hell up. I wish Deerhunter's guitars were a bit ballsier and/or hookier, because alot of their noise is seemingly coming from other distorted sources. Also, their drum/bass arrangement is a little white/gay for me — but hey; I like my drums hard and booming like Iraq, and my bass sexy and smooth like a baby's bottom. Regardless, I can't wait to see this band live.

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Deerhunter

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