Deerhunter: An Incoherent Fanboygasm
By David Demark
The date is March 2nd, 2012. I’m seventeen years old. Atlas Sound, the moniker under which Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox performs and records his solo work, is booked to play a show at the Cedar Cultural Center. I go, dragging with me a friend who’s been to, at most, one or two other concerts. After some forgettable opening band and future Deerhunter member Frankie Broyles play their opening sets, Bradford comes on in all black sporting a ski mask. He plays selections from his recent release Parallax for about an hour until a heckler’s words push him over the line. Someone from the crowd yelled “Play ‘My Sharona,’” resulting in the strangest hour of live music my friend and I have ever experienced. Bradford’s hour-long rendition of “My Sharona” revolutionized my conception of what forms punk could take. This was a rebellion against society itself, an act of complete independence from all external pressures while still succumbing to them. Moreover, it was the Most-Deerhunter-Fucking-Thing I’ve ever seen. The following is an (ultimately silly) attempt to determine the “Deerhunter-ness” of each major Deerhunter project (rules: must have been released physically at some point. Must have been recorded in-studio, not a live recording. I remembered to include it) on a scale from one to five sharonas, accompanied by some writing summing up my feelings on it. [NOTE: this is all totally subjective and at best debatably serious I’m sorry I didn’t give proper justice to your favorite Deerhunter album don’t write about me in the CLAP]. Unrequited Narcissist (2005) where am i? i don’t remember going out tonight but here i am what drugs am i on? this doesnt feel like any drug i know should i be dancing? i don’t remember how. should I be meditating? can you dance and meditate at the same time? the voice my head the beat the VOICE MY HEAD (the beat) the voice my head the VOice my drink sex night endless move morning gears loop simultaneous loop sleep eyes open touch sleep i can never go home drifting... drifting FUZE Orange Blossom White Tea huh? jesus how long can this go on i think i’ve been here all my life 3 SHARONAS OUT OF 5 Turn It Up, Faggot (2005) Despite how thoroughly the band may have disowned this record, I’m surprised by how much I enjoy it. You can feel what would become Cryptograms poking out through the fuzz, but what’s missing is the subtlety with which Deerhunter would come to treat their music with. A key part of “Deerhunter-ness” (which I guess I’m defining as I go) is existing within some framework to subvert, and the abrasiveness for abrasiveness’ sake of Turn it Up, Faggot misses that element. Not a bad album by any means, but clearly the work of a band that had yet to find its voice. Bradford’s early leaning towards hypnotic repetitiveness comes out so strongly it washes everything else out. Turning every knob to 10 is not a way to make a coherent statement 2 SHARONAS OUT OF 5 Cryptograms (2007) The first “real” Deerhunter project and the first to feature guitarist/singer Lockett Pundt, Cryptograms continues down the path of hypnotic psychedelia with far more interesting results. Themes of painful nostalgia overwhelm, a feeling that Bradford often goes back to in his later work. The band’s pop sensitivities are not yet fully developed, but as they play with a cleaner sound, they become more relatable and thus more potent in their ability to break our expectations. Probably my least favorite “real” Deerhunter LP, but definitely Deerhunter-y in its own way. 3.5 SHARONAS OUT OF 5
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